CHILD’S POINT OF VIEW

Manawatu Times, Volume LII, Issue 3614, 15 September 1927, Page 11

CHILD’S POINT OF VIEW

| EXAMINE YOUR MOTIVES, So many theories concerning children are heard nowadays that we sometimes almost pity the modern child brought up so scientifically and over-deliberately! But, as a matter of fact there are still plenty of parents who are lacking in perception, or lazy and self-indulgent. The child’s point of view must not be surrendered to, but it must bo understood and taken into account. *T met a bad parent the other day," thei writer tells ua, “a mother who was still under the impression that wholesome discipline is merely a matter of breaking the child’s will. ‘You wait till you get home,’ she was threatening the small, determined person who walked by her side. ‘You'll see where / self-will takes -you! Youfil go . straight to bed,'my-'lady.’ X don’t know what the child had done —probably she had been very exasperating but I am sure that the mother had failed In one-o'fi,ih er most elementary duties to her fclilld. She had never examined her own motives and her own character; she was ’ merely bent on subduing the child. ... 1

‘‘We must free oujsolvs from the notion that wo have any sovcrign rights over the children merely ! because we are older, . . just because we are stronger v‘ e must free ourselves from any trace of tyranny. ... It is the parents’ job to help the child to strengthen his will and direct, it aright, not to break it. . . . Sometimes it is the fathehr who fails. Too ofttn we confuse the child by giving him precept but no example. ‘Daddy told m e I ought never to interrupt,’ said a little girl of four. ‘One day he interrupted me. So I just looked at hint—he sent me away from the table!’ . . . We teach by word of mouth one code of conduct and the child see g quite a different code In actual practice i ll the home.”. . Our sympathies go out to a little boy who intensely admired a turkey in the farmyard. One day an old aunt visited the farm and she pressed the child for a reason why ho liked her. “I like you ’cos you look like a turkey," murmured the child dreamily, still thinking of the wonderful bird in the fa-myard. . He was severely punished' for his impertinence, and ke never understood why, for he had been quite sincere in comparing his aunt to what h 0 thought the prettiest bird in the world.