OUR BABIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 291, 8 December 1928, Page 18 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES

FORKHNG A CHAPuYCTER. Though written a good many years age now, the following quotation from Sir Truby King’s book for mothers, “Feeding and Care of Baby,” needs no, introduction or Salification, in •/ne's experience amongst mothers and children one so frequently secs instances of failure on the part of parents to grasp “the plain meaning of the word ‘spoiled’ ” in relation to their children that one is moved to bring forward again these wise words upon the subject:— Obedience in Infancy “Obedience in infancy is the foun dations of all later power of self-con-trol; yet it is the one thing that young mothers nowadays is most inclined to neglect. Instead of gently, wisely, and firmly regulating her baby's habits and conduct, she tends to allow him to have his own way and to her and the whole household. Not so the wiser so-called ‘lower animals.’ The dog and the cat carefully train their progeny in necessary habits of regularity, cleanliness, etc., from the start, and, ts has been pointed out by Long, Seton-Thompson, and others, they chide, cuff, and punish them when necessary rather than allow the formation of bad and irregular habits, which would exact far greater penalties later on. All this is done by in stinct; and the human mother, with the stronger love and the greater wls dom which should hv hers, would have no difficulty in guiding her child aright by firmness and consistency alone, without resorting to punishment, if she would but start at the beginning. The establishment of perfect regularity of habits, initiated by ‘Feeding and Sleeping by the Clock’ (see pages 35, 36), is the ultimate foundation of all-round obedience. Granted good organic foundations, truth and honour can be built into the edifice as it grows. “ ‘Building the Teeth’ and ‘Form ing a Character’ are parts of construction of the same edifice—standing in the relationship of the underground foundations of a building to the superstructure. “Simply Won’t!” “Our dentists tell us nowadays when they insist on the eating of crusts and other hard food, tho mother often says, ‘Our children simply w T on’t!’ — simply ‘won’t’ comply with law's which have a higher sanction and greater antiquity than the authority of man himself! Such children merely exemplify the ineptitude of their parents —parents too sentimental, weakly emotional, careless, or indifferent to fulfill the primary laws of Nature. The ‘can’t-bc-so-cruel’ mother, whose baby cries half the night and frets all day on account of the mother’s failure to fulfil one of the first maternal duties, should not blame Providence or heredity because her progeny has turned out a ‘ simply-won’t’ in infancy, and will become a selfish ‘simply-can’t’ in later childhood and adolescence. Power to obey the ‘Ten Commandments’ or to conform to the temporal laws and usages of society is not to be expected of ‘spoiled’ babies when they reach adult life. The plain meaning of the word ‘spoiled’ is worth some reflection. Everyone grasps the full significance of spoiling a dress or spoiling a dinner, but the spoiling of a child is regarded more lightly!

“Unselfishness and altruism arc • >t the natural outcome of habitual selfindulgence. Damaged health and absence of discipline and control in early 1 life are the natural foundations of failure later on —failure through the lack of control, which underlies all weakness of character, vice, and criminality. “Dr and Mrs Fitz, in a book dedi cated ‘To those Parents who deem the Training of their Children their Su promo Privilege and Duty,’ say.

“ ‘Even as the child’s constitution (however weak or strong through heredity) may be markedly changed by fresh air, suitable feeding, proper clothing, and an abundance of sleep and exercse,. so the child’s character (whatever the inherited tendencies) may be transformed for good or for bad by training.

“ ‘The child at birth has a brain which, is the physiological foundation of the adult brain. . . . The child’s character, roughly fashioned by heredity, begins to be moulded for good or ill on the day on which he is born. “ ‘There are few sights more pathetie than that of tho weak mother not daring to lay her child down because he will cry for the snuggling warmth of hei arms, which in the few days of his apparently unintelligent existence he has learnt can be had for the crying. Critically to watch a baby ‘work’ his mother is truly enlightening. because his physical helplessness makes it seem so incredible. . . And when the mother has yielded during the first few weeks to the demands of her child’s cries, the chains of her slavery axe curiously hard to break.’ ”