OUR RABIES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16033, 26 January 1920, Page 7

OUR RABIES.

PICTURE SHOWS AND BABIES

A mother who is a prominent member of one of the Branches of the Society, and who has a family of several young c&ildren of her own, writes to me very forcibly concerning the evil custom of parents taking their babies to “The Pictures.” My correspondent mentions that their branch of the Society has taken the matter up, and is getting a paragraph of protest and appeal on behalf of babies inserted in the local papers. The request to give further publicity to the matter in “Our Babies” column is well timed. One is glad to do anything that may tend to stem this growing evil. Not only have I long felt very strongly on the subject myself, but I have heard it discussed and denounced hy the more capable and thoughtful of our people from end to end of the Dominion.

It is practically impossible to speak too strongly as to the selfishness and thoughtlessness of the parents who sacrifice the health of their children not merely their babies—in order to be trivally amused for a few hours away from home in crowded, stuffy, glaring, rustles halls. The results would be bad enough in the day time: but the wrong of dragging out children at night, when they should be all sound asleep in their bed's, is ten times greater.

° REGULAR DAILY HABITS,

There is nothing more imperatively necessary for uninterrupted and orderly •growth and development of all young creatures than simple, pcrfectly-regular daily habits. Not only is regularity of the ‘first importance as regards the taking of food and Hie action of the bowels, but it applies with equal force to allowing no departure from the times applies with equal force to allowing no departure from the times appointed and set asid-e for sleep. The best- can be done for the child only if the parents are deeply imbued with the spirit which impelled Dr and Mrs Fitz to dedicate their .book on Infancy “to those Parents who deem the Training (and Bearing) of their Children their supreme Privilege and Duty.” This is the key to the whole situation. I have never known a mother say shonght it was GOOD for her child to accompany her to the pictures—indeed, I have never known any parents seriously contend that they thought Iho practice other than injurious. “Well, you know, we must get some outing and enjoyment, and the only chance my husband and I have got to get out together is in the evening.” It is not for me to discuss or point out here in how many ways parents could get an evening’s entertainment from time to time without dragging out their children with them, racking thennervous systems, impairing their digestion and growth, and depriving them of their proper night’s rest and sleep. It may suffice to say that it is the first law of God and Nature that parents should be willing and anxious to place the lifelong welfare of their children before their own temporary gratification—before the silly modern craving to he trivally amused, irrespective of time, or fitness, and oblivious of the harm done to others—amused in ways that were unavailable and unheard-of hy parents of past generations.

SELF-SACRIFICE A PARADOX

Nowadays one scarcely dares to mention “self-sacrifice” as a first duty of parent-hood—indeed, I am inclined to press this old-fashioned virtue very much, because I have found that in the case of the largest and best-reared families (where the parents would naturally be held to have sacrificed most) any references to the sacrifices they have made is generally met with the prompt disclaimer: “Sacrifice! There’s too much talk of the hardship of sacrificing ouesself to one’s children: the truest joy in life rests in doing one’s best for them. Of course, when they are young, they £ll nearly everyone’s thoughts and time; hut it is the people who don’t give themselves heart and soul to their children who have the most work to do for them in the long run. I’d sooner rear half a dozen happy, healthy children than battle along with one discontented child who is never really well. The children are no trouble so long as they are well.”

Small families, capriciously neglected, and over-indulged by turns, will continue to be the rule until the joy and privilege of parenthood and its duties and responsibilities re-occupy their old high place in the world. There ran be no justice to childhood which does not give children the first place in the thoughts of the parents. Nowadays many people arc inclined to regard this as a very narrow, old-fashioned view, but I am glad to know that there are still to lie found those who heartily endorse and follow what Airs 'Earle tells us was her own personal experience as a mother:

In the days long ago, when my children were children, and, as is apt to be the case when one is surrounded with a small growing-up family, half the population of the world seemed to me to be children, my thoughts were so centred on the subject that nothing else appeared to me of any great inTportance.—From “Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden.”

I hope I have satisfied my readers that in this particular connection at least, it is mainly the parents, and not the pictures ’ that have to be reformed;