Toughening QChildren.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue XXII, 29 November 1902, Page 1373

Toughening QChildren.

There are many theories current as to the desirability of the physical hardening of young children, which, although right in the main, are wrong in the application. it is good sense to argue that children are all the better in childhood, an 1 make all the stronger men and women, if they can be accustomed as early as possible to fresh air in all weathers, cold water, simple food and regular hours; that is to say. to

those practices which are the foundation of health for us all. At the same time it must be remembered that in all training, whether mental, moral or physical, it is well to keep in sight the fact that there are, after all. children and children. Some inherit a birthright of stamina that others lack. It would be very good if all babies came into the world physically well-equipped, but such is not the case; and many of them, far from inheriting health, sti.rt heavily mortgaged. Oliver Wen-

dell Holmes* oft-quoted assertion that the training of a child must begin with his grandparents is always in order. It is evident that the child of healthy’parents, with a good physical record for generations back, will be able to take his hardening with less care and fuss than the puny baby with a line of delicate ancestors behind him. The hardening need not be neglected in the latter case, but it should be begun at the right time, in the right way, and be tempered with

judgment ami mercy. Let no wellmeaning but misguided young father think that because his athletic neighbour has a sturdy, stout-limbed, deep-chested boy. who. according to his proud parents, can “stand anything.” he is doing well to put his own thin-skinned, sensitive, “weedy” youngster, who looks “just like his mother.” through the same physical processes. While the same road may be travelled, it must be under the conditions of a handicap, and haste ran be made only slow Iv.