Show Your on Baby Lab and alid ine ic B By MYRTLE l MEYER ELDRED BAD HABITS THRIVE ON ATTENTION Problems make all allot of us restive We want to do something exhibit an activity in corrective e measures Yet the dullest of us must admit that many problems problem evaporate when we do nothing Sometimes the mother throws up her hands resignedly af aX ter having played her octave of cor cot tunes and says s 's Well Ive I've done everything e I absolutely dont don't I know another Mother thing to do So she do doss does nothing She SIlo looks on blankly I while hUe son complains of his food tood howls I when he takes taw his bath or cries for any or no cause Miraculously or so soshe soshe soshe she decides the d despised reactions become weaker There nr are times when he eats anything put before bet ore him with hardly a bleat of disdain The problems upon which she has hns been concentrating so earnestly starve from inattention or simply die of or se sc nUtty S ATTENTION EXAGGERATES HABIT It Is difficult to convince mothers that such auch policies do doork work ork that inaction in tn action and Md Indifference may accomplish pUsh more than the most earn earnest t forts efforts Almost every bad habit improves im tm proves by indifference and Is aggravated ag by attention Thumb suck suck- trig tag bed wetting finicky eating habits hab bab its irritation at carrying out the necessary routine evaporate when the mother exhibits a real or feigned indifference in tn difference and attempts no corrective tive Uve measures at t all Ignoring the tIle habit nard Js' ten Un times as hard as thinking up methods methoW of discipline A mother would rather KO o about bout W conscientiously i carrying out the most absurd punishments even cn if her good sense tells her she is getting get get- ting Ung nowhere with them than do nothing CONSIDER OTHER OrnER FACTORS Doing nothing means literally nothing directed at atthe the bad habit It it- self It does not mean that the factors fac lao tors which may be causing the bad habit should be utterly disregarded Many Manyd kid d habits are accidental They may maj be an indication of boredom with witha a routine such as the dropping of good toilet habits they may result from the mothers mother's insistence on habits hab its which are too advanced M for the child chUd and which she is Ls calling bad because they annoy her All these things Improve if it the mother charu changes her attitude toward them The habit itself is Js dropped or a better one substituted substituted sub sub- If the mother turns her attention at on the whole surroundings and keeps her e eyes resolutely away avay from the bad habit itself All AIl m my leaflets which deal with any bad habit suggest adopting this at at- at- at If the mother must do something some some- thing thing change change the child's childs diet Improve Im tin prove pro or change his dally daily schedule- schedule make his environment more interesting interesting interest interest- ing and stimulating continue continue the ne necessary essary training in g. g but ignore the bad habit itself I I realize that if it n a mother were urged to make her child stand on his head and eat out of the left side ide of his spoon poon it would be bo easier e aler for her herto herto herto to carry out this folderol conscientiously len than It be to do noth ing lug Yet tet it behooves mothers to criticize critIcize crit crit- their own motives for acting Arc they acting because c they Lher are arci 1 convinced that without action the problem will wm grow Insufferable Or Orare are arc they act acting because ec UC it is less Ius annoying an to do something than to do nothing even en If the latter is 15 eventually even Lually the successful e method 1 |