Salt Lake Telegram | 1937-02-16 | Page 18 | Satisfy Child's Curiosity with Real Knowledge

Satisfy Child's : Curiosity With Real Knowledge By MTBTUE METKB KIJRT Much of our feeling of fascination .toward fire arises because of Ue beauty of its glowing flames and our sure knowledge of it deadly periL Since we ourselves eJSjeri- . enee this emotion we can better understand it In children, and our greatest terror Is that the child shall experiment once too often with the menacing match. This is a hard problem," writes Mrs. M. T, "and I should be able to solve it after having had five children. But my boy of I is different He la a good boy until my back Is turned, then he gets matches somehow and sets fire to anything he can. Be knows right from wrong and yet be wants to play with fire. He lights paper by the gas stove, now that I have put the matches so high even X can hardly reach them. Likes to Be Spanked 1 have done everything to break him. I have tied him to a chair, spanked him, even burned bis fingers fin-gers lightly. He likes to be spanked and brings me the strap or the necktie to tie him. or tolls me he want to go to bed. What else can I do?" Certainly, no more punishments; you can see how Ineffective these have been. The boy prefers to do as be pleases and then take the punishment He feels that he has earned his right to misbehave because be-cause he Is so courageous about punishment Let Him Use Matches The corrective is to let him use matches In a aafe way until their fascination has worn off. Call him , from play, from out of doors, every time a match la to be lit and let him light it Keep the pilot light of the gas stove turned off until he Is more trustworthy and keep matches out of his hands only as you present him with them. Stay right at hand and not only will he have all he wants of match lighting, light-ing, but hs will be perfectly safe while he- uses them. This and other ways of "Dealing With a Child's Curiosity" appear in the leaflet of that title and may be had for a self-addressed and 3-cent stamped envelope sent to Myrtle Meyer Eldred of the your baby and mine department of The Salt Lake Telegram.