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Show Children May Resent Being Ordered About Br OLIVE ROBERTS BARTON "You" can be a very Irritating word when overdone, yet we use It hundred timaa a day In admonishing admonish-ing our children. when speaking to' Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Smith, we are mora careful of our persons, especially if criticising criti-cising them. "I think you use the wrong kind of soap powder," would bo extremely rude, but '1 am going to try -Bleach Blend'; It whitens sheets wonderfully," Is not only acceptable, but suggestive. "You are getting overheated, and must stop running," is not rude, of course, but by the time it has been piled on top of "You'll be sick if you eat that." "See what you've done to your dress," "You mustn't shout so or you'U waken the baby." It must become n bora to a child. In time he surely will get to feel that everything associated with the word, everything he does or says, Is wrong, from ths mere association of Ideas. Variety Sploss Orders It has to be aald, of course. A mother isn't writing a formal In- . vltatlon to a child every time she speaks -Mrs. Brown desires Jimmy's Jim-my's presence In ths bathtub at 4 o'clock" but why nqt aay for a change, "4 o'clock's bath time, dear. Don't forget." Aa the little fellow's day Is nude up of commands or warnings, there are doaana of ways of breaking the news. I wonder if the direct order Is not often forgotten merely by the way it Is worded. Ws cease to hear the atriklng clock, if it's the same clock, but alow It up or hurry Its peal, and ths ear catches the difference. dif-ference. Then there Is wsy of speaking speak-ing that holds a child's Interest, regardleaa of pronouns. The very tons of voice may make all the difference In the world between obedience and stubbornness. A little fun. Injected inte a command, will often seise his Imagination and make play out of what seemed work. Not that we ahould put on a show each time we speak, or pump our minds overtime, squeeslng out new sugsr coatings for pills, but merely that we'll find a change bettor for ourselves, too. Worthy of Consideration On the other hand, there la danger dan-ger here. Ths order that sounds of coaxing, little Jimmy wiU like too well and may Insist on a repeat, en a lot of repeats. Yet a little coaxing now and then Isn't aa. wrong as It sounds. Thsra ars times when a child, tired of hopping to It, Ukas to have hia mood whistled to bit. He knows hs Is going to do what ha i 4a told, but he'a just going to let as work to get him moving. Too much -! of anything Is bad. A Utile well, , how many of us never have to be reminded or pleaded with occasionally? occasion-ally? Ws try to speak to others with tact and make our conversation , Interesting. Do ws with children? I Hardly aver. Ws rarely converse with them at all, mores the pity, so it la little wonder they learn to look upon parenta as authority, I and authority only. |