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Show THE FALLACY OF TRYING TO THINK FOR YOUR CHILDREN In tho September American Magazine Maga-zine a man who has been married twenty-flvo years writes "A Husbands Story," In which ho tolls somo of the Interesting experiences ho and his wife had in rearing their children. In the following pnssago ho tells his oxperlonces discovering tho fallacy of trying to do tho thinking for his children: "I rpmombor scores of times that r.e snt nnd talked seriously and wlso-ly wlso-ly to each other about how carefully wo wero rearing onr children, how we wero safeguarding them nnd Insuring In-suring their future prosperity and happiness. I think wo ndopted rath-1 er an accusing attltudo toward our own parents becauso they had not taught us and planned for us as wo were doing for our children. 1 re member laughing nnd saying that the, only planning I could remember by my parents was that mother wanted mo to bo a minister. It novcr occurred occur-red to my mind then that perhaps her decision to mako n minister of mo had been reached by her and father after just suci long, earnest talks ns my wife nnd I were having. When one of the village boys ran nwny to Join a theatrical troupe nnd another quit school to go West and work on a ranch, my wife and I discussed dis-cussed the cases and blamed tho fathers fa-thers nnd mothers for falling to trulir their children and to Instruct them with somo special object In view. "Even during tho earlier years, my wife and I ought to havo seen tho fallacy of trying to do tho thinking for Independent brains. Wo had n hard time realizing that our children hnd brains of their own, wlils of their own, nnd a degree of independencu, and wo realized it only dimly. Sometimes Some-times I chlded my wlfo gently for being be-ing too bossy with tho boys and told her to bo cnreful or sho would make sissies of them, which mndo her In dlgnnnt. She had beconto rather forceful nnd positive In her vlows and decisions. I suppose dealing with Inferior In-ferior and undeveloped minds, child minds, mado her that way. "I recall coming home one evening and finding my wife, usually, so calm and superior, In a half hysterical nutter, nut-ter, not unlike tho nervous attacks of her earlier Invalid dayB. The cause was that Uetty, then fifteen, had gone to the village store to do some shopping shop-ping and, falling to find what bIio wanted, had taken a train and gono Into the city nlono to make her purchases. pur-chases. She had been gone only;, two hours, yet tho Idea of her daughter daugh-ter being able to go Into tho ,clty alono appeared to startle my wife. Betty laughed over her mother's scolding and said she was old enough to tako care of herself. I do not be Hove my wife ever qulto recovered from tbo shock of discovering that children could do things without her assistance. "It was qulto a shock to me to discover dis-cover that tho children regarded me us n kind of old fogy, and assumed tho attltudo that my ideas wero all right, but not quite up to date. They wero very good natured about It and obeyed mo respectfully, but usually with a reserve clause." |