| Show Kathleen N l orris Says days ays Parents Should Use Common Sense Bell neu Syndicate Service I r i Ii 1 I I I I c a Jean brings young oung people to the house and they never refuse a second cut cur of beef or pic pie And the wreckage they can cause in a case of soft drinks is unbelievable By KATHLEEN NORRIS HE Whites live in Philadelphia Philadelphia Phila T THE delphia and they have a 3 daughter Jean 17 an and anda d a son Robert two years year younger Their lives have run r along a familiar groove until now they have lived exactly y as have millions of American America n families owning their homand home hom e and their car having part part- time help going away for tw two o weeks of summer vacation putting Jean and Rob through h public school with plenty o of f luxury on the side Now the Whites have come to a difficult crossroads and they cant can't agree Father White is a man of ot strong will and he needs it at this moment for Mother Jean and Rob junior are leagued against him Father flatly and simply wants to go en on as they arc are That is his entire platform Jean and Mother somewhat indifferently abetted by Rob want to rent the house move to a smart apartment go in modestly modestly mod mod- e estly for entertaining and give Jean the chance her friends will have of meeting the right people and going the right places Doesn't Like Their Home Robert Whites White's income is a year Olive his wife began a budget when it was little more than hat halt that and they bought the house nine years ago It is a square house with trees and a front garden a double garage four bedrooms and t two wo baths living room living room study dining din ing room ing-room room kitchen two fireplaces and a small sunny dining ingle dining ingle o othe off ff the kitchen To ninety nine women out of ot every ev eVe ery cry hundred it would represent lux lux- lux- lux ury But to Jean White it is just jus t perfectly horrible and commonplace and she wishes it would burn down do The Whites pay a month fo for r interest on a mortgage home ham insurance and amortization Robert Robert Rob Rob- ert err White pays 40 a month for life lite Insurance The table costs an eve even n hundred a month and the four day a week a-week services of Amanda John John- son about 35 35 more Young Rob comes home ravenous every day and makes incredible in inroads inroads in roads on bread jam and butter drinking exactly a quart of chocolate chocolate choco chaco late milk as he does docs so Jean brings bring s nice hoarse boys to dinner and they theys never refuse a second cut of ot bedor beet beef e or pie The wreckage these young youn g persons can cause in a case of ot soft t bottled drinks is unbelievable Jean calls caUs upstairs Mother may w we e open this can of ham and have hav e these eggs And what can Olive call back but Of at course darling what t else are they there for Costly Incidentals Home food and insurance and an d service therefore consume half halt th the e income Above and beyond these thes c are arc the incidentals that all budget budge t keepers abhor because they sound souad sour d so insignificantly small and add u up P so brutally big Incidentals mean meat telephone and long distance calls tailor laundry cleaner clothes shoes dentist doctor church moves movies move ies es theater clubs newspapers magazines gasoline and cleaning o othe of ot f the car flowers stamps stamps stamps-no no one o of f them terrifying but the whole mass mas s unspeakably depressing The Whites owe various sma small 11 bills biUs now for the first time In the their r lives Jean belongs to a ski club and that costs money and Rob ha had c d to have an em emergency These bills fret the man of ot th the e house he and his wife both thought though t them somewhere around two hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred until they added them up the tin e l I SPOILED CHILD The spoiled child is a problem problem lem not only to her parents but to herself She SIto has never learned to think thinh o of f others and that is one of the first lessons she site must learn before ore she site can hope to tn achieve the happiness she site takes for granted as her share in life The Thc Jean whose father lather wrote this letter letteris is a spoiled child She wants scants more than her father can pro pro- vide But he himself has helped to create the problem I he asks Kathleen Norris to solve other night and found they came to exactly This caused a sort of ot family panic in which Jean expressed expressed expressed ex ex- pressed her ideas Jean and her mother think the time has come to borrow a good round sum rent the house and move to one of ot the beautiful new apartments apartments apartments apart apart- ments just finished in the smartest part of town The square win all d dow ow corner of the big drawing room drawing room in these apartments its white brick fireplace and indirect lighting more than reconcile Jean to the fact that she would have to take for her own 0 what was designed for a servants servant's room and that none of ot the Whites White's furniture would be suitable in the place Only chromium pipe white leather and crystal furnishings would fit there The rent is but Jean argues that the thc old house would rent for a hundred anyway And she does so want with want with tears and smiles and kisses how she wants wants wants-to to entertain in the new place to have that adress address ad ad- Id dress d ress on her writing paper to have tun fun with the others of her crowd until she gets married Both Parents Are Wrong Ill be darned writes Rob senior sen for if it I want to go in for tor more expense expense expense ex ex- ex- ex pense now I want to stay where weare weare we weare are and see if it we cant can't cut down dO expenses Just tips in the new place would stand me in about twenty a month month the whole thing would be on borrowed money and I dont don't like it Answer us honestly his letter concludes which of us is right My opinion Robert is that neither nei ther side is right I think you and Olive have been wrong all along and I think its it's your fault that at 17 Jean has such completely false ideas Years ago ngo you should have been saving a thousand a year out of ot that handsome salary years ago Jean should have realized that that last expensive year of private schooling with its inevitable friendships friendships friend friend- ships and comparisons was not for her Years ago Olive should have lifted the heaviest of your burden by bringing that admirable budget of hers not just within the narrowest possible margin of income but far below it Since you have so spoiled Jean that debt and pretense seem to her he the natural steps toward finding he her r husband and place in life you may y be very sure that when she does step socially above you and her he mother and needs you no longer no consideration may be expected from Jean should your old age be dependent and helpless Needs to He lie Awakened So my advice to you now is to move indeed but to some small place whose rent wont won't be more than 50 Rent your present home indeed in in- deed but only to cover overhead expenses there and to Invest the rest lest Beside that put into government gov bonds every month before belore you turn one cent over to the family |
