Show Dorothy Dix Talks IF YOU WOULD BE POPULAR WITH YOUR MARRIED CHILDREN DONT DON'T BE A MOTHER-IN-LAW MOTHER AT ALL BE A REAL MOTHER TO THEM ADVISES DOROTHY DIX B CING a mother law in law Is the hardest h Job on oa earth next to being a n daughter In law but here hero are arc n a few efficiency ef tips that will help to make a success of It First Dont Don't be a mother law Vs at all Be a real mother to your In In- In Ino o laws Open your arms to the young man and young woman who come into r your family and take them to your Al heart Instead of giving them the cold shoulder Make them feel that they 5 l arc are welcome instead of afflictions 4 that are sent cent on you by some malign iI fate k ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY SPECIALLY dont don't make some poor pOOl little mUe girl feel fecI that you jou ou look upon her as an artful and designing minx who has somehow c managed to snare your helpless ant Innocent i. i ton son Into marrying her ss L- L I Mako Make your In laws In-laws laws realIze from the start that you jou OU nrc going to bo be friends with them DOROTHY DIX that hat you are aro not nol going to criticise them and that you jou ou arc aro going to make mako the same saino sort of allowances for all their faults and weaknesses that you jou do for your own childrens children's Dont Don't go o to live with your children unless th the only alternative Is to go to the poorhouse Dont Don't go to live with them because they feel it Is their duty to ask you or because you are lonely or because you feel that you cant can't bear to be separated from your adored Mary or John No young couple wants a third party In lit their new home ome They want to be by themselves and that is natural and right It is what you wanted yourself when you were a bride so 80 dont don't J begrudge It to your In laws r rA A A MOTHER LA IN LAW W In a household Is Js Just as IS dangerous as a IL charge of dynamite under tinder the lie doorstep Occasionally she eho Is 13 harm harm- harmless harmless harmless less but bul nine tImes limes out of ten she sIte blows up us and scatters everything to kingdom come Divorce statistIcs show v that tho Iho molher In law breaks up more homes honses titan than all aU other oilier causes cause combined so dont don't take lake a chance on wrecking your childrens children's happiness Besides you jou ou will wJ bo be a tt million times Um's happier In your YO own home even cven it if It is 18 no snore more than one room loom where you jou can do exactly as you jou please and have your own Independence than you jou OU will be as a hanger- hanger on In your jour our childrens children's home And believe me ID you jou ou can be a lot more moro lonesome with people who dont don't want you jou than you ever can be b by Third If circumstances compel you to live with your ln In laws make It as easy ouy on them as you can Dont Don't give them overdoses of your society Dont Don't be always under foot Dont Don't maks make them drag you around with them wherever they go If II you have the money take long trips Go off to summer and winter resorts Make visits If you are poor you can at least stay In your own ov room r om part of the time and give your children and their husbands and wives a chance to have a 1 little private conversation without your listening In EVERY EVEny E VERY young oung couple who love each other want to be bo alone alono together er They want to lo exchange confidences that are sacred and anel secret They want to go off on little sprees alone and the chief reason they feel it a burden to lo have mother live with them Is she hasn't enough sense to realIze this Because De cause she wants to lo be he eternally with them she forgets that they dont don't want to have her like the old woman of the sea forever on their backs Fourth Dont Don't pick on your In In laws The favorite indoor sport of a lot of mothers mothers-ln mothers law consists In vivisecting the poor frail faulty human beings their sons and daughters have married and pointing out their weaknesses to their wives and husbands ITS IT'S I TS T'S mother who first opens Johns John's eyes eys to the fact which he lie would never have discovered himself that Susie pares tho the potatoes too thick and goes to too many bridge parties Its It's mother mothr who Implants in Marys Mary's mind minI a suspicion of Toms Tom's alibi about having to work down down- downtown downtown downtown town at night and who calls caUs her attention to how much money monet ho Ito wastes on that might t be spent on buying curtains Inasmuch as your children are married try to make them satisfied with the bargains they have made Instead of fos fostering discontent In them Try to sell them their wives and husbands by praising their good qualities and keeping mum about their bad ones ER few of us ever get gel over our childhoods childhood's belief that mother VERY VEny V knows It all and what you jou ou say to your jour our children about aboul their Ul ir hus hue husbands husbands bands and anel wives will go a long way toward making them contented with theIr choice Fifth Dont Don't Interfere I know Its It's hard for an expert professional to sit up and watch a blundering blundo ng amateur bungle I Ithe F Fth the th game gamo I know that It Is hard to stand by and watch the ignorant make mistakes that you could save them from I know you feel that you have a right to a certain say to In your childrens children's homes But the one sure sura way to make your yourself self seif hated is to be bo a VERY VEnY young oung couple want to lo run their home In their own o way and EVERY E EVEnY E maw o their own mistakes and learn rn by their own experiences and anI they have a right to lo do it It After Arter all have havo you jou ou made such a howling bowline success of your jour our own life that you jou should set up as an nn authority And anyway anwa even If you jou ou were a In petticoats your jour our In laws in-laws laws dont don't want your our advice ad and wont won't it at any price The only way that you yoa can be persona grata grala with wills 1111 them Is to keep your jour tongue ton ue be be- between between between tween your our teeth Sixth Be just to your In Dont Don't expect your son son-in- law to be a better husband than your son is or think It right for your daughter to be the sort of a wife that would ouid entitle your son to a divorce If he had had the III luck to get her ONT T uphold uphaM your our son In being a rounder who neglects his wife DON'T DONT DO D and spends all of his money mon y In self Indulgence ence and anti think that your son In law should be a slave to his family Dont Don't think that your our daughter in law should wear rear hand hand me me downs and save all of her hus- hus husbands husband's husbands husband's X bands band's money and that your jour own daughter should wear Paris frocks flocks and imported hats and spend money as It if It grew on trees Play fair fall with them and try to t look ook at the in In law law side ot or every question as fairly as you do at your jour own childs child's Seventh Abdicate the thc throne when your children get married Dont Don't try to be first with them any more Dont Don't get green eyed when they love their husbands and wives bet bet- better better better ter than they do you because that means their happiness and that they are really mated hERE I-hERE are about a million other oIlier tips Ups that I might give gI you jou OU about THERE THEnE T how to play the mother mOlher in in law in-law law game but If It you jou OU will follow v these you will win out DOROTHY DIX Copyright by Public Ledger |