| Show Dorothy Dix Talks YOU WOULDN'T EXPECT A SOFT FAT EATER CAKE WHO LIVED ON LOLLYPOPS TO WIN OUT IN A PRIZEFIGHT PRIZEFIGHT HOW HOW THEN CAN YOU EXPECT YOUR WEAK SPOILED UNDISCIPLINED UNDISCIPLINED UNDISCIPLINED CHILDREN TO WIN OUT IN THE WORLD A AMONG AMONG IO-G IO my acquaintances is a woman oman who is the mother ot of four lour tt spoiled brats that are a terror t to all 11 who know them These children are growing up utterly undisciplined and without control They have their every wish indulged so eo far as is possible and their every whim hu his- S snored mored They are never made to do anything they do not wish to do No duties or obliga obligations ot of any kind are laid upon them Their p mother waits alts upon them hand and foot toot and e i permits them to say Insulting and abusive things to her in their tantrums i. i When remonstrated with for the way In which she Is II bringing up her this mother always defends defend herself by saying that she Is II poor and anda a cant can't give lve her ser er children the things that j i rich people give theirs so 10 she ahe tries trie op to make It up to tham them by Indulging rit them at home THAT THAT might be some excuse I protested to DOROTHY IY HY DIX OIX 1 I her If it they were always going to stay staylittle st staylittle y little children though why you want to create a prejudice against them while they are mere Infants that will follow them hem as long as they live goodness only knows But the trouble is ishey they hey arent aren't going to stay children n. n In a a. tow few more years they will b brown be grown rown up and then you will turn out on the world men and women that you have utterly unfitted for life lite For you have made them soft where you should have hav made them hard You have fostered their weakness Instead of developing their strength You have taught them to be slackers and quitters when you should have taught them to tobe tobe tobe be good soldiers who would carry carryon on to to- the end You have cultivated tastes and habits In them that will handicap them and foredoom them to failure unless they tave laave ve the vision and arid the courage to put up a heartbreaking fight against again It them Believe me when hen you spoil your children you do them a greater wrong than malice Itself could Invent FOR COR the world into which your children will presently go lInt Isn't going T I to fo o be soft padded soft padded with mother another love Nobody is going to coddle your precious darlings darling's little feelings and sensibilities and make ex excuses excuses for their little pet weaknesses and shortcomings No stranger will care a hoot about Johns John's artistic temperament or Marys Mary's sensitive disposition All the world asks is Can you deliver dellver the goods And so often it itis is mother who makes it so tragically hard or even impossible for her children to do so For how can you expect the boys boya and girls who have hav been petted and all of their lives and who have known no law except their own sweet wills will to stand the stern discipline of life As well might you look to see lee a lounge lizard who Is la fat and soft and who has been fed on lollypops win out In a prize prize- fight IT IT JT IS 15 these spoiled children who have never been or made nude madeI 1 I to do anything they didn't want to do who tho constitute the great army of ot the shiftless who are always changing from occupation to occupation tion and Job to job and who never arrive at anywhere or succeed at lt anything They dont don't know It but what they are hunting for fot Is an employer who will treat them the way mother treated them and for a situation that will have all the emoluments emolument of home And there are no such employers and no such luch jobs joba In a severely practical world They have never been bean trained to endurance and so 10 they thay turn quitters when work gets hard and monotonous and It takes real grit to stick at your post and carry carryon on They have never never been disciplined and so they cannot take orders and are ae aeIn In a perpetual row with those above them They have never been taught self control and so they are Irritable and arid hard to get along with and flare Into tempers that cost COlt them their Job Jobs ft ALWAYS ALWAYS they the are selfish and egotistic and consider themselves ill ill- n tt used because they are required to punch the time clock and turn turnout turnout turnout out reasonably good work ork and because they are not at once put at the heads of departments and permitted to dictate the policy ot of the firm Look around among the people you know who are failures and you will find that almost invariably they were spoiled children who never could adjust themselves to life me They never could get over fae tre weak teak weakness weakness ness that their mother bred in them Her petting and indulgences had bad softened the very fibre of ot their souls and they never had the strength and courage to stand the gaff gar And It Is these spoiled children that keep the divorce courts busy for ninety nine times out of a hundred If the real rull was named In a divorce It would be a mother She Is accessory before the crime of almost every wrecked home The real disillusionment of marriage comes when hus hus- husbands husbands bands and wives discover that the partners of their bosoms are not going to spoil them the way mother did Mother would stand for anything Mother demanded nothing for herself Mother gave all au expecting no return Mother called temper nerves and laziness temperament and she put up with ways and loved on no matter how badly she was treated THE THE husband who has been a spoiled child ts his wife to adopt THE 1 I the same tactics toward him and when she doesn't and expects him to act like a reasonable human being and give her a fair deal there thera are ructions in the family The wife whose mother another has spoiled her expects her husband to keep on with the program and to realize that she cant can't be expected to do anything except to amuse herself and that she must have beau beau- beautiful beautiful beautiful clothes no matter how hard he has to work to get them for her and that she must be petted and flattered and cajoled to keep her In a good humor and when husband fails falls to understudy mother and expects wife to do de her part in making a comfortable home why wife cries out that he doesn't understand her and she packs up her doll rags and goes goes- back to mother If only mothers could realize what harm they do their chil chil- children children dren by spoiling them what tragedies could be averted how many lives could be saved from and how much pleas pleas- pleasanter pleasanter anter a place the world would be for the remainder of us who have to endure the affliction of the youngsters all about us DOROTHY DIX DIL Copyright by Public Ledger |
