Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-02-16
Nature and Parents.

entation and woe.
Nature and Parents.
1t is a great mistake to keep children
too long or too entirely in a state of pupil
age. Few things so dwarf a child's mind
and irritate its temper as the constant and
necessarily petty exercise of authority. A
child should be thrown on its own re-
sponsibility just as fast aud just as far as
possible. The needless Intervention of
adults, even though made in and with the
tenderest kindness, is injurious to both in
tellectual and moral character. Better
child should have many tumbles, and walk
alone, than be upheld always by his
mothers hand. Children would learn to
reason far more than they do if their elders
were not so eager to reason for them.
And if children were more accustomed
to use their reason, there would not be SO
much false assumption and insufficient in
duction among grown people. Let things
follow each other naturally, and the little
folks will very soon be logical without
knowing it.
Kitty's heart is set on wearing her new
silk dress to the picnic. Her mother thinks
it is not fit dress, and refuses-and does
it all for Kitty's good, the maryland
very unhappy, and shall be glad when she
grows up and can wear her best clothes at
her liking.
| How would it do, now, for Kitty's mann
ma to let her wear the silk dress? She
| tells Kitty that it is not in good taste ), that
she must be so careful not to spoil it that
she cannot enjoy the picnic; that, whether
| this is spoiled or not, she cannot have an
| other silk dress to take it's place, but she
shall decide for herself. I believe, ten to
| one, Kitty would agree with her mother,
and be charming in her white pique. But
| suppose the little lady yields to the sheen
of the silk. She goes to the party, takes
great thought for her raiment the first half
hour, and then-if she is nice little girl
-forgets all all aboDt it. sails in the boat,
and splashes her dress !; eats ice-cream,
which trickles on the founces; drops her
sandwich in her lap buttered side down,
and comes home altogether sore, spotted,
| and dilapidated little maiden. Then the
unnatural mother need not stand up with
an LAM m-holier-than-thou air, and add to
the midgets distress by saying, "I told
you So" She may comfort and calm her,
and assure her that life is tolerable even
after one has spotted ones only silk gown.
But there is the spotted dress teaching
Kitty the inexorableness of law, the neces-
sity of prudence, the wisdom of parents
It has no tenderness, no affection for Kitty,
and all her signing will not diminish
aught of stain or splash. Every time
Kitty puts it on the ugly defacements say
to her, Kitty, your mamma was right
It is better to wear!wash- -goods'to pic-nics
in order that you may not have to veal
shabby silks year afterward" So Kit
ty learns to respect her mothers author.
ity, and to judge of finess in garments
and has thus started on the way Of
prudent, careful womanhoOd.
No; she does no such thing, because hel
fond and tidy mother steps in and spoils
everything. What! let her child veal
that shabby dress to dancing school and
church? Let those stains and spots stay
on? She would be considered a tidy
housekeeper, indeed-a thrifty woman,
careful mother! Not she! So she upsets
all the arrangements of Providence, takes
out the grease with French chalk and
warm iron, puts in a new breadth for the
splashed one, and sends Kitty forth, smil
ing and happy and fresh as new, and there
fore not in the least benefited by her ex
perience. Because her mother has inter
posed between error and its result, Kitty
will forget both. Mamma acts for Kittyfs
good, does she? Oh, mol it is for the
good of Kitty's gown; it is for the good
of her own name. She forbids Kitty tC
wear the silk, in the first place, to save
the silk. She is more concerned that the
fine frock shall be unspoiled than thai
Kittys mind shall brace itself up to self
action. She. .rejuvenates it, in the second
place, because she is more concerned tC
have the reputation of thrift with hel
neighbors than to have Kitty receive 6
thorough and wholesome lesson. All, the
selfshness of these mothers
Some children have what appears to be
an ineradicable tendency to lateness
Whether the errand be duty or pleasure
they are always behindhand. Their pa
rents are continually urging and reminding
drumming them up, as the phrase goes
Whether they are going to church, or tC
school or to a pleasure drive, the'few last
moments are tempestuous with hurry
Father is angry mother is angry too, bu
keeps it down because father is, and il
won't do to have both in rage together
and for half an hour every one is nervous
flushed, and uncomfortable declare
Ella, if you can't be ready in season will
go without you. won't have such a fuss
every time you are going anywhere.
Yes, you will, papa, have just such 6
and Ella knows it. That is just what you
ought to do, and just what you will not do
Ella is fourteen years old now, and if YOU
had been going to do anything, you would
have done it seven years ago. And how
easy thing it is to do! You announce al
dinner that you will drive at seven, and al
the children who are ready then may drive
with you. Ella is of an age to take care
OF herself, and you say nothing to hel
about being in season. If she does not be
gin to dress soon enough, keep still. Don't
suggest to her that in fifteen minutes the
carriage Will be here. Leave her to the
logic of events. And don't be severe, and
stern, and virtuous, my Pharisee, for you
are probably ten times worse than Ella
only there is nobody to stand over you
and tell you so. Be sunshinny and natu
raj and affect1onate; and when seven
o'clock strikes, and Ella is rushing around
frantic after her boot buttoner, bid hel
goodbye cheerily, and hope you will have
her company some evening before she is
twenty one, and drive off; and don't say
anything about it afterward. Don't irri
tate her with long, prosy harrangues about
the evil consequences of tardiness. And
don't run mad on the suppositlon that goa
are to do everything for the children
Let them alone, and give nature chance
Events will train them if parents will not
insist on putting their hands in and max.
ing tangle. When Ella, left to her own
devices, has lost half dozen drives, and
receives half a dozen tardy marks al
school, and walked six times to church
blowZy- -frOwzy and alone, she will yield
to the inevitableness of law, and bestil
herself in season. At least would try it
-GaI Hamilton.