The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-10-10
"Nagging ChiIdren.O

A writer in the New York Tribune
offers GOOD, sensible words upon the sub.
jet of nagging" children. The term
nsgging, according to one of our literary
authorities means "not scolding, reproof,
or outright punishment, but being always
at child finding continual fault with
him about little things. 1t is not always
easy for US to distinguish between what
is essential and what is an accident of
development in our children. For the
former we must have long, patient, and
judicious training, reaching from infancy
to maturity, slowly wedding out elements
that are noxious, and as slowly incorpo-
rating those that are wanting, just as we
graft pears upon ounce roots, or apples
on the thorn tree. For the accidental
qualities, we have only to wait their out,
growth. Yet these qualities, mainly, and
not the essential ones, provoke nagging,"
of which mothers far more than fathers
are apt to be guilty. At one time in the
life of boy, and this applies to girls as
we'll, he delights TO get into the ink.
Look out, then, for stains on the carpet,
scribblings in your choicest books, and
blotches on handkerchief, aprons, dresses,
and table covers; they are as certain to
come as March winds, and almost as try
ing; but they 60 of themselves, and "nag-
cling" neither hastens nor delays their de-
parture. Dancing a chair about on one
leg while sitting is another stage that
nervous children have to 60 through, and
it lasts till they grow into easy self-confi-
dence. Though excruciating to the sus-
ceptible looker'on, patience is the only
remedy. Mild expostulation and pleasant
ridicule may hasten the progress of the
disorder to happy termination, but it
will cure itself in time. Slamming doors
and leaving them open, mark another
regular stage in the growth of every boy.
Life is too short in the juvenile estims-
tion to shut them quietly, perhaps to shut
them at all; and about this time, all
along before and after, he has too much on
hand to stop and wipe his shoes when he
comes in from the muddy street. What
matters little mud As he sits by the
stove, warming his feet and leaving
traces OF their presence, what more nat
ural than that he should whistle or sing a
comic song or psalm tune comically2 He
doesn't mean anything wrong by it. The
boy nature, exuberant, effervescent, over
flowing, must work itself off in some
manner or dangerous consequences will
ensue, the very worst of which would
be Miniature resulting from suppression.
"NaggiDg does no good at all; it only
makes matters worse. Coeval with muddy
feet and slsmming doors are images in
pencil on the house, finger marks on the
windows, especially of frosty morning
when they are 30 tempting as tablets,
trials of the new jack knife on the dining
table or the pillars of the front porch
marginal readings on spoilers and arith
metics in hieroglyphics that not even
Champollion could have deciphered; the
boys name in uniformed chirogrsphy
scrawled in chalk or pencil everywhere
on the coal bin, the barn door, the parlol
window sill, the walls of his sleeping
room all these testify to the presence o.
the boy in the house. Can he help it
Are such things to be allowed 2 BY nc
means they are to be borne with, kindl,
rebuked, perhaps, and the activity tina
engenders them turned into channe
large enough and attractive enough to alb
sorb it all. A damp cloth will remove
the chalk and finger marks; erasive soal
will take eff the plumbago; tartaric acid
obliterate the ink spot; but what car
eradicate from the child's character tn
effects of perpetual engaging /" TIN
time comes fast enough when there will
be no little careless hand to make
"muss" ON the clean table cloth, no tin
fingers to scatter things round, no clatte
of childish feet on the stairway. Fresl