Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-05-18
WOMAN AND HOME.
CHILDREN SHOULD BE TAUGHT TO
BE SELF DEPENDENT.

Making Dinner a Formal Function-Con-
tentment of Standardization on
Rainy Day-A Hint to Correspondents.
Where Many Mothers Fail.
Mamma, what can do now? Tell me
something to do mamma" What unwise
mother has not heard this oft repeated,
ioilsome request, and with Il sigh has not
wished her child would form her own plans
and amuse herself.
have known two sisters-so near of an
age that they ought to have been able to
play happily together all day long--even
after they were large children, 60 first one
and then the other, to their mother with
this exasperating question. And have
felt that if were allowed to answer them
could settle it in their minds for once and
all.
And yet we cannot lay all the blame on
the children. ! have called the mothers
unwise. And it is SO, and time proves it,
The girls who are brought up to be al
ways amused, always attended to first, are
the ones who grow up taking all that is
given them as a matter of course. Always
absorbing, never giving out.
They make the visitors who sit with fold
ed hands and idly watch you at your work.
ucS w IOb dbttlllIo vi ollVl W lIluhu Ch'il
own beds They gaze listlessly out of the
window or exhaust, by fragmentary read
ing, the hooks on the center table.
Instead of having trihe of fancy work
in her hands, orotferng to read aloud to her
host as she works, or to dust or put in or
der, one Of these keeps her entertainer in
continued nervous strain as to the guests
amusement. The guest who Cntertaius her
self by her own work or doing unsought
many little things for her friends, and who
spends a part of each day in her room, lcav-
ing her hostess, free, is the guest who is
urged to come again.
1t il the guest who depends on us for each
moments Measure whom we are loath to
invite he second time. How can we ncul-
cate this virtue of resource in our children?
We can begin early, and the sooner the bet
ter.
There is no reason why baby-and am
speaking now only of the healthy children
at he eNriy aye when he begins to blink
at the light from the window and stare at
the cOlOrS in the room should not be left in
a comfortable position in his crib or cradle
and he allowed to blink and stare for an
| hour ut "A stretch several times day. Is it
not reasonable to suppose it is pleasanter to
him than to he continually caught up, tan
| glrd IN his long clothes, jumped, shaken,
/ kis-cd-aud whole article might be writ
/ ten under this hcad-trOtted and talked to,
/ his poor weak head supported unnaturally,
/ until every little sensitive nerve is expect
/ ant u the nest new sensation it is to be
! calF'd upon to endure?
! The answer j. self evident, and it saves
/ his mother more than she can express if he
/ is taught that the cradle in his happy
hours is the place for him
Then rs child grows older and is able to
| sit up and notice things there is no reason
/ why he should not he piloWed up on the
/ floor or bed for an hour or more at n time
and taught to play with his toys He can
shake his rattle. There is no need of your
! lying PROSTATE before him and doing that
for him or of pressing his squeaking pig OF
pulling at his worsted reins. Show him
how, and he would much rather do it.
| If, when a little older, he runs to you to
string bearls or buttons, teach him how,
then let him do it while you work. Let him
paste his own pictures, build his own
blocks. look over his books himself
If n child is well and bright, he has re
sources Of his own But if he has every
thing done for him from the moment of his
birth, when can You expect these resource.
to develop 1t will only he under some Sc
we're stress OF circumstance or heavy disCi
| plue, and the lesson will be hard. Indie
pendeuce and self reliance taught through
youth never desert one. "A prom string
boys are simply boys who have not been al
lowed TO think or act for themselves.-Sal
lie kcuuebcc in Home Magazine