The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-11-15
TO LIGaTEN TIE BURDEN.

TO LIGHTEN TIE BURDEN.
From the Ladies Home .ournal.
The very kindness of children and
friends often makes the life of the aged
member of the household a wearisome
| burden. In their anxiety to shield the
/ father or mother from care and
physical exertion they take away
every source of interest and en- njoyment.
! Physicians tell us that muscles which
are not used become atrophied, and
/ hence we can readily understand that
| physical and mental powers may age
more quickly through idleness than
exertion. Many housewives urge their
mothers to give the housekeeping into
their hands, believing that in SO doing
! they are performing d most tilial ac-
! tion.
| 1t is mistaken kindness very often.
! Granted that a woman is in reasonably
good health it is better for her to have
definite and varied duties to the very
| close of her life, no matter how long
/ that life NAV be. The wise daughter
will try and Tighten and perhaps share
/ these duties, instead of forcing a nat
!
/ self a useless factor in the home.
/ There lies the sting of much of the un-
/ happiness of old people; the feeling
/ that they are no longer essential tn
/ Others. Then, too. they do not want
/ to surrender the administrative facul-
! ty. 1t hurts them to feel SO entirely
cut off from their kind. For this rea-
/ Son it is wise, when it is possible, for
: the housewife to encourage the aged
( father or mother to do some. If not all,
of the marketing for the family. The
exercise in the openhir and the meeting
with tradesmen and discussion of ways
and means will console, though in
small and homely way, the man who
mourns for the active days of business
life. The mother. too, will feel as il
her hand were still on the helm when
/ she gives her daily orders. The keep
/ ing of the family accounts, when posi-
bic, should be relegated to the aged
/ members of the household for the same
/ reason.
/ 1t is popular fiction to suppose that
because body is old the soul that lies
/ in it must necessarily be old in its feel
/ ings and desires. Very often we hear
/ it said that old people do not care for
society. The doctor and the clergy
man are regarded as the only callers
/ really essential TO their well-being.
/ Yet these very same old people may
/ long for the fiesh-pots OF Egypt more
/ earnestly than their granddaughter OF
/ sixteen. They are not especially
attracted by people of their own
age. who remind them too vividly
! of the lapse of time and the IN
( frmities of the body. They very often
( prefer the light of bright young faces
/ and the stir and hustle Of active social
/ life. They rebel against the lmplica-
/ tion that they have done with all the
/ vanities and delights of the world. II
/ i true kindness, therefore, not TO set
/ them aside in some quiet room, remote
! from the family life, furnished. per-
/ haps. in "a staid. old fashioned way with
/ the portraits Of the dead covering the
! sober walls. Such a room has an ac-
tual repulsion for the little children,
/ who naturally grow TO feel that the
/ quiet figures sitting in II are not OF
/ their world. The whole unconscious
| attitude OF the household - one Of ex-
pectation that very soon those places
! must be left vacant. and often the poor
/ old people faII into line, and through
very inertia 20 what Is expected Of
/ them. They are actually buried alive
/ long before they die
! Love combined with wisdom viii
raise no such barriers around the old,
but viii keep them in the very heart Of
I the familr life. The friends of the
Younger generation viii be made their
/ friends. and i viii not be taken for
granted that because granomother't
i hair Is white she can no longer enjoy a
frolic- In this separation the young
( suffer quite a. much as the old for =
often har-ens that the graudmother Is
better qualified 70 b the Coutcante q
/ the Young schoolgirl than the busy,
worried mother. The grandta,her. too,
I made -n-rciful bv experience - apt -
be the best kind of an Interpreter ue-
tween father and son For tins reason
encourage the old people 20 help the
children IN their studies Never mind
( IL the school books are very different
from the ones Il u>e TWO generations
ago This very fact VIII do much -
put the grandparents in touch with the
times and keep the.r mental faculties
alert
Fancy generally pants al Old lady
with knitting work Z her hands >he
: also expected 70 sew o. buttons,
darn stockings and do tie very 7TorI
which naturally reduces every thought
to ulorctonv- No one ever thlnss y
ss-ing her - make ~ozae er .ghf fancy
Wo.A Q. Inouirrs whether she Nos.d