The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-24
Paper on Sympathetic Parent-
 hood Read Before f1lotbers' unicn

The following interesting paper was read at the meeting of the Mothers Union held on Thursday at the home of Mrs. Marcus:
 T think we will all agree that this subject is one of the utmost import ance. and well-nigh inexhaustible one.
 "'Come, let us live with our children,
 Earnestly. holily live.
 Learning ourselves the sweet lessons
 That to the children we give.
 Fresh from the Kingdom of Heaven
 Into this earth life they come,
 Not to abide-we must guide them
 Back to the Heavenly home.
 Come. let us live with our children,
 Leading them tenderiy on. u
 Ever shines brightly upon.
 Then when our feet grow too weary
 For the safe guidance of youth.
 We shall be- led, like the children. .,
 "'Come, let us live with our chil- dren," said Froehel, the modern apostle of child culture. Most parents live for their children, hut few maintain that relation of true sympathy, that answer ing of heart to heart, which character izes a living with the children.
 'Longfellow's father once wrote to the young poet: T am happy to ob- serve that my ambition has never been to accumulate wealth for my children, but to cultivate their minds in the best possible manner, and to imbue them with correct moral, political and relig- ious principles, believing that person thus educated will, with proper dili- gence, be certain of attaining all the wealth which Is necessary to happl- ness.' @'>.
 There are many parents who, out of deepest love. sacrifice and do for their children, and yet fail to be in full sym pathy with them. To live with the children the mother must put herself in feeling. on the same plane with them, looking upon things from their stand point as well as our own.
 The beautiful outgrowth of this gem uine living with the children Is that perfect confidence between the chtfd and parent, which if begun early and con- tinued through life, will prove one of the surest barriers against evil that can be erected. It will tend to that unity of purpose which will enable parent and child to work together for the overcom- ing of evil, and the correction of faults. The child will struggle the harder be- cause the mothers loving sympathy makes him feel that she is struggling with him. They will take counsel to- gether over failures, and rejoice to- gether over victories. Where real, true sympathy exists there need be no more hesitancy in coming to mother with the is in bringing to her the pleasures and victories. The child will feel as we do when we take our troubles to our ever listening father, who is our help In time of trouble. If parents could only be made to realize what tower of strength such a living with their chill dren may become. no effort would be considered too great to be spent in cul- tivating such relation. for 1t must be cultivated if 1t is to be continuous. It must grow with the children, 1t must broaden with their years. and take in their play, their playmates, their studies, their work. their reading, as well as their pleasures. their toys, sor- rows and deepest feelings.
 Many parents, who in truth live with their little ones in tender years, allow them to drift away as they grow older. through failure to respond to the out goings of their hearts. thereby diseour- aging them from coming to mother and father for the sympathy craved. It Is in this way that the bond of con- fidence between parent and child be- comes severed
 How can I win the confidence of
 
 anxious parents. In the beginning, the absolute confidence of the child is given to the mother. In sickness or in health. in danger or in safety, In sorrow or in joy, the one cry of the child is for mother. It brings to her its every emo tion, its smallest wish. If in maturer life there is not this full measure of confidence there must have been time when this confidence began to wane. Some one must originally have been at fault. Doubtless the beginning was sometime when the mother, full of cares. neglected to express sympathy for some little sorrow. Perhaps no at tention was paid to a little hurt finger. and the child was answered impatient ly and told to go away, by a mother who showed no sympathy Children are naturally sympathetic, and should be encouraged always to think of oth- CTS. If we could only know all that a child feels and thinks, we should be so eonsiderate of them. Characters are often warped through a misunderstood childhood. It needs great wisdom to know just how to express enough sym pathy to keep the child's confidence, and yet not SO much as to create an undue magnifying of a trivial matter. A little girl comes in with tender heart sympattixing with the woes of a friend. "oh. mama. Mary tore her new dress on a nail in the lumber yard So you have been over there, have you1 We'll she ought to tear her clothes and have a whipping. too. and I'll give you one for going when you were told not to- And the punishment follows, when # her story had been I1stsnad ko ayss