The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-12-23
Parental Indifference.


this generation, / should have re-
ferred, probably, in thoughtless man
ner, to vicious parents, criminal sur
roundings, inherited vices and weak
nesses. Today, if that same question
were pressed upon me, l should lay
the blame at the door of parental in
difference. Indifference is the bug
bear of progress, of health, Of wealth
happiness, culture, of anything, in
fact, which means a step forward,
step higher toward something better,
more worthwhile. And it has no re-
lation to our affairs and calls for no
interference if our neighbors are alb
solutely Indifferent to art and music
and culture providing they do not
overstep the boundaries of decency,
but, this stolid perhaps acreless, but
altogether harmful Indifference as re-
CARDS the INFRINGING of ones chill
dren the associates of those chill
dren, their recreations and work.
their education and books, is a sub
ject of vital Importance to every
man and woman among us and
condition which threatens the con-
tinued morality, normality and neil
tally of an entire people.
Court officials, accustomed as they
are to the seamy side of life, dealing
as they do, daily, hourly, with de-
generates and abnormal peoples, say
that they themselves are startled and
even astounded by the amount of a
difference which parents manifest or
their concern over the conduct of
their offspring. Fathers confess when
the boy is brought before the court
and the crime has been committed,
that they supposed their youngster
was an average normal boy who
could take care of himself and they
have admitted that they did not know
where he spent his nights now and
then, what his evening recreations
were, what books he read, what as
pirations he cherished, or what his
standing was in school. Mothers, too,
have admitted, with tears rolling
down their cheeks, that they had al
lowed their daughter her own wav
and had not paid especial attention
to her whereabouts providing that
she appeared at meal times and at a
reasonable hour in the evening.
What did she read? How would they
know?
The ignorance displayed by these
parents is pitiful and indicative of a
pretty state of affairs in thousands OF
homes. Sociologists are at loss to
find reasons for this Indifference TO-
ward the young people unless per-
s6nal selfishness, moral and mental
la3,yess and lack of ambition may be
tagged to the back of the Sinking
parents. There are hundreds Of
thousands of youngsters who have no
grounds for thanking a father or a
mother for what they are. They
simply ''growed" like Topsy and they
have the force of circumstances or
some other agency which worketh
on the quiet, to thank that they have
come up no worse. 1t is a huge re-
sponsibility that parents are shirk
ing. Fathers are too busy to listen
to the youngsters or watch the de-
velopment of the young idea. They
turn the children over to mother and
rush down for the office with a sense
of having done their duty by the "a
mily as long as they provide housl
and clothes and food. And mother
is engrossed also in making clothes
and preparing the foods that Father
purchases, and mending socks and
somehow the day has gone and she
has found no opportunity for inves.
tigation of the moral side of tn,
young plants under her care. And
if mother and father have an income
that warrants it, they turn the
youngsters over to a nurse or gov
erness, a circumstance which has
been known to create more lasting
harm than unrestricted children hay.
found for themselves.
Little attention is paid to the quail
ifcations of these nursery guardians
providing they testify to good char
acter, cleanliness, etc. The child O.
tender years is an imaginative younf
-. ANIMAL, given to passions and fears
which need to be Gained and prunet
down with skilled hand.
The salaried person who make.
the bringing up of children a bus
mess caYot be expected, save in rar'
pstancR, to display that mother
Ne and maternal cuddling which tht
pies must have if theirs are to b;
ed and cultivated existences.
hat is business, cards, society
Fentions, fashions, anything, il
It, compared with the profession o
flaming a child to the paths of right
housness "for His Names sake" ant
4 cultivating in young men and maid
ems a knowledge of the truth tina
will keep them from evil and promp
their better impulses to expression
in their lifes work?
We respectable" middle class PEG
pie, and we wealthy people and sup
posedy intelligent parents are prom