Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-18
ovERINDULGED CHILDREN.
Mistakes Overfond Parents Too Otter
Make,

| A writer in recent number OF
Table Talk relates an incident or a
grown-up boy so selfish as to practl-
cally demand from his mother GER
tain amount Of money for his own
personal pleasure, which he knew she
could not we'll spare, and which with
little effort on his own part ne
could have earned for himself, ana
forcibly presents the errors or par
rents in matters of overindulgence:-
NO mother has a moral right TO
bring up a boy in any such fashion.
1t is a sin against himself. Instead
of learning the beauty and useful
ness of se!f-restraint, Of doing with
out, he grows up with the feeling that
| all he needs to do in the world IS
to ask for or demand things and they
are forthcoming. Thus he gets to look
at the world, not as 1t is, but as II is
not; he fancies it in some sense an
Arabian Nights world where genn
do ones bidding and create palaces
in an instant. There should be great
care that life be not made oVerstern
or destitute Of hope for earnest en-
deavor. but on the other hand there
must be realization that the price OF
whatever we get must be pald, aIa
that cause and effect rule. A youth
is crippled at the very center OF his
being, is deprived of incentive when
he gets too easily and readily what
he demands. This puts him IN
wrong attitude toward men; they see
in him the spoiled boy, and they as
EMPLOYERS prefer to have about them
youths drilled in the elements or
duty and obligation; they cannot un-
dertake to run business on the back
ing of spoiled children, who ask 100
much, who complain If they do not
get all they fancy they merit.
1T Is not fair to the home to over
indulge children. They are hlghiy
important, but they are not the whole
household. Indulgence leads them to
assert themselves overmuch, to for
get the rights Of others. Presently
the mother is overridden, overwhelm-
ed by the developed selfishnesS OF the
children. She ceases to be molding
force, becomes a nonentity and chill
dren rule. She has not only her right
but her obligation to maintain her
individuality. her personal growth
and influence not only for her own
sake, but on account of the incalcu-
liable value of what her personality Is
capable of contributing to the char
acter-building forces of the house
hold. When she is overridden the
children run rampant anu HllSHt dS
we'll have no home except for the pro-
vision Of board and roof.
1T Is not fair to society. which has
a right to expect every home to send
forth men and women equipped for
the give-and-take Of life, fitted for re-
lations with their fellow-beings. The
overindulged child becomes either
useless sponge on others, or an i'm
pertinent, overbearing personality un-
fitted for any sphere. The soft-heart-
ed mother who finds herself yielding
little by little. and more and more, to
the persistence of child wishes; finds
the child growing impatient at refus-
ais and restraints, should seriously
consider, and then patiently and care
fully strive to undo the evil and train
the child in a better spirit. 1t is pitt
full and wrong to see youth, who
might readily have been trained in
better disposition, acting with utter
and sefishness to-
ward the mother and everybody else.
But it is the legitimate and inevitable
result Of overndulgence on the part
of the parent. New York Christian
Advocate