The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-06-20
ONE WOMAN TO, ANOTHER
Must Study Individual Needs-The Weddings Need Tender Care.

I recently read an article in which two kinds of mothers were cited. One was the over indulgent, slavish wom- an who lived only in her chi1d's smile, who breathed only with it's breath, and who even sacrificed her sick husband to her devotion to the child.
 The other, with a family of seven, only picked up the baby when it cried, long enough to discover whether the cause of the outcry was hunger, a pin, or the collie.
 She started, her youngsters out into the world of work or study as soon as they showed an inclinat ation one way or the other.
 The writer was inclined to think that this type of mother was ideal. She failed to mention any happy medium between a foolish child worship and the Spartan method of the mother of seven.
 I don't believe any one mother can be taken as standard or model for all, any more than one medicine can be. used for all diseases. Children themselves are so different in temper ament and physique that YOU cannot enforce any rigorous code, outside naturally of proper dietary regime and the accepted standards of morals
 For example, a child is born, weak, feeble, a poor little struggling atom that physicians and every one else prophecy will never live. Isn't it nat ural for the mother of this mite to watch it with eagle eyes, to respond to it's feeblest cry? She caters to it in every way she can, not knowing how long God will let this wee white blos- som flourish in the garden of her ma ternal love.
 Is she foloish, is she doing wrong in pandering to the sickly chid's whims? No, for she is following the true law of nature, the protective, care enshrouding treatment that the dependent Weakling expects and should receive from it's mother.
 Because her neighbor's child, a great husky boy. can eat meat at night, gorge bananas and cucumbers with. no i'll effect, should she pursue such a diet with her child whose stomach re- jects even cows milk as roo strong for its digestive process? No, un- ques-ionabiy no no more than it would be right for her to let her little child of delicate constitution run hare footed in rain or shine on a farm, be- cause the neighbor's more rugged child waxes strong and vigorous in his shoeless and stockingless freedom.
 There is a medium to govern the mothers attitude toward her off spring. Of course there is no love so great. so sacrificing as that mother bears toward her children. But the childs good must be considered for the spoiled child becomes with it's growth disagreeable, selfish person ality, who fails tof make or keep friends, all through the mothers mis- taken idea of fostering it's self im- portance to the exclusion of others rights and privileges.
 But the mother herself is the best judge Of what her child's nature de- mands, and exercising reason she can train her child along the lines that suit it best. She can disregard what oth- CTS may say or do with their little ones, whose dispositions, bodies and brains may be absolutely at variance with other children The thought full mother, like a physician finds that what is beneficial for one, is poison for another.
 COUSIN PHEBE.