The Tupelo journal., 1913-08-08
TRAINING CHILD MIND
pISORDERLINEsS A THING TO BE
CORRECTED EARLY.
Responsibility Rests with Mother
When She Allows Bad Habits to
Become a Settled Thing In
the Life Of Offspring.

If l had only realized when ! was a
child how much more work it made to
have people disorderly and careless
about their things I am sure ! should
have been more careful. But / didn't
realize, writes Ruth Cameron in the
Milwaukee Sentinel.
That is the oft expressed sentiment
Of one young woman who has recently
gone to housekeeping in a home of her
own. And l fancy there are many OF
us who could say the same thing-we
didn't realize! And not about that
matter only, but about many matters,
have heard it said that children
are naturally selfish. / beg to differ.
l think they are naturally full OF the
most generous impulses. But / DO
admit that they are naturally thought
less and that is what makes them
seem selfish. 1t is not that they would
be deliberately selfish and unkind; it
is lust that they have lived so short a
time that they do not understand the
trouble and pain and self-denial they
may be the cause of-they just don't
realize!
I once knew a wise mother who
grasped this fact and based her train
ing on the effort to make her children
realize exactly what they were doing
when they were t%houghtless or care
less or unreasonable.
For Instance, take the very matter
of which the young housewife spoke.
This mother had a daughter who was
terribly slack about leaving things
around. She would come into the
house and leave her coat on one chair
and her fur on another, throw her
| gloves on the table and put her hat
pins on the mantelpiece and only put
away her hat because b was afraid
something would happen to the feath-
ers if she didn't. Her mother talked
and talked to no avail. Finally she
decided to make the daughter realize
the trouble she was causing, so she
told her that for the next week she,
the mother, would not pick up one
thing that any of the children left ~
ing around, that her daughter must
keep the house in order as a punish
ment for past misdeeds and that II
she failed to do 30 she would not be
allowed to- go to a certain function to
which she was looking forward.
AS all the children inherited more
or less a tendency to disorderliness
from an artistic father, her task was
by no means easy. Needless to say,
the end of the week found her say
ing: Il never realized how much trou.
BILE leaving things round made. ] will
be more careful In the future"
Again, when the two older children
got the habit Of teasing for things that
were beyond the family purse, this
wise woman, instead of seoidfng, sim
ply took them into her confidence
about the family income and outgo
asked their help about keeping the
accounts, and without saying q word
of her purpose to them, soon made
them realize for themselves why they
could not have everything that other
children had. And after that she had
no more trouble with teasing.
Look back into your own childhood
and see If the unkind, the selfish. the
thoughtless, the cruel things that you
did were not all done because you
did not realize
What better basis, then, could we
have for training u children than
helping them to realize now instead
of years afterward when it is too late