The Cairo bulletin., 1913-04-22
TRAINING CHILD MIND
plSoRDERLiNESS A THING TO BE
CORRECTED EARLY.
Responsibility Rests with Mother
When She Allows Bad Habits to
Become Settled Thing In
the Life Of Offspring.

If had only realized when / was a
child how much more work 1t made to
have people disorderly and careless
about their things l 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 home of her
own. And 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. l beg to differ,
| 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 Just 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 thoughtless or care
less or unreasonable.
For instance, take the very matter
of which the young housewife spoke.
This mother had 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 she was afraid
something would happen to the .feath-
ers IL 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 ly-
ing around, that her daughter must
keep the house in order as a punish
ment for past misdeeds and that IL
she failed to do SO she would not be
allowed to go to 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
we're beyond the family purse, this
wise woman. instead of scolding. sim.
ply took them into her confidence
about the family income and outgo.
asked their help about keeping the
accounts, and without saying 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
thoughtiess. the cruel things that you
did we're not all done because you
did not realize.
What better basis, then. could we
have for training our children than
helping them to realize now instead
of years afterward when it is too late?