Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1913-05-30
TRAINING CHILD MIND
DIsoRDERLINEsS 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 it made to
have people disorderly and careless
about their things am sure l 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 1t 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; 1t
is just that they have lived SO short a
time that they do not understand the
trouble and pain and selfdenial they
may be the cause of-they just don't
realize
l 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 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 heI
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 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 ly
lh6 dIOulu, ludJ HGI udu6uICI luub
keep the house in order as punish
ment for past misdeeds and that
she failed to do so she would not b.
allowed to 60 to certain function t.
which she was looking forward.
AS all the children inherited NOR
or less tendency to disorderlines
from an artistic father, her task wa
by no means easy. Needless to say
the end of the week found her say
ing: 81 never realized how much trou
BILE leaving things round made. I vii
be more careful in the future"
Again, when the two older childre
got the habit of teasing for things tha
were beyond the family purse, thi
wise woman, instead Of scolding, sin
ply took them into her confidenc
about the family income and outgt
asked their help about keeping tn
accounts, and without saying a wor
of her purpose to them, soon mad
them realize for themselves why the
could not have everything that othe
children had. And after that she ha
no more trouble with teasing.
Look back into your own childhoo
and see If the unkind, the selfish, til
thoughtless, the cruel things that yo
did were not all done because yo
did not realize.
What better basis, then. could "
have for training our children tina
helping them to realize now instea
of years afterward when 1t Is too late