South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-05-15
Get Your Child
"On Your Side"
Friction and Warfare Con
tinuous in Home Where
Don't" Is Heard All the
Time.

Most Of us have heard of the little
girl whose reply TO a stranger who
asked her name was Dorothy Don't"
She had heard it so much, she really
thought it true. Yet do you suppose
the use of that term so frequently was
due to her own wilfuIlness or disobe-
dience, or TO her mothers thought
lessness?
1t is easier, perhaps, to say Don't
than DO" One means cessation, the
other activity. The one stops the child
from whatever he is doing. the other
must supply the childish mind with
something TO do. must give idle hands
and restless feet employment. And 50
il is easier 10 say Don't"
And many a child is brought up on
the Don't" theory.
The admonition to some older mem
Der of the family to Ego upstairs and
see what Willie is doing and tell him
not" is an old story And in many a
home you hear something like this all
day long: Don't be noisy" Don't
bring that dog in again" Don't you
go near that little girl across the
street" Don't you answer me back
that way" Don't get your new suit
dirty" Don't you play ball there by
the window"
What do you suppose is the effect
Of that on a child, day in and day out
and week in and week out?
Will it not make him sullen or Sc
cretive or openly disObedient?
But children are such trials" signs
a weary mother. What are you going
TO do? Let them track mud in all over
the house? And break window panes?
And get their clothes dirty? Or play
with the wrong associates
OF course not. But can't you make
an alliance with them? Get them on
your side. Don't range them with the
enemy.
Children are easily led if you go
about it in the right way. And they
are fond of games and make-believe.
Let it be a game TO keep the house
clean. Let il be a matter of honor not
to play with certain associates and
let them know why you do not want
them to- Get them to side with you in
what is necessary to be done. Young
sters are wonderfully loyal and enthu-
siastic once you win them. And they
are more easily won by reason and
right than is supposed. The trouble is
that most of US take the represSlVe
course as being the easiest. 1t is less
trouble to say to Willie, Don't you
blow soap bubbles over the parlor car
pet than II is TO distract w llIle at
tention from soap bubbles by giving
him something less harmful to play
with.
But one method is constructive, the
other destructive. One enliSts the
child's cooperation, arouses his en-
thusiasm, gives him initiative, makes
him resourceful, makes him feel he is
standing shoulder to shoulder with
mother and father for the good OF the
home and himself. The other makes
him feel he is an outsider. 1t puts him
on the defensive. It is an implication
that he is in the wrong. He eVades
He grows deceitful. Or he insists upon
his rights and becomes wilful and OBJ
stinate. He allies himself with the
enemy. He goes over to the otherslde
And there is friction and warfare In
the home where Don't" is heard from
morning till night.
Children are staunch and entnusl-
astic allies. They are equally obstinate
and wilful if on the opposing SIDE
Parents are often unconscious how
frequently they use that significant
word Don't" or how it may be
moulding their little ones character
Listen with a mental ear for rev
davs and see If there is Dorothy
DON'T in the home.