Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-12-07
TWELVE
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
10y DOROTHY DIX
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
! Writer,)

IN an amusing satire, In which he
throws a thousand fantastic lights
upon the relationship between
parents and children, George Bernard
Shaw makes the father in the play
declare that the time will come when
no child will know who its parents
are, and no parents will know their
own children. Then, he says, there
VIII be o chance for parents and
children to be friends when they
meet. As it is now there is q wall ten
feet thick between them that neither
can break through.
OF course the Shawian point Of view
Is always humorously exaggerated
one, but II is true that between most
parents and children there is a wall
ten feet thick that they can neither
break through nor climb over, and II
most fathers and mothers and child.
rem would tell the truth, they would
admit that there is nobody else on
earth with whom they feel so little
acquainted as with those who are
flesh Of their flesh and bone Of their
bone. <
What is this bar that so tragically
separates parents and children and
80 often makes any real intimacy or
companionship between them impos-
sible? a- f. !. ....E II
II isn't matter of lack Of affection
or Of neglect on the parents part, be-
cause you see this want of companion.
ship Just as often In households
where the parents have sacrificed
themselves for their children and
shaved for them as you do in the
households where the children have
been brought up by nrrsesIand GOV
kernesses and tutors. Indeed, the wall
my children never tell me anything.
] am not In their confidence" . is new.
or so bitter as from the lips Of par
snts who have literally worshipped
their offspring. + ..e
It Is not q matter Of disparity OF
age Father Is on chummy terms with
half dozen boys the age OF his own
son who are in his office. He can joke,
with them and tell them stories and
discuss with them every topic from
q batting record to the temptations
that lie In wait for every young man.
But when he is left alone for half an
hour with hts own boy they haven't a
word to say to each other, and are
embarrassed and III at ease, and ons
or the other makes sneak of II at
the earliest opportunity.
Il isn't because mother Is old that
daughter. never tells her any of the
shy little secrets Of her heart. and
what the boy who brought her home
from the dancing class said to her or
she said to him. She babbles these
condolences fast enough TO some other
woman, mothers age, on whom she
has school girl crush. Nor Is Il be-
cause mother IL so much older than
daughter that she cannot bring her
sell to talk to daughter about the
things that every mother should tell a
girl. Mother can discuss the most IN
innate problems Of womanhood with
every pther SRI except her own.
What, then. Il this mysterious wall
made Of that 30 tragically and ter.
tihly separates parents and children?
j think that It IS made OF the ALBANIAN.
tine. colossal self-conceit Of parents.
The vanity OF parents makes them
pose before their children as oracles
end little tin gods, and while you
may reverence and even abstractly
love q superior being. you can't pos.
sibly pal with one. You haven't any
tie Of human kinship with 1t. You
haven't the nerve to even expect one
who has always been perfect and