The Washington herald., 1917-06-11

and sallie. They are Robert and
Sara.
Nature has sent out her invitation 10
their parents to meet Mr.. Jones ana
MISS Smith, and few fathers and
mothers have spirit gallant enough
are good enough sports-to accept the
invitation cordially and full heartedly.
They do mot want to be forced to
face the fact that their babies are
babies no longer, TO be ruled and die
tated to. and thought for, but men
and women with rights and privileges.
and individual lives of their own that
| they must live in their own way.
There is no other gift that parents
| bestow so grudginGly as their recog-
milton of their children being grown
! up. and It is because OF this niggardIS
Withholding from youth OF the tribute
to its new-found dignity that many oc
the estrangements between parents
and children arise.
Fathers and mothers are always
complaining that their children do
| with the young fellows in my office,"
man will say. but I haven't the
slightest idea what my own son
thinks on any subject. He is as
dumb as clam in my presence"
My daughter never tells me any
| thing" a mother will mean. She is
more intimate with half dozen other
! mother"
The reason is that other people ac-
cept the boy and girl as grown-ups.
listen TO them respectfully. accord
! them the treatment that they would
! to mature PEOPLE. while their parents
I persist in regarding them as infants
! who are not entitled to an opinion
| on any subject and whose hopes and
! aspirations are no more to be seri-
, ously considered than a Child's de-
sire for a new toy.
And youth. which is morbidly sem
/ sitive. resents this and retaliates by
Withholding its condolences from those
from whom II knows it will receive
no sympathy. Bobby knows that
father will jeer and sreer at his
/ views II he dares to express them. so
. he keeps silence. Sallie is perfectly
aware that mother still thinks her a
little girl incapable of deciding even
what dress she shall wear, so she
tells nothing as little of her plans
, as possible in order to secure to her
/ self even a modicum of freedom.
Mother and father have positively
/ declined to meet Mr.. Jones and Miss
Smith. They refuse to admit that the
children that they have thought would
stay babies forever have arrived at
mans and woman's estate, and so
they make no effort to get acquainted
, with these strangers on their hearth
stone. They do not try to find out
what they are thinking. what their
| aims and aspirations are. or even to
| sound their ability and ascertain what
| they are best fitted for in life.
| 1t Is a piyt. for the girl and boy TAX
| ing their first steps in the new world
of grown-up people need the guiding
| hand of their parents far more than
lthey did when they first tOddled with
unsteady feet across the nursery floor.
The boy needs a father who will talk
| to him as man to man. The girl needs
| a mother who will meet her on the
plane of a common womanhood. Then
there could be condolences given and
received that would save many a
young life from shipwreck. but how
can this be done if parents have
scarcely even a speaking acquaint-
ance with their grown-up boys and
girls?
That Is why II is so important for
| fathers and mothers to come out OF
| the counting room and the kitchen
and meet Mr.. Jones and Miss Smith,
and get really acquainted with them.
They would find these strangers very
| interesting