Evening star., 1919-09-05
IS YOUR CHILD FREE?
BY H. ADDINGTON BRUCE.
Copyright, 1919.)

BY H. ADDINGTON BRUCE.
Copyright. 1s1s.)
We hear much about the child slav-
cry occasioned by selfishness and
greed. Our hearts 60 out to the little
and forced to toll at monotonous, often
overarduous. tasks.
We condemn a society that permits
such misusing Of children. Ardently
we insist on the passage OF laws to
restrain parents from sending their
children into industrial bondage.
But there Is another and even more
vicious kind Of child slavery. to which
we are blind. It fs q slavery not Of
the body but Of the soul. And, strange
ly. 1t is born Of love. not Of the hate
full traits responsible for the slavery
of child labor.
We see this other kind Of slavery
established in every home where par
ents make the mistake Of linking their
children too closely to them with
bonds Of overanection. And many.
many parents make this mistake.
value. DR.. William A. Whites ''The
Mental Hygiene of Childhood" occurs
a passage which every parent ought
to learn by heart:
THE whole process of the child's
development has as It's goal its sznanci-
life may be free to develop to the fullest
without the hindrances that are newt
able II there continues an attachment to
the homo that is in the nature Of a de-
pendence upon 1t.
"a full. free development Of the per-
a crtppling dependence Of any sort"
This IL precisely what too many
parents fail to appreciate.
The natural love Of parenthood be-
comes with them q dangerous overiove.
Instead Of helping their children to per-
sonal independence. their doting anec-
ton holds the children in state Of in
fantile dependence.
Which is slavery in the truest sense.
1t is a negation Of the right Of the de-
veloping individual to follow his natural
trends in the evolution Of his person.
ality.
And it works disaster in various ways.
Innumerable men and women grow up
short in initiative. confidence and deci-
siveness simply because, through doing
have unaccustomed them ever to think
or act boldly for themselves.
Others go through life nervous weak
lines as result Of the morbid anxiety
shown for them in childhood by their
parents. The idolizing parents. abnor-
safety. have ended by making them abb
normally solicitous for themselves. and
this spells nervousness Of an extreme
kind.
Again. there are many men and
women whose failure to marry may be
definitely traced to an overhxing Of at
tention on the parents whose devotion
tas been more intense than wise.
1t Is no mere coincidence that only
children tend with especial frequency
both to nervousness and to non-marrtage.
They are the children most liable to
overlove from their parents. hence to
shrinkage from the realities and respon-
sibilities Of adult life.
Therefore. it is that I would iterate
and reiterate DR.. Whites warning:
Real help by the parents involves a
preparation of the child to renounce
them. as it were. to be able to get along
without them. without all those minis
trations which have become SO dear to
them. SO sweet to give"
Either to aid their childrsn to free
dom or to bind them In a spiritual slav-
cry. that Is the alternative confronting
every father and mother. One or the
other course they uAax shaAsA.