The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-30
Dorothy Dix Talks
Team work..
By DOROTHY DIX
worlds Highest Paid Woman wrise<.

Team work..
AS a matter of fact. no woman alone
and unaided can make happy home
any more than she could move gla-
cier. She might grin like a Cheshire
cat and monologue along until her
tongue wore out and be as beautiful
as a heuri and look like a fashion
plate and she wouldn't raise the do
| mestic temperature of the home one
degree, or diffuse one ray of real sun
shine or joy if the husband was sitting
up glum and grouchy er if he was
stamping around the house. finding
fault with everything.
1t takes two people laughing to-
gether to register mirth. 1t takes two
people to carry on an agreeable con-
versation. 1t takes two people giving
| the best that is in them of kindness,
and tenderness and consideration. and
geniality to make a happy home. No
woman living can pull off the stunt
alone and no man need expect to
marry such a miracle performer.
| One of the reasons that women lose
| interest in domestic life, and get slack
about their cooking and the way they
keep their houses. is because SO few
husbands do team work. They never
notice what the wife does. They never
praise her management. They gobble
down dinner she has spent hours in
cooking without so much as saying
that the sauce was worthy of chef,
should have been eaten on ones knees.
No wonder the woman gets disceur-
aged.
If the husband would only do team
work and show some interest in his
\ home; if he would discuss the best way
of meeting the H. c. of L. with her
instead of growing over the bills; If
he would display some real interest in
rugs and thrill over wall paper instead
of saying, "Oh, get what you want
I nut
new pep into his wife and he would
reap rich results in better dinners and
a better managed house, for women
dote on talking things over and a hus-
band whom she could make a real
companion of would fill any wife's cup
with bliss.
The place where team work in FAM
lilies is most needed, however, and
where the lack of it is most disastrous
is in rearing children. 1t takes both
father and mother, standing shoulder
to shoulder, to do that properly-and
alas, in how few households do you
| find this desirable condition of affairs!
| Some time there is practically no
! father, only man who pays the bills
Father is too much engressed with
business to get acquainted with his
children, or to try to guide them, or
to decide anything about their fates
He leaves that to their mother, and
no matter how fine a woman she is,
she is incapable of filling the bill and
being both mother and father to them
! Children need a mans experience OF
| the world, a mans outlook. man
lfirmness, a mans protection In the
4 DEVELOPMENT of their characte and
in starting them in lfe-otherWlse
God wouldn't have bothered to make
fathers-and If they miss this they
start handicapped, as is proven by the
fact that so many widows children
20 wrong and amount to nothing
/ Sometimes a man tries to do his
duty by his children and is baked Ds
a weak. silly mother who cannot bear
to see her dariings disciplined. Father
tries to curb boys extraya sance
mother scrimps the Housekeeping al
lewance to give him money. Father
tries to protect a foolish girl from
bad man. Mother secretly eonnives al
their meetings because the girls %eeps
Father tries to teach the children
obedience, and respect for authority
and some sense of duty. Mother pltles
them when they are denied anything
Il and connives at their disobedience ano
sides with them against their father
whom she unconseiously teaches them
is a tyrant and a brute.
Il What is the result-the hoodlums
the Maynard sons and daughters, tins
lazy undisciplined, uncontrolled youtf
of the day who bring their parents
heads in sorrow to the grave.
Whenever a father and mother dis
agree as to the wisdom of some par
ticular course with their children
they should do so in private TheA
should present a united front TO th'
Youngsters There should be no ap'
neal from Caesar to another. 1t is
only By this kind of team work tina,
family discipline can be enforced, anc
children successfully reared.