Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-05-25
DOROTHY DIX'S TALK ON
Parental Vanity
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer
BY DOROTHY DIX
Parental Vanity

Then you hear wild lamentations
about ungrateful and unfllial chill
dren, and children who are dlsap-
pointments to their parents, and par
ents beat upon their breasts and cry
out that their hearts are broken,
while, in reality. it is only their van
ity that is wounded.
Father simply can't stand 1t that
Johnny won't go into the hardware
business when he had planned Tor
Johnny to be a hardware king ever
since Johnny was in pinafores. He
I links Johnny a young idiot and no
account because the boy hasn't inner
Is6d his head for trade, and the fac|
! that Johnny has talents of his OWN
doesn't in the least atone for his
lack of business ability. IF my son
isn't a rubber stamp of me, hes
bound to be all wrong" is the conclu-
sion that parental vanity offers to
| the average man.
| And when you hear a mother sigh
and say that her daughter has been
| such a disappointment to her, nine
| times out of ten all that is the mat
| ter with the girl is that she isn't the
exact counterpart of what mother IS,
| and mothers self-conceit is hurt
Perhaps in her youth, mother was
fluffy ruff1es girl, whose mind was
! cut on the bias and ruftied in the
middle, and whose idea of bliss was
unending parties with pink chiffon
| dresses, and beauX two deep hanging
| around her.
Some freak of fate has made this
canary bird hatch out an owl. Her
daughter cares nothing for looks, or
clothes. She loathes, parties, and ana
cradle by the unanimous vote OF
| every man she ever meets. Her only
interest is in serious things. Her
! happiness in study and work.
An admirable girl. A model char
hoy- POll16 forgive
her every frivolous sin easier, than
she can the girl being different from
herself For to mothers mind there
is but one perfect type Of what a
| be the sort of a girl she was.
And what is all of this cry about
children not taking their parents ad-
vice, except that fathers and moth
er's bump OF concelt mas gotte3n nj
fectly capable of settling their chi,
dren's fate for them. They would
do this by the simple rule OF having
their sons and daughters do as they
did, notwithstanding that they have
made no conspicuous success of life,
and have not been distinguished Tor
the soundness of their own Judg-
| ment.
willing to work for father or go in
to business with him is because
| fathers vanity will not let him &C
cept a suggestion from his own child.
The reasons mothers and daughters
| in-law fight like cats when they Try
to keep house together is because
mother will not agree to any new
methods. She is so supremely an6
| realistically sure her own way OF
doing things is the only intall!ole
| way.
Parents make their vanity a stand
ard ethics. They decide conduct by
their own inch rule personal meas
ure Mother doesn't know what
girls are coming to when they 90
things she never did and wear
clothers she never wore when sue
was a girl. Father is sure all the
bows are headed for perdit1on pc
cause he didn't act as they 90
when he was young.
And mother and father forget III
their self-complacency that they
do not know it all-that to eech
| generation comes a new standaru
| and that, as matter OF TACT thelr
| children do not admire them quite as
| much as thew admire themselves, and
would not be- exactly like them II
"Vanity-of vanities," sayeth the
preacher, all is vanity. And there Is
no vanity so monumental, so com
plete, so all encompasslng, as the
vanity Of the Old.
Dorothy Dix articles will appear
in this paper every Monday, wed
! nesday and Friday.