The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-11-14
PARENTS DECIDE.
CHILD ATTITUDE,
SAYS DOROTHY DIX
Claims Offspring Adopt
S Attitude of Fathers
And Mothers.
by DOROTHY DIX.

Exactly as you have taught
them to treat you.
This will seem a hard saying to
those who have undutiful children.
children who neglect them, or are
cruel to them; children who never
speak to them without insulting
them; children who show them no
reverence and honor and respect p
My life has been one long sac
rif1ce to my children ever since
the day the first one was born. 1
have toiled and shaved for them
and never considered myself where
they were concerned. There have
been no bounds to my devotion to
them. and do not deserve that
they should treat me as they do"
wall many unhappy persons.
But in their secret souls these
fathers and mothers know that
they are getting exactly the treat
ment they deserve from their chill
dren and that their punishment is
Just
For the eternal law, that as we
SOW. so must we reap. prevails no
where else so inexorably as in the
rearing Of children. 1t is true that
every babe that Is born comes into
the world a bit OF plastic clay that
the potter can fashion to his hand,
and what the child becomes de-
ponds absolutely on what the pa
rents make II.
1t Is in their power to fashion
IL into something of beauty ana
use or to make of It a thing hid
eous and abominable. There Is no
getting away from that cold. hard
fact.
1t is the parents who themselves
decide what their childTen's atti-
tude shall be toward them. Ev-
cry father decides how his children
shall treat him; whether they shall
regard him as a tyrant they fear.
or a comrade they love: whether
they shall look upon him as a
beast Of burden whose mission II Is
to work himself to death to supply
them with luxuries, or as the
strong arm that protects them and
for whose shelter and comfort they
can never be sufficiently grateful.
Every woman decides how her
children shall treat her; whether
they shall consider her nothing but
a kitchen drudge and a seamstress,
to be despised and walked upon, or
reVered as an angel whom one al
most worships on ones knees.
The man who never chums with
his children, who never speaks to
them except to correct them, who
never really gets acquainted with
them, has no right to expect them
to be confidential with him when
they are grown. or to show him
any affection. The man who Is
never anything but a cash register
TO his children cannot. In Justice.
demand that they think Of him In
any terms but money.
The woman who has never been
anything but a door mat for her
children has no right to expect not
to be trodden upon, and knocked
about. and have her children wipe
their feet upon her, for that Is the
destiny of doormats.
A mother is especially likely to
complain that her children do not
consider her. They take the work
OF her hands without a word Of
thanks. They go on about their
pleasures and leave her alone. 1t
seems never to occur to them that
she would like to have a little
pleasure herself sometimes, and to
be Included in their parties. They
accept all Of her sacrifices without
appreciation CT gratitude.
She Is reaping what she has
sown. Her children are treating
her the way she has taught them
to treat her. You cannot spend
twenty years fostering selishness
IN anyone without getting results.
Mother began cultivating egotism
L AAF- =,
making them the pivot about which
the whole household reVolved. No
body could speak while baby slept
Everybody had to jump when baby
cried. When baby had a tantrum
everything had to give way before
Il. and before baby was six months
thumb.
As baby grew older, mother be-
came more and more just a slave to
its pleasures. Mother went shabby
so baby might wear embroidered
caps. Mother walked that baby might
ride in an imported English per-
amhulator. Mother wore her last
years bird nest that Sally might
have the finest hair ribbons in
school. and Johnny a new bicycle
Mother never had a new dress that
the girls might walk in silk attire
ana the boys belong to college fra
ternities.
Mother never demanded anything.
and she never got anything. She
taught her children to take every
thing, and give nothing. and she
got nothing. She made them MONS
tiers of selfishness. and they cheer
fully sacrificed her to themselves
women let their children talk TO
them as they would not dare to
talk to any other person on earth.
They let their children be imperti-
nent to them, and criticize them,
and deride their Judgment while
they are still in rompers and pima
fores, and they complain that their
children show no respect
Again, Il is their own fault. If,
from the very first, they had ex-
acted Difference from their children:
II from the cradle up they had in
stfIled in their chlldren's minds re-
spect for their authority; II they had
taught them to obey the Biblical in
junction to honor their father and
,their mother, they would not have
10 suffer the modification of hav-
ing their grown children deride
their opinions and treat them with
open contempt.
Parents write their own price tag.
Their children accord them exactly
the measure OF consideration they
demand. They treat their father
and mother just as their father and
mother deserve to be treated.
fcopynEht, 1891. wheeler Syndicate. Incl