The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-05-17

] of looking after the health Ct her
! family on the Lord any more 1t is
up to her to keep them well and look
out for their adenoids, and their ton
sils. and their teeth. HFs
| If children in the past were prob :
lem, their mothers never suspected it.
Bright children and dull ones: nerv-
Gus, temperamental children, and
| rhlegmatic ones. were all brought up
acct riding to the same general rule,
on the optimistic theory that they
would turn out all right when they
were grown, and that raising chill
dren was a matter of luck anyhow.
The modern mother knows that
each child is an individual enigma,
with its own secret locked in its little
| breast, and that she must unriddle
this riddle if she Is to help it to it's
finest development She knows that
the timid child must be encouraged,
and the bold one suppressed; that
| some children can only be controlled
through their affections, and others
by brute force, and that the method
that works with one child is an utter
failure with another. Not the least
of her obligations as a mother is to
psycho-analyze the little toddlers at
| her knee.
| In tn good old days, children were
obedient tC' authority. and look ed up
to their parents as oracles. Mother
picked out the girls clothes, and the
girls wore them without protest be-
cause they thought that mother
knew best Mother said when a girl
could put up her hair and be grown.
Mother invited such young people
as she thought proper to the he use,
and mother knew when and where
her daughters went. and generally
went along with them.
The modern mother has no such
soft snap. Her children are the prod
uct of a lawless age, and they snap
their fingers in derision at the very
idea of parental authority They may
love mother, but they have no idea
of obeying her. or of abating one jot
or little Of their personal liberty.
Therefore. the modern mother must
be a diplomat of the first class in
order to control her children. She
must camouflage her object In order
to induce her flapper daughter to
cover her nakedness with a few more
layers of chiffon. She must learn to
dissemble her, sufferings under the
torture of jazz bands. and to conceal
how shocked she is at many of the
things that the younger generation
do, for only by learning to speak her
children's language can she make
them listen to her at all.
childrens point of view before she
can make them see hers, and it isn't
easy for person who has grown set
in her own opinions to do this aero
batic feat. as 1t involves some grand
and lofty tumbling of IDEAS Never
theless. 1t must be done, for mother
must go the pace with her chill
dren, or else they run away from her
The modern mother cannot rule her
children by brute force. She must
do 1t by secret Influence, by subtle
propaganda. by keeping up with the
times so that they respect her knowl
edge of the world; by being broad
minded. so that they are willing to
abide by her opinions.
1t Is strenuous life. that of the
modern mother. But there are mil
lions of women who are meeting its
every requirement., and rearing mod
ern children to be better men and
women. we hope. than their fathers
and mothrs were.