Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-02-24
The Control of the Child

A correspondent asks me when 1
think the father of the child is at
liberty to thrash the little tot that
is able to talk perhaps and displeases
his father, and the latter takes con-
| troll etc. There was nothing per-
sonal, for there was no personal
complaint just the bare question.
I can remember when I was small
child, and the condition was probably
reversed in my case, and l can go
back to the raising of my own little
ones, and nearly all of them are now
safe in Heaven, God be praisedi
Generally there is an implied agree
ment where there is a good deal Of
parental bluff used by both father
and mother, and both love the lit
tie one too well to be cruel in their
discipline and they should certainly
| be kind. Let me begin away back
at the beginning and start right.
| That little one comes here without
| its own consent, as we all under
| stand. There was no bargain
| favoring it's own side. 1t had no
! choice of a home to "be born into"
That is a self-evident proposition so
there is no disputing the fact that
parents owe great deal Of kindness
| and affection to the child that was
compelled to come here and put UP
with what the authors of its being
provided as it's welcome, as an i'm
mortal creation, a never-dying soul,
that will be good If it has a living
chance, but takes the risk in going
the wrong road, maybe nine times
out of ten. The Bible says Train
UP a child in the way it should go,
and when it is old it will not depart
from it." Will the parental training
show itself to be the way that the
child should really CO. or is the little
one to be unhappily unframed be-
cause those who are doing the train
ing are not competent for their part
of it?. When i hear of any sensible
person beating their own little child
Ito make it mind 1 am in doubt as
! to whether the parent has had any
personal training worth the mention.
4 I understand that there is no
greater problem in this world than
the proper training Of child whose
| future is made or marred by the
| home-makers, where it has got to
! live until it will run away from it,
or whetherit will adorn the family
| circles. I am obliged to say that it
needs all the patience a parent can
possess, all the affection their hearts
can hold, and all the instruction they
can obtain from good literature and
good associates, to properly train
child in the way it should go, so they
will not depart from it.
Among the multitudinous letters
that have come to me lately, there
! have been some that were written
in jail and penitentiaries by pris-
oners, What they wrote is obliged
| to arrest attention. What these pris-
oners suffer is enough to make the
law makers humane, if they have
any hearts in their own bodies.
| Yet any one of them has had at
| least father as we'll as a mother
good, bad or Indifferent. Human ma
ture is largely the same wherever
| found-in the palace, in the howell
been the molding of habits, and the
foundation or loss Of character.
Just one more word: the parents
of a child should be considerate.
They should be united in purpose to
w CIlS C1lIlu SOON dIlSl IlOI ONAA1 am
they should feel it a privilege to ask
the help of Almighty Power to dis
cipline their children with loving
kindness and tender mercy, and one
cannot succeed unless there is CO.
operation and mutual consideration
in training the child with gratitude
for the privilege of being true heart
ed and full of love for their own off
spring.