The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-01-04
OuaYYeIing
Parents Do
Youth Harm
BY MARTHA LEE

It's terrible shame when parents
start getting on their children's
nerves until the offspring can not
stand it any longer and have to fly
from the home nest for peace and
rest. And yet that very thing hap
pens too often to be overlooked.
Children do not mind quarreling
and wrangling SO tremendously
They are interested IN getting
through with dinner so they can get
out and play marbles or hop scotch
or get their lessons. In other words
their minds are occupied to the
point of making them oblivious to
these "grown-up" disturbances.
But as soon as they are them
selves approaching the age of grow
ing up, as soon as they become
conscious Of the things that are go
ing on outside of their own little 10
year-old sphere, they are disturbed
and annoyed and often disguised
with dissenSion between their par
ents
The hectic, unreasonable Wrang-
lings that leave their mothers with
red ewes and dropping spirits and
cause their fathers to do the hat
trick and out, are incomprehenSible
to young persons. They are happy
just to be alive. They are intoler-
ant with older folk instinctively,
and when their elders make things
worse by quarreling about things
they can not understand, the situa-
ton becomes more and more diff
cult.
When the tenseness grows too
much to stand, you are sure to find
a flock of children pulling stakes
and striking out for themselves.
Then the parents are apt to begin
talking about how ungrateful their
children have turned out and after
all they have done for them, too.
The following letter discloses
such a situation:
Dear Miss Lee-I am almost ashamed
to write this letter, but I am asking your
advice because it is delicate subject
that I can not discuss with everyone.
My home is in Kentucky. but I am and
have been making my living here for some
time. I have two brothers and sister
at home, who are also working and max
ing out fairly well.
would love to be at home but 1t is
impossible for me to stay because of the
state of constant turmoil that exists there.
My earliest reconections are of my par
ents quarseling about something, any
thing. everything. and they are still at it.
We were we'll educated, but there has
never been any love or charity to each
other in our home. My mother takes the
role of martyr and lets the rest of us
shift for ourselves. When I go home the
constant theme is money, although my
father is not poor man and owns quite
bit of property. When I demonstrate,
my parents accuse me of being stuck
up and in my own opinion too good for
them
I look forward with anticipation to
trip home, always hoping that this time
it will be different. I always return feel-s
ing heartsick and sad. III $50 &
have an offer for a position that will
take me too far away to- return home
very often. Should take it? They were
so horrid about me coming this short
distance that I dare not ask them to let
me change to another and more distant
location. And I do not want to hurt
them. I am 22-years-old.
DISCONTINUED.
In a case like yours, where all the
other children are suffering the
same unhappiness that finally drove
you away from homo, 1 think you
owe it to them and to your sister
and brothers to make them realize
what a grave mistake they are
making.
1t is unnecessary and degrading
to quarrel for years and years as
they have done. Soon they will be
left entirely alone, with only their
two raSping voices to listen to. And
then, if you, or one of your brothers
or sister, do not point it out to them
now, they will always blame you for
not being interested enough to help
them out.
:, A6S