The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-03-28
BOyPrObIem
Is PuSS ling
for Mothers
BY MARTHA LEE

1IeI6 Is d ISIlQSliCy diilOI45 SOu14S
girls to put too much stress on the
boy problem. That is not new
problem. But then neither are any
troubles that wiring the human
heart. The only thing that makes
them different is the individual the
age he lives lin, and his environ
ment.
Leaving all the past, which older
people do so love to drag forth
for comparison, to one side and get
ting right down to business, the fact
does remain that young girls of to-
day are entirely TOO interested in
boys, that too much of their hap
ipiness fairly pivots upon the atten-
ton they receive, that they are be-
ginning at too early an age to fill
their spare moments with boy
thoughts.
When girls are IA or so, they
are at very different age, not
only for their parents but for them
selves. They have passed the age
where they may more than furtively
look in upon the boy and girl friend
ships of their older brothers and
sisters.
Different With Boys
With boys the question is, as a
general rule, little more easily
solved. They have athletics and
clubs and adj sorts of activity to fill
the time between adolescence and
manhood. AS a general rule, boys
of that age consider girls frightful
bores, creatures who must be toll
Grated, but who should also be
avoided as much as possible.
Older boys will not pay attention
to these youngsters, and the boys
their own age do not care to, and
there they are. They have, natur-
ally enough, turned to boys to fill in
their time, only to find they are
not the least bit interested. And
there is where a parent should step
up with some bright ideas.
Dear Miss Iee-I have daughter nearly
IS years old, who is worrying me to dis
traction. She is quite attractive, clever in
| school, but as restless as Gagged bird. We
! have no other children, and suppose that
| is one of the reasons.
! She has the boy complex violently. When
| she goes to school in the morning I am
quite sure she dresses for the benefit OF
her classmates. She comes home at night,
| Tolls around awhile and then wants to go
out again to walk, until dinner time.
| She does very little studying at home.
In the evening she is so restless she can
not sit still. try to get her to bring her
books home In the evening, but she comes
back with the retort that she gets good
grades anyway, so why should she study
any more.
| She is so unhappy. She thinks that no
| one likes her, that she is unattractive,
and that she never will be popular. !
scarcely know what to do about her.
A MOTHER.
Get her interested in some sport,
music, drawing, painting; or, since
she is bright enough to keep up in
her school work without the extra
study, let her take private lessons in
some course in which she is particu-
| larly interested. -.-...
Has Too Much Leisure
Her trouble is that she has too
much leisure on her hands. This
may be bit old-fashioned, but it is
always good. Why not teach her
how to keep house, how to cook and
bake, how to sew and darn?
She is too young to have delved
into her chances of popularity. 1t
should be easy to talk her out of
that worry.
| If she has a sense of humor, joke
her out of that idea she has about
her popularity, and especially the
Importance she places upon the
question of boys in her life Empha-
size the necessity of her making
herself sufficient to her own
happiness.
And last, but not least, help her
cultivate a taste for good literature.
Books can make more dragging
hours delight, and profitable one,
than all the companions in the
world, at her age. She just needs a
little sympathetic help right now
and she will come along all right.