The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-03-16
YOUR :. CHILDREN
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think we put our tongues in our cheeks, we parents, when we say to our children. Come to me with everything. You know you'll never have better friends than your mother and father. Tell us your troubles and let us help you out" I've decided that most of it fs rhetoric, for the truth Is that par- ents don't want to hear about the troubles and temptations of their almost-adult children, and less still If their offspring arc grown and face the natural problems of all human beings.
 One day a daughter said to her mother. Mother, was afraid to tell you, but year ago Don and were secretly married.'
 Before she had time to explain that they did 1t because Don was about to leave on an engineering job iE Mexico, that her mother was in Europe at the time, and there just didn't seem to be any other way out, her mother screamed, rushed into her rom and slammed the door. "I'll never forgive you, I'll never forgive you" she shouted violently.
 The father was perfectly sweet. He congratulated the young couple and
 
 bit of shock, but she'll come around"
 But she didn't come around. She Eas carried her air of injury for two years. There is q wall that cannot be torn down because the girl has learned to know her mother. She probably sensed all along that there would be scene, and worse, if she told as soon as her mother came home. So she put 1t off, and the final denouement was all she ex- pected.
 ''Parcnt Perfect" is Yet to Come
 There were plans, you see, for q big wedding. The mother had 8 and of course everything would have been nice and regular ana all that. People considered the young couple foolish, thoughtlcss, ungrateful. and too impatient for good taste.
 Well, we know n lot about young people now and all we're doing is hiding our heads in the sand, with drawing them only long enough to call them names.
 But this is the point I'm trying to make. If we really mean what we say about our children and their problems we'll try to be help, not nIHuTuHce or a Jury. when the time comes that they will not be afraid to open up their inmost hearts. and make their parents q confessional of their real thoughts. desires, temptations--andl let us add ---misdeeds. I think the millennium will be here and we will have the parent perfect"
 The truth is that nearly all par ents are q real terror to their chil- dren. Not because they represent law so much as because they are in- tolerant and expect too much. We've all heard young people say, "Oh. mothcr'd kill me- with n touch of q shudder. They don't dare to put the problem up to their par ents first. with an assurance that they'd be dealt with understandingly and kindly. They just don't try.
 Look at all I've done for Edna!" ia just so much blah, if Edna can't go to her mother and pour out her unhappy heart. Or Harry or Jim either, to their father.
 lay almost the whole stupid business of wild" children to the set conventionality of parents who won't see light. try to help con- sistently and forgive. Yes, they'll have to forgive much and often. The time we need, friends is in youth and 1t is usually when they are deserted. We parents are an cmotionally sel- fish lot. Let's learn.