Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-10
80 Fathers and Mothers An
noyed 2,124 Times a Week,
Says Psychologist.
MANY TRAITS OBJECTED
TO HELD BENEFICIAL
Strict Obedience and Suppression
of Noise Frowned on BY Those
Seeking Full Development.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

mothers were annoyed by their chill
dren 2124 times in a single week, it was
shown in an experiment just conducted
by DR.. Mandel Sherman, director of the
Washington Child Research Center.
AL these had small families. More
over, DR.. Sherman says, they were a
highly selected group. all with much
more than the average training in child
psychology and all in comfortable cir
cumStances. These were asked to re-
port all acts of their children which
were unpleasant" to them - from
catching cold to heaving a brick through
the best mirror.
Parents Held to Blame.
Analysis of the reports convinces DR..
Sherman that children are not nui-
Sances just because they are children
with lot of devilishnesS just naturally
in them, but because they have parents
with fixed ideas of their own. An an
noyance, he finds. usually depends as
much on the mental set. problems and
feelings of the parent as on the act of
the child.
Here are a few things fathers and
mothers were annoyed at:
The child cried and its falling tears
made spots on its. best dress.
The child smiled instead of crying
when it was scolded for disobedience.
The child arranged her knife. fork
Looks Annoyed Father.
One father was annoyed every time
he looked at the child because it re-
minded him of worthless relatives on
the mothers side mother reported :
Il was annoyed by the childs snifies
at 9:15, $50, GAS, 1910, IL and 11:30."
Several were annoyed because their
children awoke too early in the morn
ing. One mother was annoyed because
her child said excuse me" too often:
DR.. Sherman does not contend that
his selected parents were a fair cross
section of the general population. Be-
cause of their understanding of children
it was assumed that they would be
annoyed much less frequently than most
parents.
The most frequent cause of annoyance
was diSobedience, followed closely by
noise. Next in order came slowness,
hardness, laZineSS, restleSsnesS, meSsi-
ness, bad habits and Interruptions Now
in order to have disobedience, DR.. Sher-
man contends, there must be orders to
be disobeyed. The child would never
disobey if the parent never ordered it
to do anything. And, he says, "psy-
biologists are trying to interest parents
in not requiring strict obedience of their
children" The parent, he contends, is
likely to become too authoritative, which
develops feelings of inferiority in the
child. There is some reason to believe,
he contends, that most of the dishar-
mony in homes is due to authoritative
adults.
Noise Making Necessary.
AS for noise-if parents insist on be-
ing annoyed by it it's just too bad. For
DR.. Sherman contends that the normal
physical and mental development of a
child necessarily involves a lot of noise
making. 1t might be prevented, but the
choice is between the serenity of the
adult and the good of the child.
1t becomes, he admits, a serious prob
lem in an apartment house, where other
families are disturbed This raises, he
says, a serious question as to whether
life in such a restricted place, where the
child must be kept quiet and made to
grow up quickly is not detrimental to
natural development. 1t is one of the
complexities of the changing social or
der, and folks who must meet the prob
lem deserve the sympathy Of the psy-
chologist.
The child psychologist has much less
sympathy for those who want the child
to make less noise so that 1t will be
"a little gentleman or lady" The plain
fact is, he contends, that children are
one thing and gentlemen or ladies
something altogether different. Such
attitudes" he says, "often make the
psychologist wonder whether the term
natural can be applied to the growth
of the modern child"
Slowness Not Always Bad.
The annoyance at slowness or lazi-
ness, he says, generally is not because
the child actually is slow or lazy in
activities which are important in its
life, but only in activities important to
the parents. Some of the children COM
planned OF most on this score were
known by DR.. Sherman to be very en-
ergetic. One child, for example, in
sisted on dressing itself and naturally
was slow and awkward. The mother
complained because this required so
much time when she could dress the
child much more quickly. But DR..
Sherman believes the benefit to the
child of dressing itself greatly over
weighs the annoyance of the mother.
One of the most frequent of annoy
ances, he found, was when a child
breaks into a conversation between
adults. But, he says, SO far as the
child is concerned it is aware neither
of the Importance of the conversation
nor any reason why it should not ask
question at any time.
Toy Problem Real.
The annoyance caused by children in
terfering with the property of others,
especially the toys of other children, he
says, is real one, and much can be
done to lessen it by the designing of
cooperative toys which can be used by
children of various ages in the same
family or group.
The annoyance data were subjected
to extensive statistical analysis by grad
uate students at George Washington
University here, and generally a time
relation was shown between the peak of
the annoyance reports and the day.
This in itself, Dr. Sherman holds,
shows that the parent is at least as
much responsible for being annoyed as
the child for getting into mischief. The
probability, he explains is not that the
children are more noisy or boisterous
on one day than another, but that
adults feel different on different days.
CITY NEWS IN BRIEF.