The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-12-26
A5p YOUR
 -DREN
By Oiive Roberts Rartoo
,. 5sss5 5Y HT7 seaVscz. 15e

Children are so natural and direct. They do not have the little concealments adults do, or at least not until they are driven to it. What things cause these sub- terfuges bear looking into. Let
 us suppose that little John is the youngest of three children; count ing his parents, that makes five. Mother, like most distracted people, finds a certain relief in
 fault-finding. She has no patience with the baby's behavior.
 He wants som mething. It is the carving knife. She slams it in the drawer and gives him a box on the ears.
 He cries. "Shut up," she or- ders, and he wanders into another room and yells. He keeps it up until she spanks him.
 Half a dozen times day this is repeated; not the carving knife episode, but everything from the gravy on the carpet to hammering on the piano. Hand Is Only Contact
 THhere seems to be no point of contact between them at all but her hand, and that caresscs him only when she is moved by sudden motherly waves when her own nerves are at peace.
 ,, Dad is still less practicable. He comes home at night in one or the other of his many moods. Some times he si jolly. Again he is sic lent and critical. Again he de- lights in bringing Johnny up to the point of expectancy only to disap- poit him. Common among men and very heartless. Occasionally
 he rouses the little boys faith. | Which makes it all the worse be-
 cause 1t makes the next sudden re-
 lapse all the harder to bear. Withdraws From Father Here too. Johnny begins to feel | alone. After a while he retreats
 into himself and the contacts with
 his father cease as far as the boy | is concerned. He doesn't try to talk to him. He never takes a ] toy to be fixed. He doesn't climb up on his knee. He doesn't run to meet him. From then on it is
 merely a matter of orders and
 Sally is sixs, She is a selfish It, tie girl. And besides she has the
 usual six-year-old impatience with her small brother. Her shrill little voice gets exercise by con- tinually whining. Mother, make Johnny stop.' Get out of here" Don't you touch that" No com panionship here. More withdraw al into himself. Lionel, aged ten, is a born tease. He gets his maniliness up by mak- ing fun of his brother. He misses him at times and roughhouses him in various ways. Johnny is downright afraid'of Lionel.
 He learns to conceal his real self, to fib, pretend and find comfort in baby escapes. And of course he finds relief in being very naughty indeed. Condition Is Common
 would not say that this is an average home or family, but were the walls to be rolled back we might find it to be a more common
 composite of affairs than is gen.
 erally thought possible. While 1t is true that 'the baby" is often the pet and more indulged than the other children, it is also true
 that he has more adjustments to
 make toward family temperament
 than the rest and ones he is too
 young to make. Johnny may be | an only child, or he may come
 from 9 larger family, but it goes to show why children lose. their directness. One of the chiet
 causes is loneliness of soul. Slow
 " his state of affairs Is. being
 corrected. But there is still vast
 room for improvement.
 Copyright. 1894, NEA Service, Inc.