Evening star., 1935-05-15

ing impression on their over-stimu-
lated minds.
The few hours Of sleep that are
left to them, by the time they get
home, must, Of necessity, be night
mare-ridden and restless. Their nerv-
Gus systems have been thrown out OF
balance by the terrific emotional strain
which they have undergone-for you
must realize that what Is make-believe
to the grown-ups Is ghsstly and awful
Fact to the very young child, ana
thus he lives keenly through the stress
and storm of each situation.
r know that young parents need
l. recreation and amusement. Re-
taxation from business pressure, from
economic worry, and a general ton
ing up" in spirit are all necessary, and
do much to help them through the
daily treadmill. But parents must
make sacrifices for their children, In
small things as we'll as In the large
issues-although, in my opinion, this
particular instance is among the big
ger element.
Grown-up hours and grown-up
emusements are not for children. They
get no good from what they see and
hear, and much that is bad, for they
have not the maturity to separate the
wheat from the chaff, and to dif-
ferentiate between the glitter and the
gold. The harm done to the childs
physical welfare is serious-he Is
robbed of the sleep 80 needed to re-
store to him the terrific amount OF
energy he has burned up during the
day, and his nerves suffer in conse-
ouence. His eyes are overstrained and
his lungs and blood are deprived OF
their proper quota of oxygen, and fed
on fetid air, often filled with smoke,
instead.
X X X X
RUT the damage to his character
L and morals may be even more
devastating in the long run. Nature
puts up a constant fight to restore
hurt tissues-but it takes more than
that to repair warped mental processes.
There are many entertainments ar
ranged especially for children which
are good for them mentally, and do
not nurt them physically, taking place
usually in the morning or early after
noon. However, it doesn't occur to
many mothers to let the child attend
these, because the mother herself has
no interest in the performance. She
refuses to be thus bored-never realiz-
ing that her entertainment prefer
ence bores the child just as much
>~Y~v !, Lnr tn faLa ~ ond 1ika it
In the old days If we were caught
reading dime novels back of the barn
we were well spanked and the books
promptly burned. We were told we
were wicked and we felt wicked. That
was. Of course, partly why we read
them. But the modern child has no
such yardstick-he observes strange
goings-on in the adult world that
he sees others taking as a matter
of course-so naturally he accepts
them at the same value.
LIE BECOMES "hard-beiled" about
- everything, Just because his ell
ders appear so. At so-called athletic
exhibitions of q certain type he learns
that the manly art of self-defense
consists of fouling the other fellow
before he fouls you. Various other
forms Of entertainment place before
him emotions and situations that are
beyond his mentality to grasp-there-
fore he judges them by their face
value and by the reactions Of the
older people around him. The very
terminology of grown-up, modern life
confuses him.
remember once, when my small
son was 4, we sent him to q weekly
"outing class" to learn games and
athletics. The first day he came