Evening star., 1936-01-23
Coping With.
Bad Habits
Of Y ou n g
Annoying and Irritat-
ing Ways Should Be
Promptly Corrected.
BY ANGELO PATRI.

GONE children have very irritating
~ ways. The family puts up with
them until in a moment of fatigue
they lose patience. Then there is a
major disturbance. It would be better
to try to check those irritating habits
as soon as they appear, and failing
that, deal with them calmly before one
reaches the breaking point.
Take for instance the child, who. as
soon as he is seated at table begins
to drum with his fingers and whistle
through his teeth. Nobody can stand
that for any length of time. The very
first time he forgets himself, look at
him as calmly as you can and send
him on an errand. The first errand
should be short and easy. That will
change his thinking and give the
family time to recover its good nature.
The next time he forgets, make the
errand bit more elaborate. so he has
to take more time and exert him.
self more. That will cost him some
of his dinner time. His food will
not be as good as it would have
been had he been at the table. A
few hints like this will soon make a
glance at his hands sufficient, should
he forget. But don't let him go on
until you feel like throwing plate
at him.
The child who interrupts is a great
nuisance, a great destroyer of har-
mony. Wait until he finishes. and
then 60 on with the conversation. II
he forgets again, wait again. Keep
on doing this, waiting for him to fin
ish and then ignoring his speech. until
he gets the idea. It won't take long,
especially if you reinforce the lesson
with private conference. Don't let
him continue until he makes an ex-
hibition of himself in the presence of
guests and you lose your temper and
chase him out Of the room. He needs
instruction day by day.
Children have all sorts of ways Of
irritating grown-ups. Sometimes they
are harmless enough and grown-ups
have no right to be irritated, as when
child likes to listen to a silly pro-
gram on the radio. It is not silly
to the child. He likes it.
But there are things that children
do that justly provoke the grown-up's
protests. There is the child who
knows he is to go on a trip, gets all
ready and when he is just about to
step into the car on schedule time re-
members he has not gone to the bath
room. He had plenty of time and
he knew he had to go. There is the
child who is always late; the one who
is forever looking for his hat or his
books at school time; the one who
loses everything; the one who knows
all about everybody's business except
his own; the one who ruins his
clothes.
Well, there are grown-ups just like
them. These children did not invent
ways to bother other people. They
found them ready-made. The thing
to do is to keep as calm about it as
possible and keep on teaching them
to do the right thing. Some day there
comes an opportunity to give the na-
bitual annoyer q sharp lesson through
It would be good for the late one
to be left at home. It would be good
for the untidy one to lose q cherished
belonging. This treatment is not al
ways possible, but the time comes
when things are set right for q help
full experience. Don't interfere with
that experience. Let the annoyer have
It. He continues to be annoying be-
cause he is saved always from his own
folly. When there is q good chance
to educate him by experience, take it.
(Copyright. 1850