Milford chronicle., 1937-10-01
THE BEST PLAYROOM
By JosephIne Phillips

How I wish could afford to fur
nish playroom for Elsie like little
Anne .Blackmer's." Mrs. Adams
voice was as near complaining as
Mrs. Mann had ever heard 1t. Have
you seen the cunning chairs and
table and the tiny cupboards and low
book-shelves? = everything perfect
and to scale. Don't you envy people
who have money!"
"Oh, my, yes!" laughed her neigh
Dor. But not because they can fur
nish fine playrooms for their chill
dren.v
"Sour grapes!" chided Mrs. Adams.
mo, seriously. While these COM
plete outfits of little chairs and things
are delightful, they are often over
done. and think they're of doubtful
value"
But why?"
"They don't leave a child enough
to aspire to. They don't help him to
grow. II his books and toys and
everything he wants can be found on
low shelf, he may never learn to
hunt around for something to stand
on, and his reaching and climbing
muscles won't get any exercise. To
a certain extent l suppose it is nice
for a youngster to have and use his
own property, his own size, even up
to having a whole roomful OF 1t, but
personally l feel there is consider
able of social training and education
al opportunity in our big best living
room chair that Bobby has learned to
scramble out of and offer to Grand
pa the moment he comes home from
work
after all. one doesn't want to iso-
late a child or children off to one
side as though they were chickens.
It's quite well and proper to have Sc
cluded chicken-accommodations, fur
nished complete with chicken furni-
rinking-fountains and mash
boxes that are just the right size and
shape. But chickens aren't like chill
dren. They haven't the imaginatiOns
and aspirations that children have.
nor do they have, probably, a future
of delicate social adjustments ahead
OF them.
"Chicken-houses for chickens, then.
while for children-to my mind
there's nothing quite like good old
fashioner big kitchen to be brought |
up in. Lacking that, an equally old
fashioned sitting-room will do. Here |
are workshop. castle, lions den; |
cooky-jars or desk-papers that must |
not be touched; top shelves that re-
quire effort to attain. Here the best |
sort of parent-child and brother
sister relationships can be fostered, /
can run riot, creative
energies can be developed and direct
ed. 1t is place that somewhat ap-
proximates, in its joyous confusion,
the world in which the child will
soon be expected to take his place as
a law-abiding citizen.
There might be one or two little
chairs and workable, perhaps, but
to have everything scaled down to
III the exact physical and mental age
Of child-well. it just isn't Natures
way. Take your Elsie's music. She
plays only five-finger exercises so
ar. Do you let her listen to fine
over the radio"'
"Of coursei And she loves them"
Certainly, she does. And we all
owe tall green trees and high noun
ain tops and blue sky. What If God
lways had given the human race.
o use and enjoy. only those things
or which it was truly fitted? Why,
Ee'd all still be sitting around play
ng in sendpiles!"
"And it wouldn't necessarily be the
nest soft white ocean sand, either"
greed Mrs. Adams, as she saw the
oint. Really, you have made ME {
ute reconciled. But IL is not that :
m satisfied to get along without a
eparate playroom for Elsie, and l
till would like the small furniture =
,r her,-I think I'll fix up her bed
pom as well as can-but you have i
me of some of the dangers. :
, the child. of being too rich. Chill
rem do need their own room, think, :
ut they should not be isolated. There :
lould be much time when they min
e freely with the other members :
the family" :