The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-03-26
WOMAN,S REALM
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 Your ChiMrgn
By Olive Roberts Barton
CHILD MUST LEARN TO INTERRUPT PLAY CHEERFUL

i CHILD MUST LEARN TO
 INTERRUPT PLAY CHEERFULLY With young children, most moth- CTS know now that 1t is well to let them alone when they are busy working out their little ideas.
 There is, of course, long psycho- logicol name for this, called "uninI terrupted impulse" but here we will just call 1t finishing what they've begun.
 This doesn't wash out in child hood, adolescence or maturity, eith- CT. Nothing irritates any of us so much as being called away from something we are engrossed in and want to complete. Our irritation de- bends on the amount of interest and concentration we are putting into the bridge, the knitting or the acc counts, at the moment.
 | But while this finishing" busi- ness must be encouraged in all children, because the habit of com- pleting anything once begun is so 1 very important and leads to all sorts of good habits and industry later, yet there is side to it that puzzles many mothers.
 Johnny Concentrates Johnny is building a sky ship, per- haps, and it is going to take him days to do it. In the meantime, we can't get him to meals without pull ing him by the ear, he won't go to bed and he doesn't want to study his lessons. He is so irritable while he's constructing anything, that his mother hates to see him get out the material. he worst of it is that as soon as he finishes his airplane. he'll be making a bird-house, or inventing a carrier for his bike. Three cheers for Johnny, but he can't go barging through life abso- lutely unconscious of the clock, and the hundred multiple demands of an average day.
 He has other things to do, be- tides carry out the big idea of the moment. So he has to get accus- .omed to Interruptions.
 But won't 1t discourage him, and make him lose interest?" asks his mother T am so afraid he will learn not to finish jobs he has be- gun, if he is being called away all .he time. It is terribly hard to get children to finish tasks. I'm never 50 happy as when the boy holds up some completed object before me, his eeyes shining, and says, What do you think of that, mom?'" To work out the delicate balance between the urge to finish and the demands of life that step in and intefere, we must do some thinking.
 Make Him '"Time- Conscious
 The basis is "time.' If Johnny knows ahead just how many min- utes he may work, and-this is im- portant--can be made to fix his at- tention on the spot of the clock, he will be more willing to take the breathing space, lay aside the glue and brush, and stack away his interest also pro tenn in little pile in the back of his mind.
 This, however, only pertains to routine calls. How about other ul- avoidable interruptions, such as er- rands? These are things that will enrage him most. And this is pre- cisely the hardest thing almost any of us has to learn. To put away cheerfully what we want to do, to take up somethinng of an emer- gency nature.
 A child understands more than we think. A boy or girl can be made to see many things, if we talk to them at time when they are not engrossed or outraged. Explain that everyone must learn tow to> give up mementarily, and then go back and pick up where he left of. We complete by singleness of purpose, but the purpose must permit of un- avoidable interference at times. Copyright, 1887, NEA Service Incl