The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-05-15
.RARENTS-
Your Children
By Olive Roberts Barton

Have you Q "bad boy" in your house? If so, perhaps you are won- dering what to do about him. He does not react favorably to dis cipline, you say, and seems to have been born with an immoral sense of right and wrong.
 No one needs so much conSidera- ton or thought as this bad" boy. Hundreds of volumes have been written about him. Reformatoriesl are filled with his prototypes anal fortunes are spent on retaining him to society. Yet, out of it all, emerges this fact, that almost mol children are born without natural inhibitions against deliberate wrongl immoral, we call it-and wiserl handling in childhood. could have| prevented tragedy.
 Naturally, our thoughts fly to| the sluns, and to those reared inl an atmosphere of unfortunate| home life. But our bad boys veryI frequently come from seemingly normal homes with all the usual ad-l vantages.
 Flies Get in Best Ointment
 This is difficult to- understand,I but the truth remains that al bad boy Gone, I mean, who is bel yond the average heritage of pranks) is not always hungry or half-dressed, but may easily bel the product of a refined and cul-2 tured home.
 Children are born with certainH tendencies. They may be a pat-' tern entirely different from their parents, or brothers or sisters. I. am not speaking here of inherited. vices, because I feel that most traitsf of the sort are developed in the per- son himself, but rather that certain5 dispositions do not fit happily into the regular family or social chen nels.
 There are many children who cannot conform to the things in life that other people accept quate con- tentedly. To go by schedule, to know each day what the next is to be like, and to do the same jobs over and over again become agony to them.
 The buccaneer spirit is strong and they live life in reverse. They prefer to breathe the charged ain of hazard, rather than the tame at mosphere of the conventional They are not submitters, in other words, and to try to make them sub init is only adding fuel to the flame
 He Needs Your Help
 If by any chance there is such free spirited boy in your family that the world calls bad" you may be able to control his destiny to certain degree, but never will you or anyone else really possess him. He needs to have an active lift with certain independent libertieI of his own. He will have to havl room. Within reason he must bl allowed to carry out his ideas and to experiment. The big thing to keep him in sympathetic toucl with his home, and to keep alive hi faith in his people. Very tactfully his tastes may be influenced, bu he must feel that he is dictating hi own policy. A large job for any par ent, or teacher, I'll admit. He WI be ruled by his heart, when he ruled at all.
 If he is bully, to camoufage ir feriority, then he is another typ We know what we have here an can put finger on remedies. Or he is secretly resenting condition around him, we can usually help wit this, too. But this other free spiI is different. He answers to no pal tern. He is himself.
 Study him, do what you can, al pray. He is headstrong, but usually vicious. He will always ne you. Stay his friend.
 Copyright, 1887, NEA Service, Tn