Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-03-08
EAR DOROTHY DIX am

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the mother Of = daughter
nearly Is years old, who In
- q At of temper was brazen
enough to say that because I refused
to allow her to have boy friends until
she Is at least 10 that If she is an old
maid it will be my fault She also
told me that because I will not allow
her to attend parties and dances that
I am spelling her youth. and that I
am old-fashioned because will not
let her use makeup and wear some
Of the silly clothes that are now on the
market She says that just as soon
Is she is Is, which will be in q few
weeks, that she is going out and do all
of these things. all Of which consider
low and degrading. What Is your
remedy for q girl who is 50 worldly?
ELLEN'S MOTHER.
Answer: Well, your daughter lives in
the world, doesn't she? And how are
you going to keep her apart from 1t
and prevent her from following its
manners and customs and doing the
things that other people do? You can't
lock a girl up in solitary confinement
until she is grown in order to keep her
uncontaminated. If you did, you
would do her the gratest harm you
possibly could, for she would be totally
untitled to meet the problems of mod
ern life. And you can't alter them to
suit your notions.
The best protection that any mother
can give her daughter is to make her
wise to all the temptations from within
and without that confront a girl, and
teach her how to avoid them. The pits
We fall into oftenest are the hidden
ones, not those about which red Ian
terms have been erected.
think that in the contention which
has arisen between you and your
daughter that you are altogether in
the wrong; that Ellen asks no privi-
leges that are unreasonable and to
which she is not entitled. When she
claims that a girl of 10. or even II
for that matter. Is old enough to have
dates, she speaks no more than the
truth. Times have changed since you
were young. Everything has been
speeded up. Even human nature. A
girl of 18 now is just mature and far
more sophisticated, worldly wise and
capable OF taking care of herself than
you and were when we were Is.
+
"A LSO, she Is right in saying that if
girl is not permitted to 20
around when she is young her chances
of marriage are jeopardized, and
nothing but Lady Luck can save her
from drifting into spinsterhood. There
are several reasons for this. One Is
that it automatically isolates her. 1t
takes her out Of the class of boys and
girls who play around together and
who general find their mates in the
group. And when her mother finally
decides that she is old enough to step
out little 1t is too late. Her crowd
has married and settled down and the
new group of youngsters won't have
her. They regard her as an old maid
Another reason Is that unless a
girl goes with boys while she is in her
teens she never learns the technique
Of how to handle them. She is either
too shy or too eager, and both are
fatal. Every mother should, Of course.
her daughters amusements
and see that they are clean and
wholesome, but to deprive a girl Of IS
from going to parties and dances Is
nothing short Of sheer inhuman
cruelty. It is such q short time that
our feet ache to dance, that we get
q thrill out Of . new ball gown that
not all the money in the world could
buy us later on, and when every cal
low youth looks a fairy prince, that
it is pity not to let our Ellens and
our Sallys and our Sadies have their
hour of Joy unconfined when there is
no carking care to spoil it, as there Is
in every pleasure later on.
As for makeup, what's the harm
of little paint and powder and lip
stick? So many things are q matter
Of custom instead Of principle. The
painted woman used to be q hussy.
Now she is everybody's mother, sister
or wife, and rouge is no more immoral