Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-04-06
Child's Rights
In the Home
But His Privileges
Are Things That
Really Count
BY ANGELO PATRI.

whenever young person writes
in to ask if he has not the right to
do this and that. feel like remind
ing him that he has no rights in the
family circle. but many privileges.
Rights are something that SAVIOR of
the law and l dislike the thought of
law as a deciding factor in any fam
lily situation. All children, and all
parents, too. have a right to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
but anything beyond that comes, to
my way of thinking, under the head
of privileges.
For example, a young man, in
his senior year in college. asks if
he hasn't the right to fixed al
lowance and the right to spend
it as he pleases. His father sup
plies him with an allowance, but
he insists that none of it be used
for certain pleasures the young
man thinks his right, and threatens
to reduce the allowance if any of
it is used for those ends. Son asks
if he has no rights here.
l vote that he has none. His
father has dealt with him in the
spirit of fatherly kindness. He reared
him from infancy, gave him good
home, sheltered, clothed, fed and
protected him, with the aid and
comfort of his wife. the boys mother.
He sent him to college, paid his bills
there, and supplied him with funds
for ordinary expenses. Now the boy
thinks that he ought to be free to
use the money his father supplies
him for ordinary expenses for
extraordinary pleasures that his
father believes hurtful to him. The
boy does not seem to me to be
exercising the good sense expected
from young man in his privileged
position.
I know that there are young men
and women who take the attitude
that is expressed by the absurd
statement, Il didn't ask to be born
so I have the right to be supported
I don't owe my parents anything"
If by owing parents anything this
mistaken young person means
money, I agree. Parents don't feel
| that their children owe them the
money they spent in rearing them.
What parents want of their children
is far different thing. 1t is the
expression of affection that they
hoped would spring from their af-
fectionate care and devotion to
their children in the years of their
growing. That is something every
child owes his parents, and his ex-
preston of that feeling is his great
privilege He can forget the rights
as his parents forgot their rights
during the long years Of their serv-
ice to him.
Young people who exercise their
privilege of showing their affection
to their parents get more fun out
Of it than even their parents do. I
have seen the great content that
shone in a young mans face when
he wrote check for his father and
mother at the beginning of each
month. AS his salary rose their
check increased. That gave him
more pleasure even than his success
It made his success.
ut gives me the greatest pleasure
to think of mother and father
getting that little bit of extra money
every month. I remember that dad
wore his old overcoat year in year
out while got new one for schoo,
and college. And how mother made
the old one do again and again 81
that might have something extra
Now it just warns my heart to think
of their pleasure at my little re-
membrance of them. Many time
when I was tired enough to give ur
struggling for the higher place the
thought of their devotion to me
kept me going"
Rights don't matter, boy. Count
the privileges.