Evening star., 1940-04-01
Try Instead of Sulphur Moasses as Sprnq Tonic
Controlling
Egotisnin
Children
Guidance Rather
Than Scolding
May Cure 1t
By DOROTHY DIX.

One of the most delicate and diff
cult problems that confront parents
Is how to save their children from
having inferiority complexes and at
the same time prevent them from
becoming blatant little egotists who
make all with whom they come in
contact think that Herod was a
much misjudged man and that there
is great need for his services in this
modern world.
The mother of one of these toy
hot-air bags writes me of her per-
plexities and asks how she can de-
fate 1t to normal size without en-
tirely collapsing it. She says:
MY husband and I are modest
people who do not think unduly we'll
OF ourselves, so we cannot account
for the fact that we have a son who,
at the tender age of 9, is so filled
with self-conceit that we live in con-
tlnual apprehension of his eXplod-
Ing. He is one of those pestiferous
children who are described as being
fresh He is one of the fools who
walk in where angels fear to tread.
He breaks into the conversations of
his elders and monopolizes it by tell
Ing about what wonderful base
ball player he is.
He sneers at his grandfather's
views as being old fashioned and
only condescends to him when he
wants tip out of him. He wouldn't t
hesitate to tell Lindbergh how to fly
a plane, or to advise Mr.. Ford about
making cars. In a word, he is a
self-complacent little braggart and
bore.
I'VE can't bear to think of him
growing up into being the stuffed
shirt sort of man, filled with his
own Importance, whom everybody
laughs at and fees from. Yet
neither do we want him to be one
of the humble chaps who goes out
into the garden and eats worms for
breakfast So what we want to know
is how to get our little pink balloon
out of the stratosphere to some
where near the earth"
This is hard question to answ0r
because certain amount of self
confidence is necessary to the hap
piness and success of every one, and
IN trying to curb their childrens
vanity parents only too often para
lyze their energies and kill their
ambitions and foredoom them to
failure.
Undoubtedly, parents put out the
fire on many an altar by continually
dousing their children's egotism with
cold water. Many man who might
have been a figure in the world has
lived and died in obscurity because
father and mother belittled his tai
ents and his efforts when he was
child and told him over and over
again how absurd it was for him to
think that he could ever be or do
the things to which he aspired.
Many girl has grown up into
being an awkward, self-conscious
woman instead of beauty because
her mother was always telling her
She was too tall or too short, that her
feet were too big, her hair too
straight, until she got the idea so
fixed in her mind that she was
homely that she looked the part.
Now, the self-conceited are hard
TO stand. No one will deny that. No
other sound on earth CRATES on our
ears like hearing some one blow his
own horn. But somehow those who
ballyhoo their own virtues always
seem to get somebody to listen to
them and believe them and they
have the one perfect joy on earth,
which is being absolutely satisfied
with oneself.
Bliss can 60 no further than this
because if you believe that you are
perfectly beautiful, irresistibly at
tractive, a brilliant wit and uni
versally popular, it is just as good to
you as if you really were.
So. all things considered, parents
should deal warily with their chill
dren's self-esteem and go slow about
killing it. If, however, they feel that
something should be done to modify
Johnny's and Susie's good opin-
ions of themselves. the best method
Is to send them off to school where
youths of their own age will deal
with them according to their folly.