Evening star., 1941-08-09

Dear Dorothy Dix: Will you please
publish a code of rules or suggestions
regarding the position and duties of
a father in disciplining and handling
his children? In my family no mat
ter what I do is wrong from my
wife's standpoint. II I try to get
our two boys, 4 and years old, to
behave, I am interfering. II I do
not say anything when they are un-
ruly, 1 am not doing by duty. II I
punish them, I am a brute. II I
let them get away with murder, I
am Sinking my duty and laying all
of the responsibility on her, Will
you please help a well-meaning IA
ther do what he should A. S.
Answer-Page Solomon! Perhaps
he could have suggested some way
by which a father earnestly de-
sirous Of rearing his children in the
fear and admonition Of the Lord,
could circumvent the Vaccinations
of a mother bent on running them,
but it would take Almighty wisdom
to do it. Mere human intelligence
throws up its hands before the prob
lem and quits. Many men write to
me that 1t is not because they are
so absorbed in money-making. as is
popularity supposed, that they are
mere fgureheads in their own fam
lilies and take so little part in the
rearing of their children that the
Youngsters scarcely know them by
sight.
They say that it is the disap-
pointment of their lives that they
have never been allowed to even
get acquainted with the children and
that the boys and girls are growing
up feeling no affection for papa. On
the contrary, regarding him rs an
ogre who delights in Furnishing little
folks and whom mamma has to per-
suade into giving them bicycles and
bats and so on.
And. say these fathers, rather
than bring their children up in =
house Of strife they simply step out
Of the picture and leave the chill
dren to their mothers.
That these men speak the bitter
truth no one can doubt. because
every one of us knows dozens OF
these monopolistic mothers who are
deliberately pushing fathers out Of
their children's lives and who from
their children's babyhood up teach
them to regard their father as moth
ing but q cash register that mother
has to punch for their benefit and
who make their children fear and
hate their father by always threat
ening to tell father when they do
something bad.
And we know plenty of other
mothers who resent their husbands
efforts to control the children, and
who not only nullify it, but teach
them to be liars and sneaks by aid
ing and abetting them in doing the
things father has forbidden.
I do not know what any man
facing this problem can do to solve
1t except by sending his children
away to school as soon as they are
old enough. He will virtually have
to do that over his wifes dead body,
but he should have strength enough
to make at least that much fight for
his youngsters. I have seen many a
spoiled brat turned into fine boy
or girl by schools that undid much
of the harm that their mothers had
done them.
Rearing children is q job that
requires the united efforts of q
father and q mother. Neither one
can do it properly alone. There is
no crime that any women can COM
NIT greater than taking away from
a father the rights and privileges
of his fatherhood and to deny to
her children the blessing Of having
the guidance of wise and loving
father.
Dear Dorothy Dix: Speaking for
myself and many other soldiers in
the camp in which I am now serv-