Evening star., 1943-04-23
Give Your Child
Good Chance
To Grow
By Aneelo Patri

AL QcCSl1t ldtI1eIS anu TlOGllcTS
want to do everything possible to
help their children become fine men
and women. They want them to be
successful, therefore happy, but in
their eagerness to do their duty, they
become overanxious and overdo
things.
A young man who expects to be
q father within the next five months
wants list of books that will help
him to train this child for the first
1s years of his life. The baby has
not come to this world yet, and he
might be girl. And maybe he
might not be in the books at all,
being an odd child and the books
written about the usual child.
A mother has a baby Z months old
and she wants information about
training her for the radio. This
child may not be the kind of girl
who talks we'll on the radio, or
sings we'll. She may be a chemist
or a cook. You never can tell. Why
not wait and give the child q chance
to speak for herself?
A good mother has a girl of 16.
She goes everywhere with her, to
school, to parties, to the movies.
I'VE are such chums," she says.
The girl never gets chance to
choose her friends. to go out on
her own responsibility, to use her
own power in any way. No boys
call her on the telephone, no boy
walks home, carrying her books from
school, no boys drop notes in her
briefcase in the locker room, no
girl friend shares secrets. II don't
want her to mix with boys yet. She
Is so young" Why not let the girl
grow up normally along with the
boys and girls of her age? This is
her growing time, the only one she
will ever have, and she is being
cheated out of the joy of her girl
hood by an overanxious mother.
There are fathers, too, like that.
Don't let me see that young rap
bcalhon about this house again.
Now you hear me? I won't have
any boys hanging round this house. y"
Know that kind? And the one
who says, Il want you in this house
every night by dinner time. You'll
60 to no night entertainments.
You'll 60 to bed early and get your
sleep" They are good men. They
provide we'll for their families. They
give their children the best of food
and clothes and education. They
want the best things in life for
them. but in their anxiety to secure
them, they destroy much of their
Joy in living.
Why not give the children a
.chance7 Why not give life its
chance? When children are healthy
when they have been carefully
reared. and not closely guarded as
prisoners undergoing life sentences,
they manage to ride out life's storms
and strengthen themselves in the
process.
Each child Is new experiment of
nature. Nothing like him has ever
been on earth before. Wait and
see what is in him and do all that
Is possible to develop his gifts and
weaken his bad points. All the
anxiety human heart can suffer
will not add one iota Of power to
q child. Give him affection, teach
him to trust in your experience and
knowledge, lead him, but respect
his individuality. Let him be him
self at his best, in whatever field
that places him in, and you will do
your full duty by him and you will
at the same time, have done your
best to bring out his best.
A chtld's development may well
depend on how well he gets along
with his playmates. Angelo Patri
! discusses "Yopr Child and Other
People" In booklet No. s04, In
which he urges parents to help
/ their children to adjust them-
selves happily to problems in
volved In meeting others, ut home
and ut school. To obtain 1t, send
10 cents and . Scent stamp to
him In care Of The Washington
Star.