Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1886 — Father and Mother. [ARTICLE]

Father and Mother.

Up to the time a child can talk and ■ay funny things she—it is generally particularly so with female children—she is her mother’s pet. Then she is taken possession of by the male parent. A little while after she is bom the newmiide parent likes the novelty of dandling her, but that does not last long. Then for a while she is a nuisance to the father, but when she begins to get “cute” and cunning, when her mother has with infinite care and affection developed her infantile brain, the father steps in and begins to monopolize the credit. It isn’t fair. But the mother always lets him, and contents herself with lavishing affection on her and attending to the details—the uninteresting details—of keeping her clean. Since this column admitted clever children fond parents come to me and tell me of their precocious progeny. It’s an excellent thing, especially in mothers; but I notice that when a lady tells me a story of her baby, she says “our baby,” but when a father talks he always beg ns about “my little girl,” and generally says “I have a little daughter.” I'never met a child yet whose best ideas were not derived from the mother. I have heard of children who had been petted by their fathers, but they generally talked slang, which their fathers thought awfully bright.— San Francisco Chronicle.