Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1898 — Mental Growth of Children. [ARTICLE]

Mental Growth of Children.

Very often we read of cases where parents are deceived In the character of their children. The truth is, they grow up much faster than parents are aware. While a mother Innocently believes her little girl’s mind Is entirely occupied with her dolls and her pets, in reality the child is weaving romances In which some callow youth Is the central figure, and herself the heroine. She may fancy her boy Is entirely engrossed with his marbles and his balls, but the lad himself has already determined his future career of renown in the pirate’s or highwayman’s fascinating profession. It is a terrible revelation when a surreptitious flirtation with the telegraph messenger, or a midnight escapade, shows too plainly where the heart of the child is placed. We know a case in which a boy of 15 was charged with a crime, and finally confessed himself guilty. The surprise and agony of his mother were heartrending. “It cannot be,” was her cry, “he is a little boy. Why, he is my baby. Every night he puts his arms around my neck and kisses me. It is not possible.”

Had the boy actually been a babe in the cradle the mother would have been no more astonished. It Is a fiction pleasing to the parents’ hearts that their children are but children, too young to know or dream of any evil more heinous than childish peccadilloes. But it is a fiction fraught with grave perils. Every mother ought to know if her boy smokes. Yet we can point to a half-dozen boys who puff along the streets, whose mothers firmly believe them to be angels of light and would be Indignantly Incredulous if told the facts.