Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1885 — PARENTS AND CHILDREN. [ARTICLE]

PARENTS AND CHILDREN.

Rough ’Handling of Children. The causes of jojnt diseases in childhood are frequently obscure, but this much is dertain, that the rough hand ling which children receive at the hands of ignorant parents or careless nurses, has much to do with the matter. ; Stand on any street corner and notice how children are handled. Here comes a lady with a three-year-old girl; she is walking twice as fast as she should, and the child is over-exerting itself to keep pace; every time the child lags the mother gives it a sudden and unexpected lurch, which is enough to throw its shoulder out, to say nothing of bruising the delicate structures of the joints; a gutter is reached; instead of giving the little toddler time to get over in its own way, or properly lifting it, the mother raises it from the ground with one hand, its whole weight depending from one upper extremity, and with a swing which twists the child’s body as far around as the joints will permit, it is landed, after a course of four or five feet throug the air, on the other side. • Here is a girl 12 years old with a baby of a year in her arms. The babe sits on the girl’s arm without support to its back. This would be a hard enough position to mantain were the girl standing still, but she is walking rapidly, and the little one has to gather the entire strength of its muscular system to adapt itself to its changing bases of support, to say nothing of adjusting its little body to sudden leaps and 5 darts on the part of its wayward nurse. Sometimes, during a sudden advance, yuu will see a part of the babe a foot in advance of its head and trunk, which have to be brought up by a powerful and sudden action of the muscles of the trunk and neck. Probably not one child in a hundred is properly handled.— Cincinnati Lancet and Critic.

Training of Children. Whatever may be the disposition of a man to severity, yet the fond endearments, wheedlings, and caresses of his children, whom he considers as part of himself, will ever prevent him from acting the part of a tyrant, unless he has a soul callous to all feeling, and deaf to all the calls of humanity. I believe it will be found upon inquiry that one-half of the errors which children commit, and our daughters in particular, owe their existence to the folly and ambition of their parents, who, under the ambitious idea that their children should dress as well as their neighbors’, feather them up in all the empty parade of of fashion, and thereby sow in their little hearts those seeds of pride, which spring up all the rest of their lives and effectually check all the benificent shoots of reason. To know how properly to deny or comply with the requests of a child seems to be one the nicest and most essential points of a parent; to deny him what is necessary and suitable to his own constitution and circumstances is cruel and unjust; to grant him more is madness and folly. But here will arise the question, Who is to be the judge of what is necessary, the parent or the child ? I fear the child too often determines that point, and the parent gives up what he should invariably support and own opinion. When once, through our weakness and affection for our children, we thus suffer them to triumph over us, we then take a lasting farewell of all order and subordination, and we must not complain should they then oppose us in every step we take, despite our authority, look upon us with indifferene and contempt, and at last accuse us of being silly dotards and the authors of their ruin. lam aware that this kind of doctrine will draw a frown on many a pretty face, but as I write not to flatter the folly of any one, nor to insult the empire of beauty, I shall address a few words to the little

female panting hearts. Remember, my little ones, that there is nothing truly valuable in this life but virtue, and that thie parade and glare of dress is more its enemy than its friend. Though modesty peculiar and graceful to your sex will not permit you to own, yet certainly true it is that your fondness for dress owes its origin to the wish of procuring yourselves rich and opulent husbands. Your gaudy dress may, indeed, entrap the fool or the coxcomb; but what girl of sense would wish to make a husband of either? The sensible man will not be directed in the choice of a wife by her lawns, her silks, or her satins, but by the internal perfections of her mind. He will consider how far she is capable of giving up the gayities and pleasures of life to the painful task of managing her family. He will consider that as she will partake with him of all his pleasures and comforts, so she must be of a mind that will soothe amidst the cares, troubles, and disappointments of this life, and think no home like her own, nor no man like her husdand. Happy must be such a union, equally miserable the reverse. My little daughters of Eve, however morose or antiquated you may consider these reflections at present, be assured the day will come when you will sensibly feel the truth of them, when you will with a sigh acknowledge how true was that long since told by “A Tender Parent”— Detroit Free Press. ______ ■