TEACH RELIANCE!

NZ Truth, Issue 1211, 14 February 1929, Page 16

TEACH RELIANCE!

Risks Mothers Try To Avoid, -and Don't

Fond mothers m their natura children are apt sometimes to all get the better of them to the det THERE is such a thing as repressing 1 a child by too much misdirected affection, which could better be described as "mollycoddling." Fond mothers, anxious that . their children shall not be exposed to unnecessary risks and dangers, take all sorts of precautions against the risk of chills and other ailments, real or imaginary, which they fear. And this is just as it should be, when the intentions are based on commonsense ideas. But there are many fond mothers who carry things to ridiculous extremes, and m so doing defeat the very object they have m view. It does no harm for a child to have as much fresh air as it can possibly <r<*t. hut the type of mother who has a horror of a current, of air through the child's bedroom — which she wrongfully describes as a draught — is not infrequently met with. The result is that the baby or young child is, out of- mistaken motives, forced to sleep m a room from which fresh air is often rigidly excluded by the barrier of shut windows. A vitiated atmosphere results, and the fond mother wonders why her darling develops a cold. The reason is not far to seek. jiMimuuimniiiHiimmimiiuuuimiimmiiiiiiMiiiiiiiitiiiiHiiiuiiimiiiiimiiiiiiii!

il desire to do their . best for the low "that protective instinct" to< triment of the child. Children need fresh air and should have as much of it as possible. This they can have without being exposed to draughts. Then there is the question of teaching a child to be self-reliant. It, should be discouraged from the habit of "running to mummy" with tales of woe about its playmates, and should be helped gently along the path of life by suitable explanations as to the rights of others and the necessity for learning as soon as possible to "take its own part." This does not mean that the child should be encouraged to develop into a pugnacious "little rip." The aim should be to teach it the value of sound judgment and selfreliance m all things. The mother who can protect her child from harm m its early days, and yet, at the same time, implant m the young mind the sense of the proper exercise of the qualities so needful m the battle of life, will m later years have the supreme satisfaction of claiming real men and women as her sons and daughters; and not helpless, un- ' reliable weaklings for whom life and its problems weigh heavily on shoulder s that are ill- fitted to bear them, thanks to misguided affection and "mollycoddling" m childhood. lIIIIIIIIIIIIIiniIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIII.IIIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIU