BRINGING UP PARENTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2394, 8 January 1909, Page 6

BRINGING UP PARENTS.

A CLEVER SATIRE

The raising of parents in these days is justly regarded with considerable apprelinsion by the extreme young. To take a brand-new set of parents who are without any previous experience and with naturally perverse tenclencies and "bring thorn up in the way they should go is by no means an easv job. Parents .are self-willed and obstinate. and invariably selfish. They want their own way, and if they don’t get it thev tare apt to make trouble. It is hot well, however, to permit one’s sense of responsibility about them to become a source of anxiety. It parents do not- turn out well, it as bv far the easiest and best way to blame it on a higher power. Higher powers., indeed, are used to responsibilities of this kind. No sudden strain embarrasses them. The first thing that .should be done with parents is to show them, once and for all, that you are- master, 'ink; may take time, but it will pay. With a little patience applied 1 persistently they can gradually be made to mind. Try, for one thing, to be .as impartial as possible. Otherwise one of them may have his. or her, disposition permanently spoiled. Do not d.-scuss the - really serious things of life before your parents. It gives them a la.Jse idea of their own importance. Insist upon them saying their prayers every night. r J hey need it. Do not show thorn in any way that you consider yourself superior. It is a mark of true greatness not to do this. Be careful of the company they keep. If you see litem playing bridge with millionaires, or riding above their incomes in expensive motor-cars, or catch them talking stocks, take them aside and endeavor, by gentle admonitions, to show them how naught v they have been thus to waste their time, and how much ashamed of themselves they ought to be. Permit them to confide in you • as umcli as possible. 'ln - tills way you may bo able to help them over many a difficulty. Above .all things, keep them occupied. By devoting yourself to this idea, and by taking up their attention every moment—by compelling them to work hard—you may in time bring them up in the way they should' go. Do not, indeed, leave them to themselves a moment until they begin to grow so old and lonesome and sensitive that you do not need them any more.

Even then,, however, you nmv invite them 'around to an occasional meal—for old times’ sake.