Children - Play and Recreation : Part 3

The Mother and Her Child
by William S. Sadler, M.D., Lena K. Sadler, M.D.

(Page 40 of 42)

Some time during the vacation, if possible, mother and father should accompany the little folks to the camp, to the beach - somewhere, anywhere - to get back to nature and live like Indians for a short time. Each member of the family will come back rested, happier, and more ready for the next year's work.

In the summer time learn to eat on the porch - it is great sport for the children. Many meals can be served on porches that are so often served in hot, stuffy rooms.

The "home" does not consist in the furniture, the rooms, the bric-a-brac, or the curtains. The home is the mother and the father and the children and the spirit of good fellowship which should possess them. Make the companions of the little folks very welcome, letting them learn the early use and abuse of the different articles of furniture in the house. It is all right to play tent with the beautiful couch cover; it is all right at certain times to dress up in father's best clothes and mother's beautiful gown, but while they are therefore having a good time let them learn that all these things are to be used and not abused.

Adolescent Days

The homely boy or the homely girl usually grows up free from the flattery and undue attention which are sure to be heaped upon the good-looking boy and the popular girl. Way back in the early days of five or six, and all the way up to the ages of twelve to twenty, children should be taught that it is altogether natural and correct to do things well and to look well; parents should stop, and cause their acquaintances to stop, "making over" the boy or the girl just because they have done something well, or have beautiful curls, or because their eyes are a magnificent brown, etc.

If a girl should be especially endowed with a charming complexion, a wonderful chin, and if she does possess a beautiful nose or neck, let her early realize that she has been made the custodian of goodly features and that she must give an account for this particular blessing, and under no circumstances must she become self-conscious about it. Often a good frown to an unwise friend is all that is necessary to stop this "lip service" flattery.

The "chewing-gum girl" is just a thoughtless girl, that is all; sit her in front of a mirror and compel her to chew gum for one-half hour and watch herself do it, and it will often suffice to cure her. Young ladies should be taught that chewing gum should be done in the bedroom, but never in the living-room or on the streets. It is not only a disgusting habit, but it often creates an occasion for criticism as to the quality of one's home training.

Ice-Cream Parlors

The mother who cares will not allow her lovely daughters nightly, or even semi-weekly, to frequent the ice-cream parlors and secluded soda fountains. She had far better arrange group dinners and group receptions in her own parlor; with ice cream served in her own dishes and eaten with spoons that she has supervised the washing of.

Young women and young men in their late teens crave companionship, and they should have it; but let it be under wise chaperonage at home or in public rooms, and not in the solitude of a lonely bench in the public park, or the seclusion of an out-of-the-way, ice-cream parlor. This "running the streets" which is so freely indulged in by the adolescent youth in the early teens need not occur, if wise provision is made for the assembly of small groups in the home.

Some elders think it pleasing and cute for young men and young women - fourteen to sixteen, or even seventeen - to wrestle and roll around on the floor like two huge kittens; but it is unwise and indiscreet and should be discouraged.

Dancing

We hesitate to spoke of dancing for we realize it is a very popular indoor recreation of today, but we most earnestly urge that if dancing must be done, it be done under proper chaperonage, and if young people must meet in public dance halls let them be municipal dance halls, where motherly matrons are in charge. Many of the social dances which bring the participants into such close physical contact are to be discouraged and stricken off the list; and while dancing is a splendid form of exercise - let us add that it is also sometimes a dangerous one.

Questionable Play

After the boys and girls graduate from grammar school they may come into contact with such agencies as secret societies - which nine times out of ten are questionable - and while we realize that there is a contention both for and against these organizations, we may dismiss the subject here by simply adding that we have known little special good to come out of these societies.

While it may not be any more wrong to hit a ball from the end of a stick - as in billiards - than it is to hit it from a mallet in croquet; or from a stretched tendon, as in tennis; or from a bat, as in baseball - we do not feel that we have to argue the point, when we remind the reader that billiards and pool, especially in the public parlors, do assemble questionable companions, who use questionable language; while these games are often accompanied by betting, which is always to be deplored. And so with card playing, we see no greater harm in playing a game of euchre, than a game of authors, as far as the cards are concerned, but your boy and girl, as well as mine, as a rule, have cleaner and purer minds at the home game of authors than is probable in a game of cards in a public place.

In closing this chapter we have to announce a group of wholesome recreations which may be entered into by our lovely young people - the man and the woman of tomorrow - whom we one and all wish to keep clean and good and pure; all the while helping them to develop the sense of humor and the element of play. Such recreations are tennis, golf, croquet, boating, sledding, skiing, bicycling, motoring, horseback riding, and a host of others too numerous to mention. Let us not forget that often pursuits such as garden-making and helping the parent in the office or in the home, may be made a great source of enjoyment to the adolescent youth, if they are allowed to earn a small amount of money each week, which they may deposit in the bank.

We close this chapter "Play and Recreation" with the wish that all, old and young, would develop a greater sense of humor, a greater love for play and recreation, which will increase the health of both mind and body and prevent many nervous disorders such as neurasthenia.

About the Author

Dr. William S. Sadler M.D. was a well-known American psychiatrist and college teacher in the school of medicine at the University of Chicago. For over sixty years he practiced his profession in Chicago, thirty-three years being associated in practice with his wife, Dr Lena Kellogg Sadler. The doctors were pioneers in the research on the mysterious Urantia Papers.