Study of Child Life by Marion Foster Washburne
page 59 of 195 (30%)
page 59 of 195 (30%)
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unmeasured terms. She usually reserves her soft and gentle speeches
for her own friends and for her husband's, yet discourtesy cannot begin to harm them as it harms her children. It is true that the children are often under foot when she is busiest, when, indeed, she is so distracted as to not be able to think about manners, but if she would acknowledge to herself that she ought to be polite, and that when she fails to be, it is because she has yielded to temptation; and if, moreover, she would make this acknowledgment openly to her children and beg their pardon for her sharp words, as she expects them to beg hers, the spirit of courtesy, at any rate, would prevail in her house, and would influence her children. Children are lovingly ready to forgive an acknowledged fault, but keen-eyed beyond belief in detecting a hidden one. [Sidenote: Double Standard] (3.) The most fertile cause of impudence is assumption of a double standard of morality, one for the child and another for the adult. Impudence is, at bottom, the child's perception of this injustice, and his rebellion against it. When to this double standard,--a standard that measures up gossip, for instance, right for the adult and listening to gossip as wrong for the child--when to this is added the assumption of infallibility, it is no wonder that the child fairly rages. For, if we come to analyze them, what are the speeches which find so objectionable? "Do it yourself, if you are so smart." "Maybe, I am rude, but I'm not any ruder than you are." "I think you are just as mean as mean can be; I wouldn't be so mean!" Is this last speech any |
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