Parental Respect for Right of Children

By Ellen Key

(From “The Century of the Child.”)

([See page 143])

A mother happy in the friendship of her own daughter, said not long ago that she desired to erect an asylum for tormented daughters. Such an asylum would be as necessary as a protection against pampering parents as against those who are overbearing. Both alike torture their children though in different ways, by not understanding the child’s right to have his own point of view, his own ideal of happiness, his own proper tastes and occupations. They do not see that children exist as little for their parents’ sake as parents do for their children’s sake.... Family life would have an intelligent character if each one lived fully and entirely his own life and allowed the others to do the same. None should tyrannize over, none should suffer tyranny from, the other. Parents who give their homes this character can justly demand that children shall accommodate themselves to the habits of the household as long as they live in it. Children on their part can ask that their own life of thought and feeling shall be left in peace at home, or that they shall be treated with the same consideration that would be accorded to a stranger. When the parents do not meet these conditions they themselves are the greater sufferers.