Article January 25, 1969 Issue

Are We Problem Parents?

[For parents]

MATTIE PERRY TURNER

Are parents who have what they call problem children bringing their children to the Christ? That is, are they recognizing their children's true identity as Godlike, as included in the Christ, the spiritual idea of being? Or are they allowing suggestions of anger, frustration, and fear to prevent this recognition? Or, at the other extreme, are parents listening and giving credence to these apathetic arguments: "Oh, they'll grow out of that; it's just a phase they're going through. Children will be children"?

God's child is the perfect, mature reflection of divine Mind and thereby embodies all the ideas that constitute perfect being. Therefore, if we are dealing with our child from the standpoint that because he is a child he cannot be expected to behave obediently in public or to be quiet and orderly at the proper time or to show respect for others, in other words, to reflect his God-given quality of self-control, we are doing him an injustice. We are denying the Christ-element inherent in every child, which needs only to be recognized and cultivated in order to bless him. The Master blessed those who were brought to him, for "he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them."^{ Mark 10:16;}

Humanly speaking, it would be well to consider our child as a sounding board from which our mental tones, whether of harmony or of inharmony, vibrate and are magnified. In this way we will recognize that he reflects what we expect of him or accept about him. Truly there would be fewer problem children if there were fewer problem parents. The actual culprit, however, is "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world."^{ Rev. 12:9;} It is animal magnetism, disguising itself as an inharmonious child, purposing to deceive parents into attempting to blame the child instead of destroying the impersonal hypnotic error that is fooling both parents and child. Mrs. Eddy writes, "As named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or hypnotism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind."^{ Science and Health, p. 103;}