" "Oh, excuse me, but your head is
between me and the light: could you see as well if you moved a little?"
"Would it hinder you too long to stop at the store for me? I would be very
much obliged to you, if you would." "Pray, do not let me crowd you," &c.
In most people's speech to children, we find, as synonyms for these polite
phrases: "Shut that window down, this minute." "Bring me that cricket." "I
want that chair; get up. You can sit in this." "Don't you see that you are
right in my light? Move along." "I want you to leave off playing, and go
right down to the store for me." "Don't crowd so. Can't you see that there
is not room enough for two people here?" and so on. As I write, I feel an
instinctive consciousness that these sentences will come like home-thrusts
to some surprised people. I hope so. That is what I want. I am sure that
in more than half the cases where family life is marred in peace, and
almost stripped of beauty, by just these little rudenesses, the parents
are utterly unconscious of them. The truth is, it has become like an
established custom, this different and less courteous way of speaking to
children on small occasions and minor matters.
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