Another thing which follows from this want of nursery training is that
if, as sometimes happens, there are disputes between the parents, the
children are mixed up in them. You will hear a Belgian mother say to
her young daughter: "Imagine what your father has done!" Or if the
husband is angry with his wife, he will turn to his boy, and exclaim:
"That is just like a woman!" Of course, this is very bad for the
children, who hear a great deal which they would know nothing about if
they were not always with their parents.
From being so much with older people these children get strange ideas.
I know a lady who said to a small Belgian girl, who was an only child:
"Would you like a little brother or sister to play with?" "Oh! no,
no," replied the child, "because when my father and mother die, I
shall have all their money." Whereupon the mother exclaimed: "There!
the dear child; how well she knows the world already!"
The children of the _petite bourgeoisie_ are the most unruly. One sees
them often at the various holiday places, at the seaside or in the
Ardennes, where they dine, however young, along with their parents at
the _tables d'hote_, or public dining-tables, of the hotels.
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