Pages 104, 105
Through his actions an adult shows a child how men behave. A child begins to live his own life by imitation the adults with whom he comes in contact. The words and actions of an adult are so fascinating for a child that they can almost hypnotize him. A child can be so sensitive to an adult that the adult in a way comes to live and act in him. What an adult tells a child remains engraved on his mind as if it had been cut in marble. Since children are so eager to learn and so burning with love, an adult should carefully weight all the words he speakes before them.
A child readily obeys an adult. But when an adult asks him to renounce those instincts that favor his development, he cannot obey. When an adult demands such a sacrifice to his own person interests, it is like attempting to stop the building of a child's teeth when he is teething. A child's tantrums and rebellions are nothing more than aspects of a vital confliect between his creatinve impulses and his love for an adult who fails to understand his needs.
We should remember that a child loves us and wants to obey. A child loves an adult beyong everything else, and yet the reverse is usually heard. It is really the child who loves, who wants to feel an adult near him, and who delights in attracting attention to himself: "Look at me! Stay with me!"
In the evening he goes to bed, a child calls the person he loves and does not like to see him go. And when we go to dinner a child who is still being nursed would like to come along, not to eat but simply to be near so that he can watch us. Adults fail to appreciate this deep love of the child. But we should remember that the little child who loves us now so much will grow up and disappear. Who will then love us as this child loves us now? who will call us when he goes to bed, saying affectionately: "Stay with me!" instead of bidding us an indifferent "Good night"?. Who will wish so earnestly to stand near us while we eat only to watch us? We defend ourselves against this love and we shall never find another like it! And we say restlessly: "I don't have the time! I can't! I'm busy!" while deep down we are thinking: "You must correct children or you will end up being their slaves." We want to free ourselves from a child so that we can do what we please so that we are not inconvenienced.