p. 11 | How to Treat Your Brother

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 7, 1909

How to Treat Your Brother

A GIRL may be busy saving some other girl's brother to the neglect of her own. Too often there is no comradeship between the boy and his sister. If she is the older, she may domineer over him. If he is the older, he may treat her as a chit whose questions are not worth listening to. He may tease her and be rude to her. Very well, then the girl, whether she be older or younger, must win the boy. How? Generally the boy is unconsciously rude, and he teases because he is afraid of being called a “sissy.” By nature most boys would rather be called a “bully” than a “sissy.” If he continues of that mind, he is sure not to develop into the right kind of man. It is the boy who is kind, and thoughtful of his sister and mother, who wins admiration, and who is not pleased with low, vulgar, or cruel words or deeds; therefore he will not seek that kind of society, or be tempted by what the saloon and kindred places have to offer.

The boy should be won before he is lost. Good comradeship in the home, fun and frolic in the home, unselfishness in the home, pride and joy in the home, will hold even a boy. These should be manifested by all the members of the family, and the boy must be won to the partnership. The sister is an important factor in family life. Her brother thinks more of her than she knows, and she should make him feel that he is necessary to her happiness. She should share not only her pleasures with him, but her perplexities, make him a confidant and ask his advice. . . . The comradeship of sharing work and play and perplexities once entered upon, the boy will seek his sister's advice, for he will have his own worries. Make a friend and confidant of your brother, bear with his “infirmities,” and you will save him from a multitude of sins.—Union Signal.