ALLOWING FOR DIGNITY

"I think most of us can remember without any difficulty and with a  flush of joy those extremely rare cases in our own childhood when some grown-up visitor treated us with real, instead of with mock, respect."

~William L Phelps~

 

It's possible to smoother people with our care and attention- to fuss and bother over them when they are perfectly capable beings in their own right. We tend to do this with old people and with young children. We insult their intelligence by being overly-protective and molly-codling, and by giving them the message that that they cannot function or succeed without us.
    Let's honor them instead. Let's treat all human beings, no matter their age or their situation, with dignity and respect.

I do not "talk down" to the very old and the very young. I treat them like the whole people that they are.