"Locke makes the very good point that 'most children’s constitutions are either spoiled, or at least harmed, by cockering and tenderness.'"

"That lovely seventeenth century word ‘cockering’ means ‘to indulge or spoil.' Locke goes on to recommend that children are not too warmly wrapped up in winter, in order that they learn to endure the cold, in the manner of the Spartans. He also reckons that the shoes of children should be made deliberately leaky in order to toughen up the feet. Certainly my third son Henry, more ignored than the other two, has tough feet, and spent whole summers shoeless. Henry maintained when nine years old that ‘shoes were prisons for the feet.'... Our youngest, Henry, was born in the house with two lovely midwives, and he has grown into a solid, healthy lad. He spent his first eight years roaming the fields and rocky coves, and even from an early age he was a fast runner and a confident climber.... Henry would disappear for hours with his friend Gilbert doing God knows what in the fields. The key here was lack of parental supervision. When parents supervise, they are at some level imposing their own ideology or fantasy of country life or wild life on to their children. That’s why I have always recoiled from those adventure holidays and back-to-nature holidays for children. children. There is some damn theory or other underpinning the whole thing, like a Steineresque philosophy. They remind me of the Hitler Youth. This is what D. H. Lawrence is getting at when he says that children should be left with a lazy woman who can’t be bothered with them. Leave them alone!"

From "Why Ignoring Your Children Will Make Everyone Happier: Or, What to Neglect When You're Neglecting," Tom Hodgkinson.

Locke is the philosopher John Locke. The quote is from "Some Thoughts Concerning Education" (1690).

"Cockering" — do you like that word? Can you use it? Maybe not. The OED calls it "Now English regional."  The historical examples include this from the King James version of the Bible (1611): "Cocker thy childe, and hee shall make thee afraid." And let me give you this quote too:

1682 T. Shadwell Lancashire-witches i. 7 Dost thou think, because thy foolish Mother has Cocker d thee with morning Cawdles and afternoons Luncheons, thou art fit to make Love?

I presumed that "cawdle" was an old spelling of "cuddle," but no, it's an alternative spelling of "caudle," which is "A warm drink consisting of thin gruel, mixed with wine or ale, sweetened and spiced, given chiefly to sick people."

As for "Steineresque philosophy," there's nothing else in the book about it. I googled and guess it refers to this person — Rudolf Steiner — whose ideas are listed as "Anthroposophy, anthroposophical medicine, biodynamic agriculture, eurythmy, spiritual science, Waldorf education, holism in science."  He died in 1925 and wasn't connected to the Hitler Youth. Indeed: "In 1921, Adolf Hitler attacked Steiner on many fronts, including accusations that he was a tool of the Jews... In 1922 a lecture Steiner was giving in Munich was disrupted when stink bombs were let off and the lights switched out, while people rushed the stage apparently attempting to attack Steiner, who exited safely through a back door.... The 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich led Steiner to give up his residence in Berlin..."

"Most countries have a serious news show first thing in the morning. This has the effect of stimulating such emotions as anger and anxiety in the listener."

"But a certain type of person feels it is their duty to listen to it, as if the act of merely listening is somehow going to improve the world. Duty, oh, what a burden you are! Isn’t there room for a news-free radio station? When I listen to classical music on the radio, for example when driving, there is nothing worse than having my reverie and dream-flow interrupted by the tedious reality of news headlines."

From "How to Be Idle: A Loafer's Manifesto." I mentioned this book the other day and even gave a part of that quote, but now I've gone and bought it and have access to the entire quote, so I wanted to share that. I'm also reading the whole thing, in my idle moments.

The author, Tom Hodgkinson, has written a number of books, and they all seem thematically related. The busiest one is "Business for Bohemians: Live Well, Make Money." Then there's "The Freedom Manifesto: How to Free Yourself from Anxiety, Fear, Mortgages, Money, Guilt, Debt, Government, Boredom, Supermarkets, Bills, Melancholy, Pain, Depression, Work, and Waste" and "How to Be Free." A couple great parenting titles, "The Idle Parent: Why Laid-Back Parents Raise Happier and Healthier Kids" and "Why Ignoring Your Children Will Make Everyone Happier: Or, What to Neglect When You're Neglecting." That subtitle — "What to Neglect When You're Neglecting" — is a riff on the famous old pregnancy classic, "What to Expect When You're Expecting."

I'm avoiding the headlines today.... maintaining the dream-flow.

Anyway, I just bought "Why Ignoring Your Children Will Make Everyone Happier: Or, What to Neglect When You're Neglecting." I feel like my parents had the idea for that book. I read the first 2 pages and see that it takes this D.H. Lawrence quote seriously:

"How to begin to educate a child. First rule: leave him alone. Second rule: leave him alone. Third rule: leave him alone. That is the whole beginning."

ADDED: The quote at the top of this post makes me wonder whatever happened to Erik Hagerman, "The Man Who Knew Too Little"? Blogged here in March 2018.

"We grow weary when idle"/"That is, sir, because others being busy, we want company; but if we were idle, there would be no growing weary; we should all entertain one another."

An old conversation — between Boswell and Johnson — that's quoted in a 2016 post of mind called "Shhhh!"

That quote begins one of my favorite books, "An Apology for Idlers" by Robert Louis Stevenson. I've called it to your attention a few times, and I think that whenever I do, I flag 2 other books I like about idleness: "Essays in Idleness" by the Buddhist monk Kenko and "In Praise of Idleness" by Bertrand Russell.

Idleness is an important topic! And I wasn't even thinking — until I got to this sentence — about it's special applicability to our predicament in the time of coronavirus.

Here are 3 recent items about idleness:

1. "How Idleness Was an Early Form of Meditation for Ancient Humans" (Great Courses Daily): "Many researchers believe that people have historically spent a lot of time meditating, even if they didn’t call it meditation per se. We think of modern life as being much easier and more convenient than what’s historically been typical, but that’s a myth....  When food was plentiful [in ancient times], it’s estimated that people could find what they needed to sustain themselves—to feed themselves and their children—surprisingly quickly.... For most of the time that Homo sapiens has been around, we’ve naturally had a lot of down time.... '[O]ur brains are, and may always have been, built to require—or at least benefit from—a certain amount of meditation just to maintain normal function.... The meditation practice I’m suggesting isn’t about looking for a clever new way to enhance the function of your brain.'"

2. "The Secret Power of Idleness/The brain does some of its best work when we take a break" (Psychology Today): "When we are busiest, our brains are not necessarily doing very much. Conversely, when we take a break and engage in some apparently mindless pursuit like playing solitaire, walking, or shoveling snow, our problem-solving brains kick into overdrive.... Aristotle celebrated the value of leisure as a cornerstone of intellectual enlightenment. He believed that true leisure involves pleasure, happiness, and living blessedly. It is more than mere amusement and is impossible for those who must work most of the time...."

3. "Celebrating Literature’s Slacker Heroes, Idlers and Liers-In" (NYT): "By 'library of indolence' I mean novels like 'Oblomov,' Ivan Goncharov’s satire about a man who hates to leave his bed, and 'Bartleby, the Scrivener,' Herman Melville’s long short story about the clerk whose motto is 'I would prefer not to.' ... The wittiest and most profound [book]... is Tom Hodgkinson’s 2005 classic 'How to Be Idle.'..... He recommends not clicking on news radio upon waking. He nails me entirely when he writes, 'A certain type of person feels it is their duty to listen to it, as if the act of merely listening is somehow going to improve the world.'... 'The lie-in — by which I mean lying in bed awake — is not a selfish indulgence but an essential tool for any student of the art of living, which is what the idler really is. Lying in bed doing nothing is noble and right, pleasurable and productive.'"