Early Years
Ethel Carow Roosevelt was born in Oyster Bay, New York to Theodore Roosevelt and Edith Kermit Carow. From an early age, young Ethel Carow showed practical leadership qualities. Her father once remarked: "she had a way of doing everything and managing everybody." She quickly made her place in the family, causing upsets in her numerous fights with the sensitive Kermit. Her sensitivity also showed. When she was four, her father was reprimanding Kermit by shaking his shoulder; Ethel, with tears in her eyes said, "Shake me, Father."
She was thought to have resembled somewhat her older first-cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt. They each had soft, blue eyes, golden-blond hair but Ethel lacked Eleanor's height and had a heavier build in her waistline than did Eleanor. Many in the Roosevelt family thought her capable and charming, determined personality to be like that of her Aunt Bamie Cowles.
At Sagamore Hill, Ethel aggressively took part in all the games, and especially enjoyed horseback riding with her mother. Like her mother, she enjoyed needlework, and easily managed the younger children.
Read more about this topic: Ethel Roosevelt Derby
Famous quotes related to early years:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“I believe that if we are to survive as a planet, we must teach this next generation to handle their own conflicts assertively and nonviolently. If in their early years our children learn to listen to all sides of the story, use their heads and then their mouths, and come up with a plan and share, then, when they become our leaders, and some of them will, they will have the tools to handle global problems and conflict.”
—Barbara Coloroso (20th century)