An Experience in Child Training by MRS. T. E. MOORE

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 30, 1915

An Experience in Child Training

By MRS. T. E. MOORE

MRS. T. E. MOORE

THIRTEEN years ago I took a little girl almost three years old into my home. While she was quite a cheery-dispositioned child and a most busy one, yet she, like most others, had some faults. The most undesirable and the hardest of all to get rid of was her habit of starting a fuss of some sort at every meal-time. It seemed to make no difference what came, the fuss was never wanting. Everything we had ever heard of or learned from experience, we tried, but the fussing went on just the same, until the case became really unbearable, and I decided that something unusual must be done.

As the time for the next meal approached, she came to ask if it was time to get ready for dinner. I told her that I had decided to have her eat in the kitchen henceforth; that I would fix her a place on the kitchen table, and she could quarrel to her heart's content, as we were going to close the dining room door and could not hear her; that I was sorry such a course had to be taken, but it seemed the only way in which we could have peace at mealtime; and that while we should all miss her, it could not be helped.

At first she seemed to think it quite a joke to eat by herself, and apparently enjoyed her dinner; but when supper time came, and she was left alone, she lost her temper and threw her spoon across the room. As she was preparing to send her supper after the spoon, I opened the dining room door, and quietly remarked that if she wasted her supper, she would get no more to eat until morning.

After a few moments she got her spoon, wiped it, and ate in silence.

When breakfast time came, she asked if she could eat with us, saying that she did not like to eat alone at all. I said, “Certainly, if you will be good, and not quarrel and fuss.” She behaved nicely for six months or more; then we had to send her to the kitchen to eat one more meal alone. Since that time we all wear smiling faces at the table, unless something has happened to bring real sorrow to our hearts.

Prairie, Colo.