Everyday Talk to Our Mothers and Fathers by MRS. K.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 20, 1914

Everyday Talk to Our Mothers and Fathers

By MRS. K.

MRS. K.

We all love children. Love is the true spirit of every home. Without the happy voices of children, we should have a strange feeling, and the fireside would seem empty and cheerless.

Children who are naturally nervous require the greatest care. Their little minds are not so easily developed, and it is the duty of mothers to educate, to expand, to beautify, these precious lives. We are grieved to find today mothers who are thoughtless concerning their children. They do not feel the real burden of home education. It probably has not occurred to them that infant development has much to do with future development. We may clothe and feed our children sufficiently each day and feel that our duty is done; but if we look farther we can see much more that we should do to aid them in gaining a mental, physical, and spiritual development.

Every child needs careful training, but how much more essential for the little one who is nervously afflicted. He has a greater struggle for health and for physical endurance. The body may be wrecked for life if the mother does not fully understand her duty. We should study all means and ways of educating the mind for good, sound thinking. “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” We admire a well-developed child; and as he grows into youth and manhood, we like to see a definite aim and purpose in his life, a determination to make his youth a foundation for usefulness in later years.

How can we teach the mothers to save the children? Can they be taught better things of life? There would be better men and women, with better health, better morals, and higher ambitions in this rising generation, if the parents would do their duty faithfully toward their children.

In these overstrained times it is well to bear in mind our moral responsibility, especially in the touch of daily life. Our boys and young people are receiving their impressions, which must seriously affect the formation of their characters. They are of the generation of tomorrow, when they will be the chief factors in our great gospel work. By our treatment of them we are determining the kind of men and women who will be the masters of the future. Thus it is that every thought and consideration and every cheerful word become a potent factor in the development of clean character and the stimulation of right ambition. If we want to help young people along, if we want to increase the sunshine of our own lives and make them brighter and better, let us speak the cheerful word to our children, who are looking to us for all they need to fill their lives with happiness. Let us share their joys and sorrows and be their constant companions. With all their interests we should show appreciation.

We cannot be too careful in our actions, dear parents; for we are surrounded by the bright, watchful eyes of our children. We dare not stoop to deeds we know to be wrong in the sight of God; for besides weakening our own characters, we may injure some child’s standard of morality. Let us study a pleasing way to deal with our children, and help them gain the kingdom.

Home is the best school; mother, the best teacher. Children learn readily, though sometimes unconsciously, and they can be trained to think. The home study of an intelligent child who does the first four grades of school work, can be easily done in one-half hour’s daily mental effort, and the next four grades need not and should not take more than an hour a day. The child who studies less and harder has not only far better mental habits, but also better opportunity for physical development. The child should be carefully trained in the study of nature. Create an interest in a garden of his own, in poultry and pets, in light work, and the performing of household duties. There is a great deal boys and girls can do in learning to be useful, which helps to make the all-round child.

The garden work can be made very interesting to children; and as they learn to love the flowers and plant life, they will come in connection with animal life, too. The garden neighbors, the birds, will be constant companions; and no sweeter note can be learned from our Life-giver than from the beautiful birds. As you are out with them, tell them all about the new garden of Eden, and how we shall love to make gardens there. If other companions are chosen for your children, be sure the best playmates are selected. Much harm to our boys and girls can be wrought from evil contamination.

Books and papers with good, wholesome reading should be always within their reach; and in selecting literature for them we should look for character and quality. If we feed their minds on fiction and unprofitable literature, their minds will lose all taste for truth, beauty, and refinement. Mental indigestion will leave them stranded and miserable.

Nervous children are generally of a self-conscious, stubborn nature, disobeying willfully and unwillingly. Such children need careful training from the cradle in order to bring out the sweetness and naturalness of their natures. Girls trained at the mother’s side unconsciously copy her mannerisms, habits, and characteristics; but it is not so much so with boys. Give a boy as few directions as possible, but let them be to the point and never allow him to disregard them. Teach him that a gentleman always speaks the truth, and that his word is a bond of honor. Teach him also to invariably give others the first consideration and to assist them in every way.

When a boy reaches the school age, parents should bear in mind that certain fixed traditions exist among schoolboys, which, if overlooked, may cause him considerable suffering, both mental and physical. One of these is that a boy must have nothing finical or girlish about his clothing. Another forbids too much attention from his female relatives. This sounds unreasonable; but a wise mother and father who have been through it all, know it to be true. Let a boy wear ordinary clothes; give him permission to take part in school sports if directed in the right way; and teach him that—

“Honor and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part; there all the honor lies,”

and he will not go wrong.

Parents, talk to your children. Tell and read to them stories with good morals, and you will create such an interest and awaken such a spirit as to cause them to remember the good instead

of the unpleasant features of life. Teach them that fame, wealth, and glory are worthless unless used to God’s glory.

In discipline use firmness, kindness, and gentleness, using great precaution never to excite the nervous system into crying or angry spells. A nervous child is very easily excited, and tears will come from the least cause.

Study your children; know the nature of each one, and deal accordingly. Impress upon the little minds love and obedience. Gain their confidence; express your love in an intelligent way; give them your support, your wisdom; and the victory is won. In response they will in simple, childlike expressions acknowledge their love for you, and any perplexity that comes up in their lives will be told frankly, and they will delight to counsel with you in every detail of life. If this response is not awakened, they allow the divine element of self-active, self-determined goodness to be thwarted by caprice. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”