From the Father's View-Point

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 20, 1911

From the Father's View-Point

THE mother of to-day is so eager for her daughters to have a “good time,” that she sacrifices everything to that end. She slaves over their clothes, even doing their mending; she indulges their tastes, when they are often too extravagant; she gives in to their eager desires when her judgment demurs; and she leaves their training for them to gain at the hardest of all times—in a home of their own.

I have heard it said that women who are notable housekeepers often bring up the most helpless and incompetent daughters. Such mothers often prefer to do everything themselves, in order to be sure it is well done, and lack the patience to go through the period of confusion and discomfort necessary to the training of a young and ignorant girl. For only by the actual doing, bearing the burden of responsibility, can a girl really learn. The daughters who supply the places of incompetent mothers in the home, learn a great deal, to be sure, but it is a painful process.

I would choose for my daughter the daily, yearly training, through all her girlhood, of a careful, competent mother; one unselfish enough to deny her child minor pleasures for greater benefits; one patient enough to endure endless blunders, in order to buy for her daughter, in time, the experience she must surely purchase sooner or later—and if later, at what great cost! But, alas! where are such mothers? They are rare.—Selected.