p. 10 | Don'ts for Mothers by Dr. Madison C. Peters

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 24, 1910

Don'ts for Mothers

By Dr. Madison C. Peters

DON'T coddle the child. Gratify many wants, and you will make a slave of him. Your husband is probably a better man than your boy is likely to become, because he had to rough it.

Live in simplicity. Stick close to nature, and you are sure not to go wrong.

Don't dismiss your child to an ignorant hireling. If you have never seriously tried the companionship of a little child, you have missed one of the greatest pleasures of life.

Join the child's game. Solve his doubts. Answer his questions. Become a child again yourself.

Don't deceive your child. Keep your promises. Let your word to your child be your bond.

Don't make your child an epicure. Better for his health and happiness that a child be brought up more as a Spartan than as a sybarite. Simple food is best for the health. Don't lead him to the belief that he lives merely to eat, and does not eat to live.

Don't tell ghost stories. The Pennsylvania Dutch delight in ghost stories, and how many horrible nights I spent as a boy in consequence! I used to be distracted at the figure of a tree or the shaking of a bulrush, and affrighted at my own shadow.

Don't surfeit your children with severe religion, unless you want to turn them against it. Christianity is not a cynic. The gospel message is joy.

Don't make home irksome. If you would not have your children lost in after-life, make home happy to them when they are young. Don't force the children to look elsewhere than at home for pleasure.

The home evenings present a field rich with possibilities of lasting influence. It is one of the misfortunes of our times that neither men nor women spend many evenings at home. In neglecting the culture of our own homes, we let our children slip from us forever. The boy or girl whose evenings are spent on the streets almost inevitably turns out bad.

Make the home life for the evenings so pleasant, so attractive, that the children will not want to leave it for any amusements.

Don't grow away from the spirit of childhood. Never become old in heart. Grow always toward youth. If you grow old, it will be bad for your household.

In some homes children are expected to wear a countenance grave enough to break an undertaker's heart. All the joyousness of their nature is suppressed. It is a crime to repress gladness and make children stately. Make childhood joyous, playful, bubbling over with laughter. Put as much sunshine into childhood days as possible. Provide all the happiness you can, and let your children have so much fun at home that every place outside will seem dull to them.

Don't exaggerate. The great want of Americans is accuracy. If a man is to be accurate, he must be taught in his childhood, or he will never learn it. As a small mistake in leveling an arrow at the hand makes a great difference at the mark, so a small mistake in the notion of truth makes a wide difference in the telling of the truth.

Don't be affected. A child is never affected naturally; he must be made affected either by imitation or by instruction.

A great deal of bigotry comes from wrong education in the home circle. Never caricature or jeer other denominations that differ from yours. That kind of education often results just opposite to what was expected.—Dr. Madison C. Peters.