MY KITCHEN SLATE | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 27, 1900

MY KITCHEN SLATE.

At first my large kitchen slate was regarded as a means of saving one person’s steps. Now it regulates the comings and goings of all the family.

I am so fortunate as to have a househelper who is a graduate of a high school. She loves children, is refined, and is altogether pleasant to have in one’s family. To enable Beta to see her day’s work before her mind’s eye, and therefore plan her work to the best advantage for our health and happiness, and her own as well, the slate was hung up by the sunny south window of the kitchen.

When it is needful to make a suggestion about the way this or that shall be done, it is written on the slate. Beta has a bit of a temper, but is reasonable; and never have I seen a frown on her face, and never has she seen me out of temper,—because of the friendly slate. My rule is to write on the slate all about the things that have gone wrong, and then stay out of the kitchen for an hour. Then I go back, and see if Beta has had anything to write on the slate for me to see.

Written words tell considerable, but not so much as the human voice, which, besides the fact in hand, tells of so much impatience, worry, and other things that had better be left untold.

Every househelper might not need to be “spoken to” on a slate; but human nature crops out at unexpected times, and a slate is a safe way for discussion.

The duties of the children, the errands of neighborly love, the time when mamma will be ready for the children to come to her room, and scores of other things may thus be told, besides the daily program.

After all, need so many things be told in a hurry? Many trips through the house will be saved if the family form the habit of looking at the slate whenever in doubt as to what to do next, in order to keep the household machinery running smoothly.

Does this require that the mother of the family spend all her time writing on the slate?—Not at all. I have found that fifteen minutes a day of slate-writing saves me more than an hour that would have to be spent in five-minute errands here and there. Besides, it is good training for all the family brains.