WHAT ABOUT THE BOYS? by L. C. B.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 9, 1900

WHAT ABOUT THE BOYS?

By L. C. B.

L. C. B.

I have noticed many articles in the Home department about the girls, but only an occasional article about the boys, especially about teaching housework to the boys as well as to the girls.

My children were boys, but I tried to keep them with me as much as possible. When they were little boys, before going to school, they liked to play iron and bake, so they had a small flatiron, and a small molding board and rolling-pin. They would iron the coarse towels, stockings, and their handkerchiefs. Their bread and pies were pretty dark, having gained a little color in the making, but they enjoyed them just as well for all that.

When the older lad was eleven years old, he tried his hand at “truly bread;” and after helping me a few times, he could make a batch of bread, from the yeast to taking from the oven. About this time I was taken sick, and for three weeks he did all the cooking for his father and younger brother, besides caring for me. My cereals, toast, and coffee were served as nicely as many women would have served them. Was I not well repaid for the time spent in teaching him?

The boys were also taught to dust, wash dishes, mop the floors, make their bed, sew patchwork, sew on buttons, and one even tried his hand at a little Kensington embroidery, and did it well, too. They seldom felt inclined to think such things “girl’s work.”

Helping mother is work for boys as well as for girls. A boy who is good to his mother is sure to make a good man, and “the cause” can use all the good men. And a promise is given to all the “honor children” in the fifth commandment.

I can see now that I made many mistakes in bringing up my boys; but I made no mistake in teaching them these lessons. As they are now men, and away from home, I feel that “mother” is a little nearer and dearer than she would have been had these lessons not been taught.