GOD approves of play in children. In its proper time and place recreation is their right. Respect the little maiden as she plays "keeping house." Mother, call upon your little daughter, if you possibly can, and greet her with the respect and courtesy that you would show toward real housekeepers. You may impress her plastic mind with the most precious lessons of the nursery.
Brother, don't enter your little sister's play-house with muddy shoes. Take off your hat, and behave in every way as a gentleman ought to behave toward a lady, and then, when you become older, it will be easy and natural for you to be polite. The little housekeeper's dolls are her property, and you may bring real grief to her heart by despising or ridiculing them, or you may make her happy by commending their excellence, and her thoughtfulness and neatness in caring for them.
O, what seeds of deceit and hatefulness are13often sown in the minds of little girls by misusing the apparently unimportant circumstances of childhood life, seeds that ripen in after years, as the little girls grow into the disagreeable wives and mothers that curse many a home! The griefs and joys of little children are just as real to them as are like passions to older people. Mothers, you had better sympathize with your children in their little losses and disappointments than to chill the warmth of their sensibilities by your words or manner. Point them to the sympathetic Jesus. Lend a helping hand, and show the little maiden a better way to manage her household duties, or her pet kitties, or domestic fowls. Teach your little sons and daughters that birds and animals are God's creatures, and that they have their God-given rights, and are entitled to kind treatment. Lessons thus early impressed will usually blossom out into domestic felicity in after years.