Rules for Governing Children.
I. Exercise your authority as seldom as possible, and, instead of, employ kind persuasion and deliberate reasoning; but, when you exercise it, make it irresistible. II. Be careful how you threaten, but never lie. Threaten seldom, but never fail to execute. The parent who is opened-mouthed to threaten, and threatens hastily, but is irresolute to punish, and, when the child is not subdued by the first threat, repeats it a half a dozen times with a voice of increased violence, and with as many shakes and twitches of the little culprit, will certainly possess no authority. III. Avoid tones and gestures expressive of agitation for trivial matters indicative of no depravity and indicating only the heedlessness or forgetfulness of children, or perhaps nothing more than is common to all young animals, a love to use their limbs. In all such cases the tones should be kind and persuasive, rather than authoritative; and the severity and even gravity of authority should be reserved exclusively for cases of disobedience or depravity, or for the prevention of serious evil. A perpetual fretting at children for little things, will inevitably harden their hearts, and totally destroy parental authority and influence. There never was a fretting parent, who often threatened and seldom performed, that had a particle of efficient government.