A child has everything to learn, and is more readily taught by having before it good examples to imitate, than by simple precepts.
Obedience is the first requisite in family training.
It should be made sincere and perfect, and to proceed as much from affection as a conviction of its necessity. To accomplish this, great prudence and the exercise of much patience are necessary. By firmness mixed with kindness, the child by repeated experience will learn that he is not to follow his first impulse, and that self-control, which even an infant can understand, is necessary to his comfort. Neither violence nor harshness should ever be used, and the parent must bear constantly in mind, that to govern his child, he must show him that he can control himself. One of the most common errors in the management of children is irregularity of behavior towards them.