Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-10-09
Pltting C hiIdrea to Bed

The mother who puts the tinaid claild to
bed and takes away the light, goes down
stairs, and leaves him to his aonjuring,
careless and Indifferent and disbesieviRg,
Or bent or overcoming the mischief forcibiy,
is'aestroying something that one would
think. ofsmaII worth to her-not only his
nervous fibre, but his love OF herself, end
the day will come when fate Wild have its
revenge on her in his own Indifference to
.hec, and she will recognize it. even if he
behavior all outward respects like a dgti-
ful son. It's haa' part to examine tbelfaat-
ter, to reason with the child, to comfort
HIN, to see how far it is possible aEith lGm
to subIiue the fear. If she canaaot stay
WEdh him herself, she can at least leave the
door open so that he may hear the cheer
full 'dowDstair voiees, the huRl Of life, not to
De shut into his rGom. as the authenticated
thought Of his desperate little mind makes
It; she can leave a'lamp on the hearth, and
so let there be soE2e light to dispel his
faneies and to keee back the dark and it's
unshaped visions She may regard it as
trIfing. bet to him it is tremendous and
If she is wise either in mother love or ilu-
man kindness, she wiIl not let the ina gina
tiveand sensitive clsild suffer more than
it must, remembering that, thai temporal
ment, 1T has more to enjoy through
life than others, has also much more to
suffer
When few nights have failed to bring
calm to the little being out of the experience
and the last going to bed alone is as bad as
the first and all threats have only made
the matter worse, and all reasoning has
produced no good result; when he has tried
to conquer, and the effort has left hi1l
trembling as violently as If he had an ague
-then 1t as something not to he overcome
by harsh Or rough or perenletory measures
and The mother should see to it that this
child has some active physical exercise just
before going to bed that will make his
little body glad to rest, and she would best
lie down beside him, or find some work
that she can do upstairs until he falls
asleep, In order to affogd him the comfort
and companionship and the sense of her
embracing love. and soothe his irritable
nerves to repose instead Of rousing them
to action.
These nerves never would have been ir-
ritable if she had not insisted on her own
way too long IN the beginning If she had not
given MIN chance to get on fire, then to
go on exciting themselves. If she had put
the child to bed alone from the very outset
VI HIS tosCc', % ludG IL "otS tilc
order of things TO him, and he had the
habit established of quiet sleep and absence
OF fear from the first, in ninety-nine cases
out of hundred there would never have
been any trouble of the sort. But if
through any idiosycrasy of the child, or
any remissness of her own, the fear has
come upon him, she will never in all the
years remaining have greater love outpour-
ed upon her than that child will give her
who sees her lowering over his pillow,
moving about his room, TT feels her pres
sure on the bed beside him till the drowsy
warmth steals over and wraps senses and
imagination and all together, and lets her
of again to the duties that are less i'm
perative than the care of that child's
nerves, to the pleasures that are less
pleasant than the love he gives her in re-
turn. -Harper's Bazaar.