St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-03-21
Passing Naughtiness,

Young mothers are inclined to take
their children too seriously, but as expe-
rience lengthens they are encouraged to
9nd That many of the unpleasant mani
iestations of childhood are only tempo.
rary attacks from which they will soon
recover with wise treatment coupled
with 'Judicious letting alone"
Sometimes the attack is in the nature
OF an unpleasant habit, such as putting
the tnger into the mouth or using slang
words or ineleganr expressions In such
case little talk with the child alone,
letting him know that mother sympa.
thizes and wants to help him overcome,
may prove effective. Often the promise
OF reward will help, or little secret
signal agreed upon between mother and
child to remind the latter, thus sparing
him the humiliation of knowing that
Others are noticing his weakness.
Again, the malady will take the form
OF unwilllnguess to perform some duty.
In this case, if gentle persuasion failed,
would try substitution if possible, giving
the child the choice of some other duty.
That failing, sometimes it seems as
though the only course left open is simply
to ignore the question for a time until
the spirit of rebellion has had time to
pass out of mind and then bring it up in
some unexpected way.
My three-year-old boy had siege of
unwllllngness to pray lasting through
several months. At first took his prayer
tor granted, saying, "Now as soon as
you nave prayed, we'll have little frolic,"
or, when you've had your little talk
with Jesus, I'll tuck you into bed and
then we'll be ready for story" This
answered for while, and then there was
a relapse, amounting to actual stubborn
ness.
"A picture had once seen, called The
Unwilling prayer, in which a little fell
low robed for bed stood with hands com.
pulsorily clasped and with anger and re.
bellion in every line of the poutlng face.
kept recurring to my mind and helped to
keep me from the serious mistake of COM
manding obedience. / noticed that my
boy usually wanted to sing after being
tucked into his crib, so, Selling upon
that, made it point to ask him every
night, Would you rather sing or pray
tonight?" never showing any surprise
or displeasure when he chose to sing.
For weeks his only song, Jesus loves
me, this | know" was substituted for
the prayer, and sometimes he could be
persuaded to sing little petition.
But there came time when even that
tailed, and for some time, without asking
him to pray at all, offered his petition
for him. After giving him time to forget
his INSTRUMENTATION, took the older
children into my confidence, and as they
gathered at my knee one evening for
their prayers they persuaded him to Join
them, and had no further trouble.
The most difficult cases of all to deal
with are those which take the form of
actual wrongdoing, as was illustrated in
the helpful article on How to Deal with
untrut hfulness, few weeks ago. l
have found it helpful to extol the con-
trasting virtue, Selling every oppor-
tunity to commend the child where he
has shown the least disposition to con-
quer himself. For little children bed
time story-never tragic one-may be
OF service in teaching the lesson needed.
In all cases the mother should guard
herself against nagging the child, lest she
exaggerate the symptoms and make the
attack chronic, or rouse some worse
manifestation; neither should she be un-
duly disturbed over discouraging symp-
toms, but exercise a watchful patience
until the spell is broken. We are so anx-
ious to have our children appear well
before others, and in such hurry to see
them become all we want them to be,
that we cannot wait for the sunshine of
the home atmosphere to ripen the seeds
we have sown, but, like the children them
selves, we want to reap the harvest at
ONCE Congregationalist.