The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1933-05-25
GROWING WITH YOUR CHILD
Constructive Discipline


A very young child has no reali-
cation of what he is doing as
right" or wrong" To him things
are just interesting" or "uninter-
esting" things to do. Only by grad
ual degrees does he learn what is
expected of him in various situa-
tions. In general, the fewer rules
he has to follow, the more quickly
he will learn them, and the less
likely he will be to develop an an
tagonistic spirit of wanting to do
exactly the opposite of what he is
told.
The keynote of the successful
handling of children in nursery
schools and kindergartens is to pro-
vide substitute response;" that
is to give the child something else
to do in place of the thing we don't
want him to do, and not leave him
empty-handed, bored with every
thing but the thing he shouldn't
be doing.
There is no rhyme nor reason in
making an issue out of everything
the child does that is socially I'M
acceptable-or announcement to us
at the moment. While it may seem
to a tired and exasperated moth
er on a particularly busy day that
an equally tired and fretful child
is doing everything he can think
of just to irritate her, the fact is
that he is a restless little animal,
probably bored with day indoors
that hasn't provided enough exer-
else for his tremendous energy, or
perhaps he has had too many
sweets or not enough sleep, and he
is cross and irritable, or it may be
just that he is responding to moth
er's own irritable mood on that
particular day.
So many unpleasant scenes be-
tween mother and child, so much
unnecessary emotional upsetting of
the child, can be avoided if we
take just a little thought before we
command him to stop doing some
thing at once, and, instead, gently
draw his attention to something
else. If he's swinging on the door,
show where the hinges are, and ex-
plain how they work, and in a few
minutes he will be busily scruitin-
izing them, or playing happily at
something else, the door-swinging
forgotten, serenely unaware of the
friction that he's escaped. 1t
doesn't take long for child to for
get one occupation and become in
terested in something else-provid-
ed that something else is presented
to him guilessly and as a desirable
thing to do. II it is done obvi-
iously, he will realize that his be-
havior is deliciously annoying to
you, that he is teasing you by re-
fusing to stop doing what you
want him to stop, that this makes
him the center of some very pleas
ant attention from you, and that
you may resort to teasing him to
stop.
We're going to quote here eight
dos and don't's to guide parents
in handling child, because they
have stood the test of practically.
They are:
Give commands or suggestions
only when you are sure the child
hears you. Attention is necessary
to secure cooperation.
2Give as few commands as pos
sible.
3-Show pleasantly and firmly
that you expect to be obeyed.
AOnce you have asked that a
thing be done, follow 1t up. II
your orders may be neglected, with
out punishment, all the discipline
you have been carefully building up
may be undermined.
5Try to be consistent. Let your
commands rest, not upon your
feelings" at a particular time, but