THE LITTLE ONES.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 346, 25 July 1885, Page 4

THE LITTLE ONES.

All nice people, love children, and equallyall nice people object strongly to that social despot, a spoiled child ; and in child training many and dangerous are the rocks ahead, difficult and. tedious the conscientious avoidance of them. Spoiled children abound simply because, much. as mothers, nurses, and teachers, love their tiny charges, it is only a favoured few who have hit upon lines

of successful management ; indeed this entails infinite labour and patience. A healthy child is a fit emblem of perpetual motion. Watch it at play, scampering about in all directions, jumping, shouting, turning everything over in its vague, restless search for information. The very ceaselessness of its activity amazes one. "Who could look on thoughtfully -without concluding that the secret of success with children is — give them occupation ? Without it, be certain time will lag. They will evince the utmost ingenuity in devising mischief. Then -what a trial to temper and nerves it is to keep up a running fire of c Jack do not spoil the paint ; ' ' Tom, put down that album ; ' ' How dare yoii scratch the table, Ellie ! ' Harry, what are you doing to the cat ? ' and so on. The remedy is simple. Just fill the time amusingly for them, and (I quote the experience of a mother with six healthy, happy boys) ' they will be as good as gold.' Children, above all things, need management. Mothers with numbers of servants are over-apt to leave children wholly to their care, always excepting such a needful attention as is required for feeding, dressing, and manners. Characters thus left form themselves, often developing ugly excrescences of. which no one can conceive the origin. But it is not to such I write. It is to the mothers who, with one übiquitous maid — with occasionally a nursemaid in addition — have to get through so much just to make and keep home bright. So circumstanced, in the morning, mother helps first ' in one department and then in another to j make the domestic wheel turn smoothly; and if she be not gifted with tact, with patience, with a genius for contrivance, the little ones fare badly. Who has not entered houses where from the moment of a visitor's advent the goddess of misrule takes full sway, showing that, obedient to the laws of politeness, the shrewish controlling tongue is silent for the nonce, while the little ones seize and make the most of an unwonted advantage. To gain influence, to keep control over the young, your c yes ' must be yes and your 'no ' unswervingly 'no.' Before committing yourself then to any expression of opinion be wary in taking the right course, and having taken it, invariably stick to it. Many mothers first refuse, then consent, then, if the spirit moves them so, again refuse, uutil in the end the child — confused by such an utter want of finality — loses confidence and strikes out quite apart from the parent's guidance. Be firm, yet sympathetic, and a child will have the most perfect trust in you. ' Mother knows,' ' Mother will tell us,' soon come to be stock expressions in the nursery. It is not difficult to find occupation for the little ones. "What if they do make a ' litter ' in cutting out picture scraps, or a ' mess ' in colouring with their paints some old woodcuts ? They are for the time happy and occupied, and their little hearts are satisfied because they are ' busy. 7 Let mothers provide their children with employment, and they will soon give up mischievous and tiresome ways.