The medium course is for the parent to take the attitude of a superior
in age, knowledge, and relation, who has a perfect _right_ to control
every action of the child, and that, too, without giving any reason for
the requisitions. "Obey _because your parent commands_," is always a
proper and sufficient reason: though not always the best to give.
But care should be taken to convince the child that the parent is
conducting a course of discipline, designed to make him happy; and in
forming habits of implicit obedience, self-denial, and benevolence,
the child should have the reasons for most requisitions kindly stated;
never, however, on the demand of it from the child, as a right, but
as an act of kindness from the parent.
It is impossible to govern children properly, especially those of
strong and sensitive feelings, without a constant effort to appreciate
the value which they attach to their enjoyments and pursuits. A lady
of great strength of mind and sensibility once told the writer that
one of the most acute periods of suffering in her whole life was
occasioned by the burning up of some milkweed-silk, by her mother.
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