Chapter 2
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often seems to be asleep to the interest of her children until she is
painfully aroused by the exhibition of vice. The seeds of evil were
sown in their young minds, promising an abundant harvest. And it is
a marvel to her that her children are so prone to do wrong. Parents
should begin in season to instil into infant minds good and correct prin-
ciples. The mother should be with her children as much as possible,
and should sow precious seed in their hearts.
The mother’s time belongs in a special manner to her children.
They have a right to her time as no others can have. In many cases
mothers have neglected to discipline their children, because it would
require too much of their time, which time they think must be spent in
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the cooking department, or in preparing their own clothing, and that
of their children, according to fashion, to foster pride in their young
hearts. In order to keep their restless children still, they have given
them cake, or candies, almost any hour of the day, and their stomachs
are crowded with hurtful things at irregular periods. Their pale faces
testify to the fact, that mothers are doing what they can to destroy
the remaining life forces of their poor children. The digestive organs
are constantly taxed, and are not allowed periods of rest. The liver
becomes inactive, the blood impure, and the children are sickly, and
irritable, because they are real sufferers by intemperance, and it is
impossible for them to exercise patience.
Parents wonder that children are so much more difficult to control
than they used to be, when in most cases their own criminal manage-
ment has made them so. The quality of food they bring upon their
tables, and encourage their children to eat, is constantly exciting their
animal passions, and weakening the moral and intellectual faculties.
Very many children are made miserable dyspeptics in their youth by
the wrong course their parents have pursued toward them in childhood.
Parents will be called to render an account to God for thus dealing
with their children.
Many parents do not give their children lessons in self-control.
They indulge their appetite, and form the habits of their children in
their childhood, to eat and drink, according to their desires. So will
they be in their general habits in their youth. Their desires have not
been restrained, and as they grow older, they will not only indulge in
the common habits of intemperance, but they will go still further in
indulgences. They will choose their own associates, although corrupt.