On Raising Children

Mrs. Child author of The American Frugal Housewife (pub 1833) sets out a way of life that seems just right. She tells me to save, knit, and quilt. On page one she also tells how to raise children:

“In this country, we are apt to let children romp away their existence, till they get to be thirteen or fourteen. This is not well. It is not well for the purses and patience of parents; and it has a still worse effect on the morals and habits of children. Begin early is the great maxim for everything in education. A child of six years old can be made useful; and should be taught to consider every day lost in which some little thing has not been done to assist others.”

I have always worked under the principle that I didn’t ask someone to do a task that I didn’t like to do my self. Since I have always hated doing dishes, I didn’t ask my kids to do them. Since I didn’t like to clean the cat litter pan, I didn’t ask my kids to do that either. There’s a long, long list of things I didn’t make my children do, and I’m sorry that I didn’t read Mrs. Child 45 years ago. The best I can do now is to give this good advice to my children for the benefit of the grandchildren. I only hope they will follow Mrs. Child’s maxims and not my example.