Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1878 — Rules for Spoiling a Child. [ARTICLE]

Rules for Spoiling a Child.

1. Begin young by giving him whatever he cries for. 2. Talk freely before the child about his smartness as incomparable. 3. Tell him that he is too much for you, that you can do nothing with him. 4. Have divided counsels, as between father and mother. • B. Let him learn to regard his father as a creature of unlimited power, capricious and tyrannical; or as a mere whip-ping-machine. 6. Let him learn (from his father’s example) to despise his mother. 7. Do not know or care who his companions may be. 8. Let him read whatever he likes. 9. Let the child, whether boy or girl, rove the streets in the evening—a good school for both sexes. 10. Devote yourself to making money, remembering always that wealth is a Better legacy for your child than principles in the heart and habits in the life; and let him have plenty of money to spend. 11. Be not with him in the hours of recreation. 12. Strain at a gnat and swallow a camel; chastise severely for a foible and laugh at a vice. 13. Let him run about from church to church. Eclecticism in religion is the order of the day. 14. Whatever burdens of virtuous requirements you lay on his shoulders, touch not one with one of yuur fingers. The rules are not untried. Many parents have proved them, with substantial uniformity of results. If a faithful observance of them does not spoil your child, you will at least have the comfortable reflection that you have done what you could.