Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1883 — Self-Dependence. [ARTICLE]

Self-Dependence.

Never do for a child that which he can reasonably do for himself, is an admirable maxim, but one that we, as mothers, too often fail to adopt as our rule of action. Hew many scenes we can all recall of a fretful, exciting child demanding service of a frail mother, which he is much better able to perform himself! And by this one mistake alone thousand of women allow children to hang as a weight about their necks, while they might not only be self-helping in a large degree, but save her many steps in the performance of other duties. To be sure, children will be waited upon if they may; that is but natural, and in this as in other things much depends on the way we begin with them, so that the mother who is waiting till Jennie and Kittie are big girls to help her will probably wait in vain. We recall a family of children we once knew, whose mother appreciated this fact, and practiced most successfully what we now preach. The father was a mechanic, a man determined to lay aside a little from time to time for the rainy day that may come to all, and the mother agreeing with him in his policy, put all her woman’s-wit to work to help him to accomplish his purpose. The children were small, and there were six of them, but the two oldest were girls, aged 11 and 9. At this time the mother determined to dispense with the help she had felt obliged to keep and arranged her household accordingly. To begin with, each child, from the oldest to the little toddler of 2|, had his own drawer and hooks for his clothes, and when they were folded from the bars all that did need mending were sorted, and each little one’ took his clothes and put them where they belonged. Then, when a bath night came, each one knew just where to get clean clothes to put on, and those for the next day’s wear carefully laid out. Nor was this all, but the soiled ones were also put where they belonged. Now by this one arrangement, it is only one of the many unusual things those children did, what a world of wear and worry the mother saved herself, only one similarly situated can properly appreciate. But they did more than help themselves, for selfhelpfulness developes a desire for general usefulness, and each morning, when the breakfast was over, the two older girls washed the dishes and put the kitchen in order and brushed up the crumbs in the dining-room, while the mother put her room and the sit-ting-room to rights. Moreover, the children made their own beds before school time; the two little girls who slept together, one at each side of the bed worked together in making theirs, as ( did the boys next younger with their little bed. The three older ones of the family needed no help whatever to prepare them for school, but when they came to the breakfast table, were ready, with the exception of removing the large work aprons they always wore till the work was done. So by 9 o’clock, that mother with baby dressed for the day and wee Edith made tidy, was ready to take up her sewing, and that without feeling tired and flurried and out of breath from undue hurrying. In fact, there seemed to be no hurry in that home. The work was so ordered and divided that, with a family of children that would ordinarily require two women’s constant effort to care for, the mother with their help did it all, with more ease and satisfaction than is usual in families amply supplied with help.— Exchange.