Rules for the Mother at Home in Training Her Children

Many of these rules were taken The Mother at Home.

1.- Obedience is absolutely essential to proper family government.
2.- Never give a command for which you do expect prompt obedience.
3.- Never punish when the child has not intentionally done wrong.
4.- Never think that your child is too young to obey.
5.- Guard against too much severity. By pursuing a steady course of efficient government, severity will very seldom be found necessary. If, when punishment is inflicted, it is done with composure and with solemnity, then occasions for punishment will be very infrequent.
6.- One great obstacle is the want of self-control on the part of the parents. If you don’t have self-control, then your children won’t either.
7.- Be firm then in doing your duty invariably. Never refrain from governing your child because it is painful to maternal feelings.
8. - Do not talk about children in their presence.
9. - Do not make exhibitions of your children’s attainments.
10.- Do not deceive children.
11.- Do not be continually finding fault.
12.- Parents must make the Christian training of their children their own personal duty.
13.- Parents must have deep Christian devotional feelings within themselves.
14.-Present Christianity in a pleasant aspect.
15.- Utilize appropriate occasions for teaching the children about Christ, through the day, each day.
16.- Avoid introducing Christian lessons upon inappropriate occasions, such as when the child is angry, or right after they’ve done wrong. Christian lessons are best presented when the child is calm and in their normal routine.
17.- Make the Bible your text book in the Christian instructions of your children.
18.- In teaching children from the Scriptures, aim at interesting them in the moral truths and sentiments which the narratives convey.
19.- It is our privilege and duty to describe heaven to our children, as God has described it to us in His Word.
20.- Next to the Bible, as a means of Christian influence, we must place the careful culture of our own hearts.
21.- Dwell particularly upon the Saviour, in the Christian instruction of children.
22.- Pray with your children.
23.- Teach your children to pray themselves.
24.- Expect that your child will become a Christian.
25.- Do not speak to others of the piety of your child.
26.- Mother to have a devotional spirit.
27.- Mother to be cheerful.
28.- Mother to be kind.
29.- Mother to be polite.
30.- Mother to have the daily effort of pleasing God in the performance of every duty, small and great.
31.- Mother to guard her tongue and spirit.
32.- Teach your children to cultivate purity of mind.
33.- Teach your children to observe truth.
34.- Teach your children to forgive others.
35.- Cultivate in your children a taste for pure and noble pleasures, instead of a love of worldly gaiety.
36.- Know that mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations as all other earthly causes combined.
37.- The subject of education must be attended to with persevering study.