GOOD HABIT TRAINING OF CHILDREN PAYS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 54, 21 October 1949, Page 7

GOOD HABIT TRAINING OF CHILDREN PAYS

The big secret of habit training for children is for the parents to gain the child's co-operation from the word "go." A good way in which to start to get the child's co-opear-tion is through its inborn need for love and affection. After the first three months a baby begins to realise when a mother is annoyed and when pleased with it. Real mothering includes a certain amount of nursing and fondling and being talked to in a loving voice. The baby who has been treated this way from birth feels more secure and is therefore sweeter tempered and more docile than a child who has lacked this love and who becomes frightened and peevish. Children always co-operate better in the development of desirable habits if they are treated with love and kindness instead of being bullied and terrified. But even in the best of conditions they do occasionally let parents down. If parents say the wrong thing or go about correcting the child the wrong way, it can easily make matters worse. Co-operation is the word. The older the child gets, the more co-operation it will give, provided habit-forming is started early enough.