NURSERY ROUTINE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 52, 29 January 1938, Page 12

NURSERY ROUTINE.

THE FIRM MOTHER

Putting children to bed on summer evenings when the sun is still shining brightly is sometimes rather a difficulty, says a writer in an exchange. The children plead to be allowed to stay up “just a little longer,” and a mother feels hard-hearted if she drags them in from their games in the garden to put them to bed. Yet routine in the nursery is essential, and especially the routine of bedtime. Little children are creatures of habit, and if they are accustomed from their earliest days to a regular fixed hour for going to bed, they will not think of asking to be alloged to stay up later. It is only when some well-meaning, but misguided, relative or friend pleads for an extension of play, or they hear a small companion being granted permission to stay up later that they begin to consider putting off the bedtime hour a desirable thing. Never let them stay up as a treat, if you don’t want that treat to be repeated again and again. The only time when the bedtime hour can be postponed is in very hot weather, when it is often better to let the children go to rest immediately after their mid-day meal and continue all afternoon, and play or go for walks in the cool of the evening. If they are put to bed at the usual time after resting so long they will not be tired and will not go to sleep quickly. In warm weather cool the bedroom as much as possible by hanging up a dark blind, or curtaihs of thin dark material or, better still, shielding the windows from the glare of the sun by sun-blinds, if the room faces west or south-west. A cool room away from at noisy street is best for little ones who have to go to bed while it is still daylight. A warm bath, or a sponge all over in warm water, followed by a dusting of talcum powder will cool and refresh hot and sticky little bodies. Don’t let the last meal be at all heavy or too close to bedtime. If children are thirsty let them have a drink of cold (but not iced) home-made lemonade, orangeade or barley water,