What Every Mother Should Do.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2646, 30 October 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

What Every Mother Should Do.

Many a mother makes a mistake in feeling that her young child is so well and strong that he does not need to sleep or rest during the day. The result is that we see children from two to ten years old awake and active from seven in the morning to seven in the evening. The mother will commonly say that, “Harry will not sleep during the day: you cannot make him.” That is ' absurd. The trouble lies with the mother —not with the child. H' a mother will begin early in her child s life to see that he has, each day, a tew minutes’ complete quiet and rest, she will teach him a control of mental and physical activity that will be worth a fortune to lirm, later. Every child should be compelled to lie down on his back —not in the house, but in the sunshine and fresh air—well covered if the season demands it, for some part of each day. First for only two minutes if need be, then five minutes then ten minutes, each day gradually increasing the time until a half-hour is reached, twice each day. lif the child will sleep «o much the better, if not, insist, gently but firmly, upon complete cessation from talk or play. Thousands of mothers have found out the wonderful results that have come, to their children from this simple, but effective, twice-a-day complete half-hour of quiet nerves and restless muscles. Nothing would be so beneficial to the thousands of children we see on every hand with the nervous blinking of the eyes and the twitching of the facial muscles as this wonderfully recuperative sunsnine and rest habit! And to none is it more needful than to the child we so often see who asks' a question and pulls at -• his mother’s dress or jerks at her arm in his impatient desire for quick attention or a quick answer. These tricks of the child are only physical expression of a restless mind that surely uni; dermines • the health if indulged, • hut will, quickly disappear if each day the child is given-what he so sorely needs—a period of absolute rest, both m mind and body, under the wonderfully soothing rays of the sun.