Parents' Attitude Toward Their Children's Health

Nothing sets a mother's mind at rest more than her feeling that her child is in good health — and that because of her belief that her child's happiness depends on the soundness of his body.

The difficulty that most mothers meet when they first practice the art of motherhood may often be the result of their clinging to the rules of child-rearing to the letter. Let us suppose the doctor has said: "The child must go to sleep early," and this child has not slept — why then the anxiety and unease, madam?! Instead of keeping the child in his bed against his will and showing your anxiety because he is not asleep, bring him toys that do not use up much of his bodily strength, to play with alone in his room until drowsiness overcomes him and he sleeps. Is not the highest aim of all mothers the child's comfort and health? How, then, is a child to sleep in comfort if his mother forces him to sleep, threatening him and warning him, out of fear that his lack of sleep will weaken his health??

It has been established for the educators that the child is affected by his mother's "nerves," and that his mental unease affects his body. The child who feels that his mother is anxious on his account refuses to sleep or to eat for a psychological reason that he himself does not understand — but there must be in this a meaning that every conscious mother understands. Parents, then, must not let anxiety take possession of them, for its effect shows itself in the child's psyche, just as it affects his bodily growth.