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Healthy, happy children are the greatest of all rewards. All parents can have such children, and it is a duty they owe themselves, the children and the race. It is a most pleasant duty, for the returns are far greater than the cost.

In order to have first-class children parents must be in good physical condition and be controlled mentally. Chaotic parents can not have orderly children. The young people learn quickly from their elders and they usually take after one of the parents. They intuitively learn what they can do and what they can not do and how to get their way while we consider them too young to have any understanding.

Therefore it is important that their first impressions are correct. Begin to train the child in the way it should go from the day of birth. The first training will have to do with feeding and sleeping. These points are covered more fully in the next chapter. They are touched upon here to give them emphasis.

Feed the child three times a day, but never wake it to be fed. If you give the three feeds, the child will soon become accustomed to them and wake when it is time. If the child squirms and frets, it may be uncomfortable from being overfed or it may be thirsty. Offer it water but not food.

Let the child alone. Do not bounce it or carry it about. During the first few months the baby needs heat, nourishment and rest, and should have no excitement. It should not be treated as a plaything. After a few months it begins to take notice of things and then you can have much fun with it.

The right kind of love consists in doing what is necessary for the infant and no more.

Obedience to the reasonable requests of the parents is of the greatest importance in the successful raising of children. Parents should realize this even before the children are born. From the first, be firm, though gentle, with the little ones. Children should be so trained that when they are requested to do a thing, they do it immediately without any repetition. This will save both them and the parents many an unhappy hour.

The lives of many parents and many children are made miserable from lack of a little parental firmness at the start.

There are many little graces that are not vital, yet they are important, and these should be taught children early, for then they become second nature. Among these are good table manners. Ungainly table manners have no bearing on the health, but they give an unfavorable impression to others. We are partly judged by the presence or absence of such little graces.

Training children is like training trees. A sapling can be made to grow in the desired way, but after a few years it will not respond to training. The period of infancy is plastic, and then is the time to plant the seeds in the child's mind and teach good habits.

It is not difficult to train the children. If the parents are orderly and firm, instead of wavering, the children almost intuitively fall into line. Teach them to obey and they will later be able to command intelligently and considerately.

The babies are helpless at first. This softens the hearts of the parents toward them until they become very indulgent. Indulging and pampering children are bad for them. Kindness consists in doing for them what is for their good, which is not always what they desire.

If the children are properly trained at first, they need very little training later on.