SPOILING THE CHILD
As bad as all spoiling methods are in child culture, they are decidedly disastrous—almost fatal—in the case of the nervous child; and yet it is these delicate, sensitive, cute little things that are the very ones who are most frequently the worst spoiled. Nervous children simply must not be played with all the time. They must be by themselves a great deal, at least this is true in their earlier years.
The nervous baby must early learn absolute respect for authority, so that what it lacks in its own nervous control may be partially made up for by parental suggestion and discipline. Of course, as suggested in a later chapter, the more ideal methods of suggestion, education, and persuasion should be employed in your efforts to secure obedience and promote self-control; but, when through either the deep-rooted incorrigibility of a child, or the inefficiency of the parent's efforts in the employment of suggestion—no matter what the cause of the failure of your ideal methods to control temper, stop crying, or otherwise put down the juvenile rebellion, whether the child has been spoiled on account of company, sickness or through your carelessness—when you cannot effectively and immediately enforce your will any other way, do not hesitate to punish; spank promptly and vigorously and spank repeatedly if necessary to accomplish your purpose. You must not fail in the case of the nervous child to accomplish exactly what you start out to do.
When the little fellow wakes up in the night and cries, see if he needs anything and administer to him. If you have previously tried the method of letting him "cry it out," which is usually entirely sufficient in the case of a normal child, and if such treatment does not seem to cure him, then speak to him firmly, give him to understand that he must stop crying, and if he does not, turn him over and administer a good spanking—and repeat if necessary to get results. In dealing with a nervous child we must follow the directions on the bottle of the old-fashioned liniment "rub in until relief is obtained."
No "spoiling practices" should be countenanced in the case of nervous children. They should be taught to sleep undisturbed in a room in the presence of usual noises. They should not be allowed to grow up with a sleeping-room always darkened by day and a light to sleep by at night. They should be taught to sleep on without being disturbed even if someone does enter the room; they should be taught to sleep normally without having to quiet and hush the whole neighborhood.