Gossip in the family.
Want of promptness on all sides: in getting up, in coming to meals, in going to bed, and in attending to duty generally.
Unfair dependence of the wife and mother upon the husband and father in regard to money matters at home. [Laughter.]
Dr. Vincent: I could talk on that subject. I have no doubt that there might be stories told here founded on fact, relative to the consummate and ineffable meanness of some men, who dole out a pittance to their wives, pocketing and otherwise managing to control their funds, leaving the woman, who does the most of the work and bears the heaviest burden, to feel like a beggar most of the time. [Applause.] And the contempt with which that man should be regarded I have no words, in the English or any other language, to describe. [Amen.]
The growing habit of beer drinking in the family, and hard cider, too.
The evil habit of criticising sermons, preachers and other Christian people before children, and thus making sceptics and infidels of them.
Dressing children for pleasure and not for health.
The mother saying to the disobedient boy, “I will tell your father of you:” transfer of authority from father to mother, and vice versa.
Repression of natural child-life in the home.
Want of the manifestation of affection which ought to be manifested in the home. Husbands and wives don’t kiss each other as often as they ought to.