A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at SchoolBeecher, Catharine Esther
General
A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School
Beecher, Catharine Esther
Home economics
There are some mothers, who take pains to teach their boys most of the
domestic arts, which their sisters learn. The writer has seen boys,
mending their own garments, and aiding their mother or sisters in the
kitchen, with great skill and adroitness; and at an early age, they
usually very much relish joining in such occupations. The sons of such
mothers, in their college life, or in roaming about the world, or in
nursing a sick wife or infant, find occasion to bless the forethought
and kindness, which prepared them for such emergencies. Few things are
in worse taste, than for a man needlessly to busy himself in women's
work; and yet a man never appears in a more interesting attitude, than
when, by skill in such matters, he can save a mother or wife from care
and suffering. The more a boy is taught to use his hands, in every
variety of domestic employment, the more his faculties, both of mind and
body, are developed; for mechanical pursuits exercise the intellect, as
well as the hands. The early training of New-England boys, in which they
turn their hand to almost every thing, is one great reason of the quick
perceptions, versatility of mind, and mechanical skill, for which that
portion of our Countrymen is distinguished.
The writer has known one mode of systematizing the aid of the older
children in a family, which, in some cases of very large families, it
may be well to imitate. In the case referred to, when the oldest
daughter was eight or nine years old, an infant sister was given to her,
as her special charge. She tended it, made and mended its clothes,
taught it to read, and was its nurse and guardian, through all its
childhood. Another infant was given to the next daughter, and thus the
children were all paired in this interesting relation. In addition to
the relief thus afforded to the mother, the elder children were in this
way qualified for their future domestic relations, and both older and
younger bound to each other by peculiar ties of tenderness and
gratitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account