The Frugal Housewife and other stories

I went back in time for Mother's Day.
We loaded up the boys in the car and headed back to the 1830's in Old Sturbridge Village.
I was so excited. I had not been to this living museum since I was a girl and loved Laura Ingalls Wilder or, more specifically, Melissa Gilbert. It's safe to say I wanted to be "half pint."
So while the boys were in the tin shop, I was sitting in the Parsonage listening to Lydia Childs offer up the child rearing advice of the day from her book, "The Mother's Book."
 The book was not as well known as her "Frugal Housewife" tome that dispensed offerings like: use earwax to cure chapped lips. But then again, it had to be tough to follow those tips.
Lydia, or rather the woman who played her, told a group of  us that, as mothers, we must never yell.
"The first rule, and the most important of all in education, is, that a mother govern her own feelings, and keep her heart and conscience pure."
Lydia goes on to say that you cannot be pure if you raise your voice at your children or otherwise let your own "vexations" affect your little cherub.
I find myself nodding along with the fake Lydia.
 I don't want to yell.
Tell me what to do do...Mrs. Childs.
Pray.
That's it?
I started to think there were no new solutions or much difference for mothers over time.
But then Lydia reminded me time changes everything.
She said if you could not get through to your child about their misbehavior, you must tie them to a chair "gently" about the arms and legs with  "string."
So maybe that's where the advice went awry for me and knocked me back to the present.
Still the book's dedication is timeless.
"To American Mothers on whose intelligence and discretion the safety and prosperity of  our republic so much depend."
No wonder we need our own day.