To Train Up a Child by Michael Pearl

Author:Michael Pearl
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781892112002
Publisher: No Greater Joy Ministries

CHAPTER 10

Safety Training

Some training has nothing to do with character building. It just keeps your child alive and healthy. These illustrations may sound harsh or cruel to some, but I have proven, along with many others, that this approach is both effective and safe.

GUN SAFETY

Being a hunting family, we have always had guns around the house. With our little ones, we made sure to keep the guns out of reach. But, with the possibility of them sooner or later coming in contact with a loaded gun, we trained them for safety.

With our first toddler, I placed an old, unused and empty, single-shot shotgun in the living room corner. After taking the toddlers through several “No” and hand-switching sessions, they knew that guns were always off limits. Every day of their growing-up lives, they played around the gun without touching it. I never had to be concerned with their going into someone else’s house and touching a gun. I didn’t child-proof my guns, I gun-proofed my children.

HOT STOVE

We’ve always had a wood-burning stove for cooking and heating. A red-hot stove can seriously burn toddlers. I have seen some awful scars on other children. But we had no fear, knowing the effectiveness of training. When the first fires of fall were lit, I would coax the toddlers over to see the fascinating flames. Of course, they always wanted to touch, so I held them off until the stove got hot enough to inflict pain without deep burning—testing it with my own hand. When the heat was just right, I would open the door long enough for them to be attracted by the flames, and then I would close the door and move away. The child would inevitably run to the stove and touch it. Just as his hand touched the stove, I would say, “Hot!” It usually took just one time, sometimes twice, but they all learned their lessons. Other than during the training session, where not even one blister was raised, we never had a child get burned. It was so effective that, thereafter, if I wanted to see them do a back flip, all I had to do was say, “Hot!!” They would even turn loose of a glass of iced tea.

SINKING FEELING

When our children were young, we had a pond in the immediate yard. As they grew to be toddlers, wandering around outside, we always watched them closely. Yet, knowing the possibility of one getting out of sight, we cranked up the training. On a warm spring day, I followed the first set of wobbly legs to the inviting water. She played around the edge until she found a way to get down the bank to the water. I stood close by as she bent over, reaching into the mirror of shining color. Splash! In she went. I restrained my anxiety long enough for her to right herself in the cold water and show some recognition of her inability to breathe. When panic set in (mine as well as

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