Keeping Children Productive

If you don't want the precious baby to grow up to be into materialism, drugs, sex, violence, or crime - do something!  Rip the TV out by the roots.  Throw it "over the hill."  Move to a farm and make them milk six cows before breakfast.  If you don't have a new baby soon or a gramma to tend, adopt a special-needs child or two. Give your child something real to think about.

Plant a big garden to give him blisters. Teach him how to cut firewood, then use it. Don't wait until it's too late to mend spoiled brats. Catch them quick, while they are young and tender, and sock it to them! Get beehives, rear chickens, make pies to sell to the neighbors, hunt frogs and eat the legs, or do some serious fishing.

Take them to a mission field to live. Don't just stand back and wring your hands, do something to break the pattern and the peer pressure of our culture.

{Written by Mary Rice Somerville}

This sounds like some good practical advice to me. Children have way too much free time on their hands today and a strong sense of entitlement.  It is good to keep them active with productive projects. Long time ago, when most people lived on farms, the children had to work hard and be productive for the family to survive. Everyone had to pitch in.

Today it is much harder to keep your children busy and productive. Don't let them just sit around playing with the computer or watching television all day. This is not good for them mentally, spiritually, or physically.  Be creative and find ways to teach them to be hard-working, productive members of society.

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
Proverbs 13:4