The first ideal of the child is his mother. He loves her and therefore resorts to action which please her and enable him to win her love and approval and avoid actions which displease her or cause in the loss of her love and approval.
The child, thus, regulates his conduct according to a moral code which he derives from the personality of his mother. Every thing she believes to be good, beautiful and true are regarded as ideals. This is the beginning of the expression and satisfaction of his moral urge. Gradually, the child comes to know that the approval and disapproval of the mother is derived from an ideal of her own which she loves. The child therefore, shifts from the personality of the mother to the ideal of the mother. Soon he finds that this ideal is also the ideal of all his teachers and elders, and in fact, of all individuals in the community.
The more the mother loves the child, the more the child will love and admire her, and the easier it will be for her to impress upon him her views about God and universe. Therefore, as frequently as possible the mother should tell him that God likes good action, obedience to parent and teacher kindness and generosity, courage, truthfulness, justice, honesty, industriousness, dutifulness, cleanliness, regularity, etc. And it is the mother who can do best.
If the mother is not herself God-conscious and tells the child to be good for the sake of goodness and kind for the sake of kindness, she will do a positive harm to the moral development of the child.
