Ideals about "spoiling" children have always involved consideration of what a spoiled child is, how spoiling occurs, and what the consequences of spoiling are; they have always included concepts of the child’’s nature and concepts of the ideal child and the ideal . The many mothers of 1820 who belonged to the early "maternal associations" struggled to uphold the ideas about child raising that had been prevalent in the 18th century. They had always been told that the spoiled child stood in er of having trouble later in life (when exposed to the temptations of the world) and, more importantly, stood in er of spiritual ruin. At first, the only approach these mothers knew was to "break the will" of the child. This approach, coming initially from the theology of Calvin, the French Protestant reformer, was inherited from the stern outlook of the Puritans. As one mother wrote, "No child has ever been known, since the earliest period of the world, destitute (没有的) of an evil disposition—however sweet it appears." Infant depravity (邪恶的行为) could be curbed only by breaking the will so that the child submitted implicitly to parental guidance. In 1834, a mother described this technique: upon the father’’s order, her 16-monm-old daughter who had refused to say "Dear Mama" was left alone in a room where she screamed wildly for ten minutes. Then the child was commanded again, and again she refused, so she was whipped and ordered again. This continued for four hours until the child obeyed. Parents commonly reported that after one such trial of "will", the child became permanently submissive. In passing, we can note that knowledge about a child’’s "No" period might have moderated the disciplining of little children and the application of the adage "Spare the rod and spoil the child." By freeing the child from its evil nature, parents believed they could then guide the child into acquiring the right character traits, such as honesty, industriousness, and sobriety. These moral principles,. fixed in the child’’s character, were to govern it throughout life, in a society where free enterprise, individual effort and competition were believed to be the ruling forces. Why did the mothers of 1820 tried to "break the will" of the child