Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast. I'm Sonia Schaefer. We talk a lot about instilling good habits in our children's lives,

but what can we do about bad habits that are already in place? That's the question one mama submitted in this Habits Q&A series.

In fact, she asked, do you have a step-by-step process to correct old bad habits?

The good news is yes. Charlotte Mason gave us a step-by-step process for dealing with bad habits

that are already in place. Now, here's the key. Don't focus on the bad habit. Focus on the good habit you

want to put in its place. Charlotte said, let us remember that this bad habit has made its record

in the brain. There is only one way of obliterating such record, the absolute cessation of the habit for a considerable

space of time, say some six or eight weeks. But the only way to secure this pause is to introduce

some new habit as attractive to the child as is the wrong habit you set yourself to cure. Parents and

Children, page 175. So here's the step-by-step process. First, identify the bad habits root. Second,

think of the opposite good habit you want to put in its place.

And third, practice that good habit faithfully for six to eight weeks.

Now let's talk through those steps one at a time.

First, identify the bad habits root.

Charlotte gave an example of a little girl who was constantly listening in on people's private

conversations, ferreting out where something was hidden, and happily volunteering to relate

everybody's business to everybody else.

Here's how she described the situation and how the mother came to realize that bad habits

root.

Susie is an inquisitive little girl.

Her mother is surprised and not always delighted to find that the little maid is constantly

on voyages of discovery, of which the servants speak to each other as prying and poking.

...