The wrong time is when the question of obedience is pending, and the wrong manner is when they are offered as inducements to obey.

We may offer reasons for _recommendations_, when we leave the child to judge of their force, and to act according to our recommendations or not, as his judgment shall dictate.

But reasons should never be given as inducements to obey a command.

The more completely the obedience to a command rests on the principle of simple submission to authority, the easier and better it will be both for parent and child.
_Manner of exercising Authority_.
Let no reader fall into the error of supposing that the mother's making her authority the basis of her government renders it necessary for her to assume a stern and severe aspect towards her children, in her intercourse with them; or to issue her commands in a harsh, abrupt, and imperious manner; or always to refrain from explaining, at the time, the reasons for a command or a prohibition.

The more gentle the manner, and the more kind and courteous the tones in which the mother's wishes are expressed, the better, provided only that the wishes, however expressed, are really the mandates of an authority which is to be yielded to at once without question or delay.