Show Kathleen Norris Says 1 1 Dont Don't Blame the Children Child en IN Bell Syndicate Features t r 1 r rt rl rl t l l II Ji With only a baby at home peace would de descend like a garment and week weel would take lake on a new delight the prospect of seeing the cl ildren dren y KATHLEEN NORRIS ANCY MILLER is a Chicago woman who fives in a six room flat fiat husband is devoted and andes andes es good money but he heks heIts ks Its hard comes home tired bred lately has grown strange and cross crosse e trouble is the chIldren have two gIrls and a boy tes Nancy Ann eleven y nine and Gloria Glona five Ill I'll t I m a bad manager a or too exacting erI er I ll 11 admit that they're well d chIldren Iliad I ll ad anything But as things are e ae re all gOing crazy and even ve made mistakes n all aD round it If we ye ve been very stupid there to t be some more sensible way age things than the way we re reI I 1 Ann and B fly lly quarrel con and Gloria lives in a state and tears dram and I adore our children ere mighty proud when our girl baby was joined by a brother and Gloria Glona we re reas reas as a fitting crown to a lovely For the first eight years of carried life we liv lived d m in the sub j and I felt that my children as fin m in manners and de lent ent as any other v woman oman s But now Will must be near ark his hours are Irregular I traded e homes With my mother moved Into town And s nce everything has been going d d ci ly I downhill Ann and B Uy fly Just have become rude They d not Dot to hear my requests and they resent being asked tIp me and do whatever I ask askI I ly and ungraciously All our JOY i pride In them Is gone It IS scold scold and hush hush aU all day and well Into the n Home Borne in iD Uproar mother has this apartment ee because she acts as man manat manet et at the house There are lO 10 her job for which she a salary is not sheI I t Is merely a ma of seeing pants nants of which there will be I for the place is tilled filled sand s and paying the Janitor staff staffa a month I have taken over ark to insure my mother her here e and that with the household IS d wartime marketing keeps Lay I need rest and qUiet as asas II as my husband does But we bedlam and for the first time In In speaking of a child uple sand said to me thoughtfully G Gher her er night perhaps they were breaks my be heart art not to be able site olce In my children feel sure Influence over them and their ion for tor their father and me mee meD D e ey are getting entirely out of Do you know any cure any of at modem school school PS ti that Will reach their stub little souls and give us back elight that parents ought to dear let me say In re- re reat reat at YOU don t need psychiatry other means of cure when re attempting the impossible Possible it is for two adults ret ree small children to lave m in onna With comfort for tor all con conor conOr or even With reasonable dIg d privacy Racket and noIse restlessness are inseparable r ch children need space room for all their activitIes aL ai parents CANNOT give their t en these advantages is one of ilea ulta of one civIlizatIon of the that I hope we will wll cure In Iner 4 er wiser world that is 15 corn com J ing But tint I 1 It comes mothers might lust Just as well face the truth Fathers possibly never will They are less With the chIldren they have less authon authority ty Shortcomings of Apartment Life But mothers are Bre smart enough to realize that three children penned for 24 in a few rooms restrained hours out of the 24 Without a back backi backyard backyard i yard a windmill a few fences to climb an empty meadow available Will be unmanageable pretty much all of the time and Will wall get into crIses of serIOus trouble whenever they can Boys break windows and climb into parked cars throw rocks and pick up swear words snarl and whine unless they are fed a con constant constant stant diet ot of funnies and movies GIrls grow lazy and saucy disappear pear after school and don t come home until just before dinner and later on at a surprisingly early age Jeopardize their later years by reek reck reckless less experimenting With night clubs motor trIPS overnight stays and lovemaking Small gIrls of 12 and 14 are sometImes involved In these adventures and a police matron de describing scribing them to me told me that almost always a crowded cramped nOIsy home was a part of the ex explanation explanation But about your own case Nancy Couldn t you board these children or at least the two older ones With your mother in the old envIronment With only the baby at home peace would descend like a garment and andI I week ends would take on a new de delight delight light with the prospect of seeing the cb children dren These are wartimes nothing is normal don t try to run your affairs WIthout taking into con consideration the changed condit ons the infinitely increased difficulties that attend everything we do today marketing catering transportation deliveries delayed taIlor and lawn taun dry services inexperienced sales sales- saleswomen saleswomen women m in the shops incomplete stock of everything Make a compromIse and send Ann and Billy to their grandmother Once back again agam With room to spread out phySically and mentally they will become their old selves nor normally normally mally well behaved AmerIcan chIl chIldren dren Mother Alother Alone Responsible And you other city mothers whose I growing boys and girls ls are becom becoming log ing Increasingly hard to handle re- re remember remember member that if you coop chIldren up tn in city rooms rob them of their right to woods and fields and road roadside side aide trees their rIght to hammer hammerIng kg Ing and digging and picnicking and tramping over the countryside you have only yourself to blame jf if they grow unmanageable and Impudent bored and unhelpful and fro o on to more serious defects as they grow older Several women of my acquaintance acquaint acquaint- acquaintance ance have solved thiS particular problem by moving into o the counts y |