Show KATHLEEN NORMS Childhood Has Certain Rights YOU HELP my brother and me solve a terrible Vivian from a are 16 and Five years ago my mother divorced my taking us with her to and marrying on the day of her a man to whom she had long been My father had Just been appointed to the of a California branch of his and he moved The arrangement was that we were to spend summers with which we have and that when Bob was 14 we should have the right to choose which parent we wanted to live mother has a little boy by this second and also the care of a daughter of my stepfather's first our house is very and money although my father pays generously for my support and Both my brother and I have decided that we want to go to my who now has a comfortable with a beloved aunt of who Is keeping bouse for and I love our and although we leve our we feel that we can do little to make her happy In the difficult circumstances But she cries bitterly at the idea of our going away and tells us very frankly that she cannot make ends meet without the allowance out father makes her for our She says we owe her more than we ever can and of course we do Rut T that If T am to no to college I want it to be a California and Bob and I never want to be So we are writing to you to see If you can suggest any argument to my mother that will make her feel that this is the right thing to False Position Here Is one more case of a divorce that puts Innocent children cries bitterly Into an absolutely false and of a mother so Hind that she cannot see how serious an injustice she is doing to son and While married to their in their small she transferred her affections to another man dragged the children through the bewilderment of a Reno und a second and then established them in one of those mixed households Infinitely confusing to immature A Hard Vivian and between ruptured step-relationships between the curious fact of their father helping to support his and their mother claiming them the In which she has been so conspicuously lacking have victims of an adult selfishness rare even In this world of broken homes and broken She is attempting to them now against their own will In a home Infinitely less comfortable and dignified than that their father Any woman reading their story knows just how much work there is in a small containing a baby three older and a man and his Just how much dishwashing falls to Vivian's Even if her mother were the least selfish woman In the even if the circumstances were natural this would be a hard life for eager And if Vivian were offered an escape from such a mother would encourage her to take As It I can only advise Vivian and Bob to write their father that they are coming to and keep such arrangements as he makes secret from their mother until almost the day of their Then they must briskly and quiet ly pack and get giving her as little time as possible for lamentations and Vivian and don't forget to send affectionate letters to your small reminders to other members of the family that you have not forgotten No matter what your mother or even writes after you forget everything and maintain a friendly In time she will forgive ah since she is capable of so peculiar a conception of her duties and dignities as a she may never concede that you did anything but treat her As a matter of fact she has had her own way leaving a good taking two affectionate children away from their putting a stepfather over them and sharing maternal cara |