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Show Kathleen Norris Says: Picnics at Home Bell Syndicate. WNU Features. f Since then her mother-in-law will agree to anything, everything, that shl suggests to lighten an almost unbearable load. STREAMLINE YOUR HOUSEHOLD DURING WARTIME Mothers cannot expect to run their households as smoothly as in the prewar days when capable help was easily obtainable. ob-tainable. Particularly where there are several children is it necessary to keep to the vital necessities food, shelter and warmth. This is Kathleen Norris' Nor-ris' advice to a woman with three small children, a husband hus-band and a nine-room house to take care of. The burden of trying to run this menage on a prewar standard is running her ragged. These are not normal nor-mal times and it is impossible to live completely normally. The woman is advised to live as though she and her family were in one of the war-torn countries and to consider only the basic requirements of existence. ex-istence. ize that you and your husband are carrying on the most important business busi-ness in the world and weather these bad years like a ship facing a storm. You'll find, once you take this attitude, atti-tude, that imaginary duties and obligations ob-ligations drop from you like autumn leaves, and that every day finds you discarding some onerous task thai you've always imagined HAD to be done. Several young mothers in my neighborhood have simply moved downstairs for the winter, and are not attempting to keep the upper rooms warm and clean. The children's chil-dren's beds are in the sitting room, Mother and Dad in the study, the dining room fireplace has become the center of the house, and meals are in the kitchen. A small stove keeps the bathroom upstairs warm, when it is needed. Just making the change, one mother told me, had awakened her husband to the desperate des-perate need of the situation; he accepted ac-cepted it in a sort of picnic spirit, and she says that now he likes it. This woman said her mother-in-law disapproved of this innovation. But she left her mother-in-law in charge one day of the twins and the baby, while she rushed off to do some shopping. She says the older woman was a wreck when she returned re-turned six hours later, the house a shambles, the children dirty and roaring, dinner not even started, and that since then her mother-in-law will agree to anything, everything, that she suggests to lighten an almost al-most unbearable load. By KATHLEEN NORRIS "K AY CHILDREN are I six, four and less -1- V J. than one years of age," writes Margaret Fulton Ful-ton from Philadelphia. "We have a nine-room house on a large lot on the outskirts of town. We have big trees and big porches, which seem to me, today, to say nothing but the one word 'sweeping.' My husband works hard, is paid $65 a week. We love each other, and we adore Bill, Bruce and Finn. "What I am asking you is, how can I take care of them all, and the house, and the meals, and the marketing, and keep myself always good-natured, good-natured, sweet and fresh? Little Bill is in school, five blocks away; he can't bepermitted to cross two arterial streets alone. I've got Bruce in quarantine because she was exposed to whooping cough. We've all had flu, including William senior, but light cases. "With no help, no didy wash, no granny or aunt to come in and relieve re-lieve me, I am tired, untidy, hurried hur-ried all the time. I should do mending mend-ing at night, perhaps, but in the evenings I am so sleepy and exhausted ex-hausted I go to bed right after dinner. din-ner. I'm no company for my husband; hus-band; I've no time for prettying myself my-self or fixing up my wardrobe. Getting Get-ting beds made, getting food on the table, comforting sobbing babies, making Finn's formula, spooning prunes into him, telephoning the market there simply isn't any end to it. Father Gets Tired, Too. "William gets nervous and critical; criti-cal; poor man. he is often as tired as I am. We look at our friends who have no children, and wonder whether wheth-er we were fools to involve ourselves in these infinitely worrisome if infinitely in-finitely precious responsibilities. What am I doing, or not doing, that makes all this so hard? I'm not a natural cook, but I can follow rules, and I try not to fuss and make unnecessary un-necessary work for myself. Other women must have written you of this problem; what did you say to them?" , My dear Margaret, I have said to hundreds of them what I say to you; that it can't be done. Not in these days of war; not under these conditions. No woman can manage three babies, a large house, cooking, cook-ing, beds, dusting, marketing, serving serv-ing meals, dealing with nursery illnesses, ill-nesses, washing, no matter how strong and capable she is. In the Did days there would have been a grandmother and aunts, to say nothing noth-ing of a good servant or two, to help. Today she has to fight on alone. Do the best you can, Margaret, and keep first things first. Keep the children in tough dark overalls, lerve most of their meals in sand-wich-and-mug fashion; have your Dwn meals entirely in the kitchen. Don't mourn "niceness" and "daintiness" "dainti-ness" and the "way Mother had things." There is nothing nice and dainty about war, and these are war times. Live as if you were in one Df the war-torn countries yourself; anxious only to keep your family together, to-gether, warm and housed and fed. Nothing more. Your husband, if he is a reasonably reason-ably intelligent man most husbands aren't, but perhaps yours is will quickly realize the basic importance af what you are doing; raising children chil-dren in these times. He will see, when you point it out to him, that nothing else matters except that we all GET THROUGH these days to . better times. Not what you wear, not dust and disorder are important, ; not flowers on the table and fresh little garments on the children when Dad gets home. Food, shelter, warm oeds, baths, and love, love, love all the way, these are what matter. nd these, whittled down to their tssentials, will keep you busy enough. Eliminate Finishing Touches. Cut out all fancy touches, all show, ill beautifying for the duration: real- |
