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Show Mother's Part in the Family Life Should Be Recognized Limit Lim-it to Self-Sacrifice, in Modern Days. "The old-fashioned home! That's the best antidote for juvenile delinquency." delin-quency." A New York state Judge said that recently. And to show that by "an old-fashioned home," he meant what he said, he added, "a home with a mother who can be found in It." In my opinion, says an eminent woman writer, there is much to be said for a home with a mother always al-ways in it We have but to think back to our own childhood to the strangeness of those rare occasions, when, returning from school, we did not find mother In, to realize this. However, what did that old-fashioned uome mean to the woman who was tin! mother "always in it?" In many instances It meant a life circumscribed and narrow. It meant preoccupation with petty detail which was all to the good, no doubt, where her family's physical comfort was concerned, but which Inevitably left a vnid when it came to the mental men-tal comradeship, the real understanding understand-ing and companionship, which is the modern mother's aim, though she may not he always in the home. To a woman c.f Imagination a life of always al-ways being in the home must have entailed a certain amount of boredom, bore-dom, In any age. And the ranks of the prematurely aged are recruited nowhere so successfully as from among the bored. And where did the husbands come In, with these wives whom they married mar-ried as women and soon knew chiefly as mothers? That depended of course on what they expected from a wife. But our interest in this discussion is In the children of a home, and whether they would be belter off In the old-fashioned home, with a mother moth-er always in It. It seems to me the answer Is that in each case we get something and we lose something we cannot have our cake and eat it, too. Personally, I feel that with a conscientious mother, the modern way has greater possibilities for her and her children. The modern way gives women more, and they can give to their children only as richly as they themselves have received. I believe be-lieve that a mother does not have to be always in the home to hold most important the Interest of that home and her children. It is the worst example of the modern mod-ern mother, the one who perverts her freedom In neglect of her home and children, who causes longing glances to be cast back on "the old-fashioned home." Suppose we took the worst example of the old-fashioned mother? She, too, would leave much to be desired. d. Bell Syndicate WXU Service. |