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Show IKathleeii NorrisjaysTI q " The Husband Who Was Too Obedient Syndlcnto WNU Service.) I Jack loves to tale her places, to his golf club, to movies, to lunch down- ; mm, and she flatters him by referring everything to "Daddy." 1 feel neglected J linpv. f. By KATHLEEN NORRIS j A STEPMOTHER almost : lA alwayshas a trying time '; of it, and in these days 3 of easy divorces the world is full of stepmothers. What makes the situation especially trying foT them is p. that in the beginning every-thing every-thing sounds so pleasant and simple. Sam has two darling children, and Sally adores e: them already. The little girl is shy, and naturally talks a good deal about her mother, but the boy is a perfect dar-li: dar-li: ling. After Sam and Sally are !t married she means to make ? much of Sam's children. Anyway, Any-way, says Sally, joyously fe' flustered with wedding plans, they'll be with their mother a lot of the time, tt Sam feels at the moment that Sally is such a wonderful girl that she can't help winning the children's hearts. They'll adore her. (c So Sam gets his divorce, and it is s settled that 3ruce and Betsey are to stay with their mother 10 months 0' a year, spending two months with W and the new stepmother. That being legally arranged, and financially finan-cially arranged, what more is there to worry about? Trifles Threaten Later. WelL nothing, at the moment But within a few months the worries ' arise, and these trifles that seemed 7;; so unimportant on the wedding day, V- arise later to threaten the safety -:- of many a second marriage. For one thing, the mother of zZ Bruce and Betsey has every reason r. toe world for making trouble, if "I she can. She makes it hard for the I children to pay those promised visits I to their father's house. She talks rim slightingly, or perhaps with Wter scorn, before his children, and eads them to believe that Sally is A , adven.turess who came into a I nappy home and robbed them of k weir father. J.i Possibly it wasn't a happy home M Possibly Alma was the one j wrecked it, who wanted the di-,,,! di-,,,! Iorce' who made no effort to hold jj or Sam's affection. But all that J 'forgotten once Sam has started , , on upon a fresh marital hazard with '; 1 ! Sally. Children Sense Trouble. , Tne children feel the trouble in ill n a'r' and they are not natural h r reasonable with their stepmoth-h stepmoth-h Sa"yi on her side, is young, j - e "as had no experience with chil- ScW' andvery shortly she comes to S- fte jat il is wiser to leave them 5 t of the time with their mother, k .makes Sam restless. He 6 Jn.es hls boy and his small girl, (( h wants them to enjoy his new u ' 6 and his new felicity with him. y art. 1 meS UMatural. too, so there all , 01 them: a11 uncomfortable; '" Placed in a false position. ij er Cantlot divorce their moth-U) moth-U) miil!larry another woman, and re-W re-W Z Ward his children in the ;'e Portion that he had when he back f their home and their ,f for eround: the person they took thenfrtanted as Dad. wh0 wanted p and be 0n time for breakfast ' Aave them movie money. f.. att, ?man cannot take her children ether their father' 311(5 Put an" "'"'and man m that father's place, haDD blne wUh her new bridal ;,V new 3nd her absorPtion in her ? weU. e her motherly attitude as i. Ctv Are ExcePuns- a'j and th gS sunP1y don' mix-ciie mix-ciie J Woman who tries to recon-" recon-" oervM6"1 merelv wrecks her own A hcr and those of everyone around ill ThereCUrSe there are exceptions. y are wise, simple, self-effacing STEPPARENTS Stepmothers and stepfathers always al-ways find themselves in a difficult situation. This usually arises from the inability of the child and stepparent step-parent to adapt themselves to one another. An anxious mother of a 17-year-old girl here confronts Kathleen Norris with a problem that is just the opposite: her second sec-ond husband is too affectionate to his pretty stepdaughter. Miss Norris Nor-ris says that time offers the best cure for this problem. women who see to it that the children chil-dren and the new husband are brought to know and understand and like each other. Beatrice, for example, is a case in point. Nine years ago she divorced di-vorced her husband, and gave a small girl of eight a new father. For a while there was nothing they could do with little Alice. She hated everything about the change, and wept continuously for her own Daddy, Dad-dy, and her own house, and the old school and the old friends. Even a baby brother didn't com fort Alice, and for a while Jack, the stepfather, detested the child, and was glad when she went off to visit her own father and her grandmother. grand-mother. But today the situation is different. differ-ent. Beatrice, the mother, has two small boys to keep her busy. She has no maid, and for some seven years, she writes, she has never slept through a night undisturbed, or been in bed later than six o'clock in the morning. Stepfather's Attitude Changes. Alice, the once unmanageable little daughter, is now a lovely seventeen; sev-enteen; her stepfather adores her, and she idolizes him. The mother writes anxiously that she is idle, out of school, and mad for dances and evening parties, and that Jack indulges in-dulges her ridiculously. Beatrice uses the rickety family car, when Jack doesn't need it, but Alice has been promised a new car on her eighteenth birthday. Jack loves to take her places, to his golf club, to movies, to lunch downtown, and she flatters him by referring everything to "Daddy." He says no man is good enough for his girl, and Alice-says Alice-says she never will find a man as perfect as Daddy. "I ought to be glad, I suppose," writes Beatrice. "But I feel neglected neglect-ed and lonely much of the time, sweet as my little boys' company is. The actual situation is that my husband is taking a younger and prettier woman about, and although both Alice and Jack are conscientious conscien-tious people, far above any suspicion, suspi-cion, it makes me feel as if my life somehow were unbalanced. If I suggest that Alice stay with the boys and Jack take me to a movie, he will do it amiably, but always with an effort, always with an air of marking time. And often, when we are alone together, he is thinking of Alice I know, for he will break out with some reference to her, or some quotation from her, as if she were the most amusing and lovable creature crea-ture in the world. Stepmother Neglected Now. "Well she IS amusing and beautiful beau-tiful and lovable, too, there is riot a mean bone in her body. But after all, it wasn't Alice with whom Jack fell so desperately in love, 10 years ago- it wasn't for Alice's sake that I divorced her father and was persuaded per-suaded into a second marriage. Nobody No-body could have been more passionately pas-sionately in love than Jack was thWe'li in answer to Beatrice', I can only say that this seems ;o me one of those problems that time inevitably inev-itably solves. With a girl as at-racUve at-racUve and sweet as Alice, marriage mar-riage will come along in a year or wog and Jack, who has made such a conspicuous success as a step a-ther, a-ther, can try being a step-grandfa-ther. |