once upon a time there was a woman who had a son . he was so lazy and slow that there was not a single blessed useful thing he would do . but he liked to sing and to dance , and that is what he did all day long , and far into the night as well . the longer this went on , the worse off his mother was . the youth was growing , and he wanted so much to eat that it was barely possible to find it . more and more went for his clothes the older he grew , since his clothes did not last long , as you may imagine , because the youth skipped and dance about without stopping , through forest and field . at length it was too much for his mother . one day she told the young fellow that he ought at last to get to work , and really do something , or both of them would have to starve to death . but the youth had no mind to do so , he said , and would rather try to win the daughter of the mother in the corner . if he got her , then he would live happily ever after , and could sing and dance , and would not have to plague himself with work . when the mother heard that she thought it might not be such a bad idea after all . she dressed up the youth as well as she could , so that he would make a good showing when he came to the mother in the corner , and then he set forth . when he stepped out the sun was shining bright and warm . it had rained during the night , and the ground was soft and full of water puddles . the youth took the shortest path to the mother in the corner , and sang and danced , as he always did . but suddenly , as he was hopping and skipping along , he came to a swamp , and there were only some logs laid down to cross it . from the one log he had to jump over a puddle to a clump of grass , unless he wanted to dirty his shoes . and then he went kerflop ! the very moment he set foot on the clump of grass , he went down and down until he was standing in a dark , ugly hole . at first he could see nothing at all , but when he had been there a little while , he saw that there was a rat , who was wiggling and waggling around , and had a bunch of keys hanging from her tail . 
she could not afford to care for him anymore .
why did the mother think the youth's idea was not a bad idea ?
why did the mother think the youth's idea was not a bad idea ?