The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-04-04
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! FROM GIRLHOOD
TO MOTHERHOOD
A Series of Papers Containing Hints
and Helps For the Young Women
of Our Day.
By Mary Lowe Dickinson.

In closing this little series of papers,
ranging through the varied phases of
the life of young womanhood, it is
natural that il should close with a. look
at the life of motherhood
This life, the natural and appropriate
climax of girlhood, is not. however, TO
be looked upon as the end. 1t is, in
stead, emphatically a new beginning.
For in each little life as it comes into
the home the mother has her chance
to re-create and to re-live herself.
All that she ionged for and failed to
secure for herself she may now desire
and claim for her child.
| The life pursuit begins over again
with new energy and with the added
sweetness and SacrednesS of an unSelf-
ish mother love-
Did you as young girl fail TO get
beauty and knowledge and pleasure
and happy opportunities? With the
knowledge of the ripper years, you can
seek all these things anew, and. gain
ing them for your child, you can enjoy
them with your child. 1t is your chance
to win back again what you lost; to
gather what you failed before to gain.
So each new birding in the nest
gives, in a way, a chance to live your
own life over. again, and to make II
everything lovely and sweet that IL
might have been. For the mother, wise
from the lessons taught by experience,
knows intuitively how to protect her
childs life from the stumbling blocks
which hindered her own attachments.
The effects to be produced by inner
tied temperament and tastes lie open
before her vision. And she knows well
how to impart counteracting influences,
or to develop the natural tendencies
of her child. She remembers how asSo-
Citations unfortunately cultivated in her
own young life led her into paths that
wound in and about the by-places OF
life, and did not lead her TO the royal
road of wisdom and superiority In
teaching the birdlings how TO grow,
how many an ignorant or fiippant or
careless mother has had her own best
growth or training. For, happily, there
comes with the mother love itself
something that convinces the mother
that the responsibility for the child
DEVELOPMENT is her own. The kinder
garten will help: the primary school
will help. The Sunday school Will help:
But the real helper is the mother, anu
the mother in the home.
And. perhaps, out of the many things
that may be mentioned as factors IN
the mothers development of her child,
if we could speak of but one. we would
name the fact that what the mother
is becomes far more powerful Tor
native agent than anything the
mother does.
In other words, the mother who aims
to be everything she would desire her
child to be, works better than she VINO
simply labors with the child to make
him what he ought to be.
III temper hardness, impatience, in
sincerity and all the black winged
brood of evil thoughts and habits and
feelings must have no place in the
home nest, if we would keep the bird
ling free from the moral faint. The
home atmosphere created by the moth
ers presence will imparb character to
the tastes, self-control to the DISPOSE
ton and delight to the heart of the
growing child And as it natures its
strongest incentive for Self-mastery
and self-advancement in rightness will
be the desire to be like mother For
the devoted and wise mother will, by
her home living have proven the value
of all that is the highest in human ma
ture.
Our subdivisions were teaching our
little ones, first, how to live;" second,
chow to grow" and third, how to fly"
2 With details concerning either one,
volume could readily be filled. The
comprehensive statement that to teach
them how to live, we should live all
that is noble and beautiful ourselves,
applies almost equally we'll to the other
two.
To teach them how to grow and how |
to fly, the first requisite also is, that
the mother should not have lost her !
own capacity or her desire for growth. !
And that her wings should not have !
been clipped and draggled in the dust. |
Too often mothers concentrate their !
attention upon the material benefits to |
be conferred upon their children, for
getting that the life is more than
meat" and that it is the spirit that !
giveth life;" for the tangible things
possessed by individuals should con-
tribute to the growth of the child's in
ner being-not tend to stifie it.
For a mother to seem burdened and |
by the multiplicity of her do
nestle duties is unfortunate. We ad-
nit that in many cases the burdens /
Of family responsibility are indeed /
grievouS to be borne. But we carry ,
our weight of care more easily when
we contrast it with the spiritual at
tainments those we love may receive
through the home atmosphere that we
as mothers are creating.
We are warned by him who knew
our temptations mot to let the cares
Of the world choke the word
FOR mother TO lose the use OF her
wings and become satisfied with the
phases of existence is the
saddest thing possible to happen to
and no woman can possibly let
It happen who considers that upon her
OWN aspiration and vitality depends the
higher life of her child. What the
young mothers want is to keep them
selves in touch with other mothers and
Is far as possible, with the plans and
methods for developing childhood, of
which the world seems already over
full. The most powerful stimulant to
Ter own interest will be the knowledge
Of what other mothers and teachers
and students are thinking and plan
hing for the welfare of everybodys
child.
The humblest mother in the lowliest
home will find it possible to come in
contact with other mothers who are
about these things. "The
Mothers meeting" which so often is
simply a prayer meeting or a sewing
Meeting. should include free discussion
If all the ways of guiding and direct
ng childhood in it's thought, in it's
play, in its work.
In our limited space we can scarcely
lint at the possibilities that lie within
he reach of every mother with refer
snce to the unfolding and enrichment
If her child. Let it suffice to say that
she who has the opportunity has the
% perform, and that she who feels the
dignity of her task and the greatness
If her ministry and who sees growing
Up about her young, true, noble souls,
heed envy no more prosperous woman
Ter lot