Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-05-07
The Place of the
Grown-Up Daughter.


l have space left for only a glance at
subject that l may resume in later
talk. To some mothers daughters re-
main children in the sense of being kept
in leading strings long after the daugh-
tiers have arrived at wOmanhOOd. My
mother never felt that / could be trusted
to choose a hat or q gown for myself,
said a woman to me the other day, "and
l was nearly 30 years old before | ever
thought of making a visit, accepting an
invitation or doing the least thing with
out asking her consent. She repreSsed
initiative on the part of her unmarried
daughters. My father on one of my
birthdays gave me a sum of money to
I spend as l wished / united with a
friend in the purchase of tickets for
philharmonic rehearsals that season.
and although / was "a, my mother cried
about it, and scarcely spoke to me for
a week"
Some of you may think this an ex-
treme case, but [ happen personally to
know women in their forties who seldom
take a step without obtaining permission
from an imperious mother in her seven
ties. The mother has been so dominant
throughout life that her daughters have
withered instead of expanded beneath
her gentle, unrufied and tyrannical
sweetness.
Despotism of the mother, though it be
Lorn of affection, is as fatal to independ-
ence in the daughter as harshness and
severity born of dislike could possibly
be, To every human soul there dawns
a day when it must answer for itself
To me few sights are more pitiable than
that of a helpless. infantile undeyeloped
woman who is unfit to meet changes of
fortune because she has been carried
over every hard place and never allowed
r, f,1.Tsy nj ny,+ G., IL
pied feet of the little Chinese lady.
feet on which she must totter because
she was born to a lofty station and
may not walk as common people do. are
not half so shocking to behold as the
crippled wills and faltering footsteps of
daughters who have been taught from
birth to rely on others, and who can by
no means stand squarely on their own
feet.
Where the grown-up daughter is suf-
fiCiently strong to hold her own and
strive for freedom successfully there may
result irritation and permanent misun-
derstandIng. Occasionally alienation of
love ana separation of interest follow
such antagonism Iii The ideal home life
there must be liberty of conscience for
all concerned. When the grown-up
daughter is out in the world supporting
herself she is less subject to petty bicker-
ingS than when she stays at home, re.
naming to her mother merely a child
long after childhood is over Yet this is
not a plea to the daughter to leave her
home II she may by any means find
higher duty and happiness there. | re
peat that there are mothers and moth
erS, and indeed there are daughters and
daughters. In the perfect home no ques-
ton of rights TO be given or taken raises
its menacing hand. On the contrary,
sympathy and unseifshness prevail, and
ho - -
is that of self-sacrifce, not that of ag-
Observation-Disclosures Z. Sangster in
Woman's Home Companion.
--o.:-o~
Motherhood Sacred.
at is better to be a Madonna
holy mother-than to paint one" once
wrote a great woman author, and the
significance of these words is becoming
more and more apparent as we learn
to appreciate the high and holy office
which motherhood implies.
We know that a woman may con
secrate her chastened creative power to
other ends; she may become a great
artist and paint a soul-stirring picture;
a great writer and write a famous
classic: a great teacher and thereby
help to educate and uplift mankind but
as one young woman, engaged in educa-
tional work, so intelligentIy has put it:
For my part, / would a thousand times
raISnr be the wife of a kind, loving man,
his queen in his home than the most
brilliant teacher among them all. But
one thing is better than to be a wife.
that is, to be a mother"
However great a woman may become
in any avenue of endeavoT. she can never
hope to win the TRANSPORTING glory asso-
eiated with having been the mother Of a
Washington. Lincoln, Gladstone, Elmer
son OF otEar great men. nor is her chosen
task as great. NOT statesman. or kings
or queens" says a physician in an ar
ticle on The Women Of the Future"
have a task requiring such fOrethought
such eternal vigilance or such deli
cate manipulation as that which falls