The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-05-20
WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD
MOTHER

By Marion Harmon Weeks
If everybody could answer at once
the question, What constitutes g
good mother?" the unanimous re.
ply would be Patience Probably
this is the correct answer, but should
it not be given with restrictions? Not
all sorts of patience are desirable
not patience with all sorts of things.
There is sometimes a noble impati-
ence of wrongdoing that seems to &C.
complish more than the all-enduring
can possibly bring about.
The kind of patience which the
mother most needs is that which is
able to make large allowance for the
natural feeling and exuberance of
youth. 1t is the small offenses that
are most trying and that rightfully
demand the greatest stock of patti
ence. Yet in our dealings with them
mostoften fail of patient treatment
because We are SO far away from
childhood as to be out of sympathy
with it. Among the greatest trials
which mothers encounter are the con-
tinual lapses from good manners or
polite usage and the as continual
necessity for repetition of instruc-
ton. We are too prone to forget
that all these usages are highly arti-
ticial, and that the child is very close
to nature. Have you ever consider
ed what tremendous stock of pati-
ence the child must have to endure
constant correction for acts which are
perfectly natural and not bad in them
selves, but bad simply because usage
has made them so?
Respect for herself must be one of
the earmarks of a good mother, for
how can she expect to win the respect
of her children if she has none for
herself? To respect her motherhood
and to teach her children to respect it
Is a duty which she owes to society,
TO accomplish this result she must be
to a certain extent solf-considerate
Sometimes l have thought that the
selfish mother is better than the self
efacing one, because she cultivates
the beautiful quality of service which
Is often entirely lacking in families
where the mother has no considera
ton for herself and makes no effort
10 cultivate it in her children. But
neither of these is the good mother,
who requires as respectful a consid-
Grafton for her own likes and dis
likes, her personal needs and com
.orts, as she gives to those of her
husband and children. This does not
mean, of course, that she can ever ex-
'ect a like return in results, but the
disposition to be considerable of the
mother is to be cultivated. We are
'ften inconsiderate in our demands
lpon our children, interrupting their
LAY at most thrilling moments to ask
hem to run our little errands or to
70 many of the household services
hat seem separately so small, but
'hich collectively must often be very
rying to little legs and unseasoned
empers. 1t is equally true, however,
hat mothers are subject to the same
ind of Interruptions, and the self
and self-considerate moth
r will be able to make the child I'M
erstand that domestic relations al
'ays involve reciprocity. In fact,
lis understanding is one of the high
st qualifications of citizenship.
This mother that we are building
lust also be sympathetic but not
erge too closely on the sentimental.
ne woman who has close sympathy {
18th the joys and sorrows, the capa- t
llities and limitations, the aspira-
ons and failures, of childhood can f
g allowed considerable lack in 9TH 8
qualities. ONE mothers mistake t
disposition to spare children all the '
annoyance and pain of their own !
lrelessness or misdeeds for true T
but true sympathy sorrows v
n the suffering while it realizes the !
lstness of it. Many OF us fail of c
sal helpfulness as mothers because /
e have not the point of view which v
'es things from the side of the |
hid. On the contrary, we insist up G
n judging all his childish affairs
ON our grown-up theories, orgetting s
lat children do not develop along e
lie same lines, or even by the same a
WIS, that govern the adult. In point Il
act, the child is not really born till Q
lolescence is accomplished, and t.
,eds the largest sympathy in its lin c
atoms. = G
The best character may be formed s.
here there is both a high temper D
n a strong will hut +boy paoose;+ot> | =,