Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1915-12-27
Mbat Makes
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When we say "homemaker" we usu-
ally have in mint the woman who
keeps and manages the house. But,
truly, is it fair to put the entire burden
of homemaking on the shoulders of
woman alone? Home is, in the last
analysis, an attitude of mind, feeling,
an emotion of several persons toward
one another, and not simply a pride in
material possessions.
No matter how strongly woman
synthetiZed in herself all the instincts
and feeling which go to make home,
she cannot alone create the true home
unless she is supported by the other
members of the family. Father is a
homemaler, too, as truly as mother in
the higher sense, and each other mem
her must feel his share and response
bility in making the home spirit.
We do not mean. of course, that
father must wash the dishes or hire
and fire the help, but that he should
feel his Importance in family councils
and the need for his judgment above
and beyond the mere paying of the
bills. The old Spartan type of father,
whose very glance made the children
tremble and who thought himself the
divinely appointed agent over his chill
dren's very lives, has happily dlsap-
peared. But the modern parent, who
has taken his place, seems to have
gone to the other extreme of good ma
tured Indifference. This is just as I'M
wholesome and unbalanced. Fathers
opinion, his taste, his cooperation, his
strength, are needed equally to support
his side of the arch of home.
When the woman is held solely re-
sponsible as the homemaker, the chill
dren, instead of doing their share,
stand around and expect to receive
the pleasures and benefits of fine
home spirit without creating this spirit
themselves. 1t is not possible for the
woman to carry this load which should
be distributed among all the members
of the family. The children must be
encouraged, each in his own small way,
to do some work and take some share
In the duties or they will never fully
appreciate the pleasures they receive.
A definite daily task, like emptying a
wastebasket or taking care of pets,
putting up little shelf or helping to
dust or sweep, will engender in the
child's mind its close relationship to
the home. Only by personal service
and doing, either with the hand or
heart, do we come to love our sur.
roundings or the people who dwell in
them. Only by having real part in
the life of the home can each member
feel that 1t is his home. Too often we
feel that the attitude of the father,
say, is that 1t Is the mothers home,
where she entertains her women
friends at afternoon gatherings, where
she has chosen the furniture, where
everything is arranged and ordered as
setting for herself.
Again, too often the young son feels
that his mothers parlor is no place
for him. Why should it be when its
gilt chairs and gilt clocks and fragile
draperies are far removed from his
masculinity? Home to him probably
is the den which he has helped to ar.
range and decorate with pennants and
footballs or where he keeps his books
and tools. The one great need in mod
ern home life seems to be to draw the
members of family to the home
through greater individual RESPONSE
bllity toward the home.