The Washington herald., 1921-06-01

DON'T PRESS AGENT MOTHER.
II has been said that . discreet
man never praises one woman to
another woman Taking this by
and large. It Is good advice. It Is
especially good advice when it
comes to q man who Is holding up
his mothers virtues as q model to
his wife
My husbands mother Is q splen-
did woman remarked a woman
who was discussing this subject
the other day, aand I think I
should have been very fond of her.
IL had not had her thrown in my
teeth so continually, but as 1t is, 1
am fed up on her until can't abide
her. From the very day of my
marriage. my husband has harped
continually on what mother says,
and mother does. and the way
mother cooks. until 1 am sick and
tired of mother. and all pertaining
to her.
More than that. he Is always
talking about his love for his
mother, and how nobody can ever
3
mothers influence, and so on. Now,
I want my husband to admire his
mother. and to love her, and I've
got sense enough to realize that
the way a man loves his mother
and the way he loves his wife. are
not the same, and that the two af-
fections do not conflict
Also, 1 have enough intelligence
to perceive that most of the things
that he says about his mother are
pure sentimentality. It's the ira
ditional home and mother stuff
that men are so strong for after
they get away from home and
mother far enough to idealize them.
! don't mean that my husband isn't
devoted to his mother, and that he
doesn't admire her. He does, and
with good reason; but when she is
with him l notice that she gets on
his nerves with her little pecu-
liarities. and that even the dishes
that she cooks for him, and that he
used to like as a boy, seem to have
lost their flavor.
Now. 1 wouldn't for the world
pull my mother-in-law down of the
pedestal on which her son has put
her. but all the same, there are
times when 1 wish that my hus-
band would quit burning incense at
her feet long enough to light
few punk sticks before mine.
And l also wish that he would
quit comparing us. always to my
disadvantage, and telling me what.
mother did, and mother didn't do,
under entirely different conditions
of life. 1t is doubtless true that
mother did not wear dresses that
were short in the skirt and low in
the neck, and mother did not be-
long to bridge clubs. and didn't au-
tomobile, and golf. and one-step,
and mother was always cooking.
and sewing, and cleaning, and
worked from sun to sun; but fash
ion. and conditions, and customs
have changed since then.
IF l should dress as my hus-
bands mother did he wouldn't be
seen out on the street with me. If
1 had as narrow a range of inter-
est as she had. and a conversa-
tional repertoire that only took in
the kitchen and the nursery. l
would bore him stiff. If l was
nothing but the household drudge
that his mother was, he would find
some other woman to play around
with him. II / even served him the
kind of food that his mother cooked
for him when he was a child, he
wouldn't eat it.
In reality. he likes my ways
much better than his mothers, and
/ am a better manager than his
mother was. but he doesn't know it.
He is still true to his childish
faith that his mother knew ii all,
and he hasn't enough gumption to
see that it hurts a wife's vanity to
be continually reminded that she
isn't a top notcher in her hus-
bands estimation. and that she al
ways has to play second fiddle TO
his mother.
"Of course, all of us know that
we are poor. weak, faltering crea-
lures, with a million faults and i'm
perfections, but all of us nourish
the Illusion that there is one indi-
yiduaI in the world whom we have
got fooled, and that is the one to
whom we are married. Every wife
loves to believe that her husband
thinks everything she does rs right
and that she is a paragon, Nas
wife, and mother. and a model OF
thrift, and blue ribbon COOK.
Every man likes to think that his
wife considers him a second Solo
mon. and that she considers every
thing he says, as the opinion OF
an oracle
And we would go along being
happy, hugging this blessed illu-
sion to our breasts, If 1t was not
FOR the fool way in which husbands
and wives press agent their moth
ers- 1t is when a man begins to
tell his wife what a superior being
his mother is, that poor wifey gets
the first crimp taken in her rosy
dream that her husband regards
her as an angel. It's when wire
commences to tell husband what
mother says on every subject un-
der the sun, that he realizes that
his opinion isn't going to rule IN
their household. and that his wife
considers him a mere idiot beside
the lady whose views she has been
accustomed to take on every SUD-
iect under the sun, ever since she
was born
"In reality. that is the secret rea-
son why so many men and women
hate their mothers-in-law. They
are continually being measured
against mother-in-law and found
wanting. They are forever being
compared to mother-in-law to their
disadvantage. and IL is not in hu-
IL l.