Evening star., 1936-10-19
NHERE Is no individual in the
world who has been so glori-
fad aS the old fashioned


fed as the old-fashioned |
n mother. Mother-loye, mother |
patience and forgiveness, mothers
sacrifices, have formed the plot OF in
Vulnerable novels, the theme Of mil
lions of nanny songs and are always |
good for a rousing cheer and sur
reptitious tear.
And Justly so. Motherhood Is the
hardest job that any human being
ever undertakes. 1t calls for the cour-
age of a soldier, the long suffering
forbearance of q saint, the wisdom OF
a seer. the mind reading ability OF a
psychiatrist, the hopefulness Of an op-
timist, coupled with the ability to
work longer hours than a stevedore.
Any woman who can pull on stunt
like this deserves all the incense we
can burn at her feet.
Strangely enough, however, while we
are fitting laurel wreath around the
head of the old-fashioned mother
everybody seems to be busy handing
knocks to the modern mother on her
most vulnerable places. Nobody has a
kindly word to say for her. Every
body Is on her neck and she is ac-
cused of being at the bottom Of all our
troubles, from our alphabetical-soup
politics down to the present fashion
In hats.
Now without wishing TO dim the
old-fashioned mothers luster as
mother, am here to say that the
modern woman is just as good
mother as her grandmother was; in
many respects superior one, be-
cause she is better educated, rears her
children more scientifically-and be-
lieve 1t or not-takes better care Of
her children than grandmother did OF
hers.
GRANDMOTHER took her children
as they came. and whether they
lived or died she laid at the door of
an inScrutable Providence. She washed
her hands of all responsibility in the
matter There is no more pathetic
sight than the rows of tiny graves in
every old cemetery that are there be-
cause mothers did not know enough to
sterilize their babys milk.
The modern mother is aware that
not only are her children's lives in
her keeping but also their health, and
their ability to do their work in the
world depends upon how she feeds
them. Hence, even the most flighty
| young mothers make almost a relig-
ious rite of fixing the baby's formula
and seeing that the growing children
get their vitamins and a balanced
diet and their sun baths. If nature
has been unkind and child is born
with some defect that can be cured,
mother moves heaven and earth until
she gets Johnnie's handy legs straight
/ ened or Susie's buck teeth pushed
back into line. No children in the
past had the chance to grow up into
being strong and good-looking men
and women that the youngsters Of
/ today have.
Many Of the things for which the
modern mother is most severely criti-
/ ciZed are in reality virtues instead OF
vices. Grandma holds up her hands
in horror when her granddaughter,
and more particularly granddaughter
in-law, puts the baby to sleep on a
hard bed in dark room instead of
rocking and singing him to sleep and
when she lets little Tommy yell his
head off until he finds that crying gets
him nowhere.
PUT all the same, Junior and Tom
my are getting a discipline that
is going to stand them in good stead
as long as they live. They are being
saved from being winners and laughs
to stand on their own feet, mentally
and morally, as soon as they are phys
ically able. It's the men and women
who we're babied too much who make
the cutters and failures of the world.
The modern mother is criticized for
being a gad-about who belongs to
clubs, steps out evenings sometimes
and goes places and does things in
stead of keeping herself shut up in
the nursery and smelling perpetu-
ally of baby food. But it's these mod
ern mothers who take their children
nationally instead of making fetishes
of them and keep their homes to-
gether for their children. Their hus-
bands don't 60 galavanting off after
strange women while they are baby
worshiping, and when their children
grow up they are able to guide them
and help them when they most need
help, because they have kept up with