The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1940-09-05
By KATHLEEN NORRIS
BELL syndicate-wNU serviceJ

A STEPMOTHER almost al
~ ways has a trying time
L n of it, and in these days of
easy divorces the world is full
of stepmothers.
What makes the situation es-
pecially trying for them is that
in the beginning everything
sounds so pleasant and simple.
Sam has two darling children,
and Sally adores them already.
The little girl is shy, and natu-
rally talks a good deal about
her mother, but the boy is a per-
feet darling. After Sam and
Sally are married she means to
make much of Sans children.
Anyway, says Sally, joyously
Hustered with wedding plans,
they'll be with their mother a
lot of the time.
Sam feels at the moment that
Sally is such a wonderful girl that
she can't help winning the children's
hearts. They'll adore her.
So Sam gets his divorce, and it is
settled that Bruce and Betsey are
to stay with their mother 10 months
of year, spending two months with
Dad and the new stepmother. That
being legally arranged, and finan-
cially arranged, what more is there
to worry about?
TrifieS Threaten Later.
Well, nothing, at the moment. But
within few months the worries
arise, and these trifies that seemed
so unimportant on the wedding day,
arise later to threaten the safety
of many second marriage.
For one thing, the mother of
Bruce and Betsey has every reason
in the world for making trouble, if
she can. She makes it hard for the
children to pay those promised visits
to their fathers house. She talks
of him slightingly, or perhaps with
bitter scorn, before his children, and
leads them to believe that Sally is
the adventures who came into a
happy home and robbed them of
their father.
Possibly it wasn't a happy home
at all. Possibly Alma was the one
who wrecked it, who wanted the di-
vorce, who made no effort to hold
Sam or Sans affection. But all that
is forgotten once Sam has started
off upon fresh marital hazard with
Sally.
Children Sense Trouble.
The children feel the trouble in
the air, and they are not natural
nor reasonable with their stepmoth-
er. Sally, on her side, is young,
she has had no experience with chill
dren, and very shortly she comes to
see that it is wiser to leave them
most of the time with their mother.
This makes Sam restless. He
loves his boy and his small girl,
and wants them to enjoy his new
home and his new felicity with him.
He becomes unnatural, too, so there
are four of them all uncomfortable;
all placed in false position.
A man cannot divorce their moth
er, marry another woman, and re-
main toward his children in the
same position that he had when he
was part of their home and their
background; the person they took
for granted as Dad, who wanted
them to be on time for breakfast
and gave them movie money.
A woman cannot take her children
away from their father, and put an
other man in that fathers place,
and combine with her new bridal
happiness and her absorption in her
new mate her motherly attitude as
well.
There Are Exceptions.
These things simply don't mix,
and the woman who tries to recon-
cile them merely wrecks her own
nerves and those of everyone around
her.
Of course there are exceptions.
There are wise, simple, self-effacing