Evening star., 1942-09-02

house, so why didn't you teach us
how to do it, instead of letting us
waste so much time and money on
trying to acquire flummery accom-
plishments? For who nowadays
wants to listen to an amateur COM
NIT mayhem on a piano when you
can turn on the radio and hear good
music? And what's the good of
being a toe dancer when we spend
our nights walking the baby with
the collie?
And, for heavens sake, why
didn't you give us the lowdown on
| husbands and make us wise to the
fact that husbands and sweethearts
are different breeds of animals, with
different characteristics? The mar
riage ceremony does something that
| changes them from lambs into roar
ing lions, and it Is q shame and a
disgrace-it is actually heartless-
for mother to let poor little in
nocent baby girl walk into one of
their cages without knowing how to
protect herself.
"'You couldn't have been married
to Father for Is years without find
ing out lot about husbands and
how to manage 'em and make 'em
eat out of your hand. so why didn't
you pass your experience along to
us and give us some points that
would have kept us from having
run-ins with our husbands, and
saved us from bedewing our pillows
with our tears many night when
our Toms, Dicks and Harrys ended
an argument by slamming the door
behind them and going downtown
to play poker with the boys?'
II have had to listen to these
reproaches about not having pre-
pared them for marriage from my
own daughters. So has every other
mother whose girls are married.
And what their husbands think of
us in having reared girls who do
not know the first principles of
homemaking, I tremble to think.
But, in reality, the blame rests on
the girls themselves, not us. Our
perfect alibi is our daughters.
I'm the past there may have been
girls who were mothers little help
ers. Possibly there are few of the
species still extant, though when 1
look back on my own life I don't
recall that I had any ungovernable
passion for washing dishes and doing
chores around the house, nor am I
personally acquainted now with any
girl who would rather read the
cookbook than a sixth best seller.
But. be that as it may, most of
us mothers do try to teach our
daughters a few of the elementary
principles of homemaking before
| they tackle marriage, which is the
most complicated job on earth, but it
can't be done. They don't take it.
They laugh us to Scorn when we
tell them that, whatever else
woman needs to know in life, she
| always needs to know how to cook
and sew and run budget. They
won't listen when we warn them
that they will save themselves
lot OF grief and maybe losing their
husbands if they prepare themselves
to be good wives after marriage.
And after we have worn ourselves
out in vain to fit them for their jobs,
we throw up our hands and quit.
For, you see, every young girl
not only believes that she knows
1t all and is the last word in
sophistication; but she looks upon
her mother as doddering dodo
! who doesn't know what she is talk
ing about. Maybe those old-fash-
ioned ideas were good in mothers
day, but they are the bunk now.
She doesn't know that the funda-
mental truths Of life never change.
so there We poor maligned
mothers are. And there our incom-
petent daughters are. And there
their poor husbands are. Pity us
! ALI"