Evening star., 1942-05-03
Mothers Best Adjust Children to War
BY REX E. BUXTON. NJ. D.,
Director washineton Institute of

Jhenldi f1SkltHc.
This Is the third in q series OF
tour articles 1Urttten for publtcd-
ton during Child Health Week
By, the psychtatrist-director OF
the Community Chest-supported
institute Which propides scten-
ttfc mental hygiene services for
children and adults
In a great many instances it is
inevitable that childrens lives will
be profoundly disturbed by war In
others more fortunate it seems that
their lives can and will 60 on much
as before.
A childs capacity for understand.
ing the war and it's implications is
very limited. The younger the child
the more limited it is.
Children's worlds are very small
and because they are small a few
things and a few people assume un-
usually large proportions for them
A loss of favorite Teddy bear. NOV
ing to new neighborhood with a
new group of children to meet, the
absence of mother from home for a
few hours, can often become for a
young child g major problem.
In the previous article we men,
toned the two little Norwegian girls
who in period of four months ex-
perienced mostaof the horrors of
war, including repeated experience
with machine cunning, living within
mile of ior battlefield and
meeting Nazi soldiers face to face.
Feared Being Separated.
When they we're reunited with
their parents all of their thoughts,
attention and interest were directed.
not toward the awful experiences
that they had had, but toward
their fears of being separated again
from their parents The parents
found that the children were quite
unconcerned when airplanes flew
overhead but became quite upset
and frightened if the parents dis
appeared in the next room for a
few minutes. The children, of
course, were not interested in the
implications of the war, not even in
the question of who won the battles.
but were deeply concerned about
the way in which it affected their
lives, through separation from their
mother and father.
Perhaps this story makes the i'm
plications of war for children clearer.
Such disturbances of family life
after a fathers departure, or a
mother who has remained close to
her children suddenly going to
work, removal to new areas for war
work, changes in school, all of these
can, and do, assume great impor-
tance for the child. particularly a
young one. That children can and
must adjust their lives to many of
these changes we surely are forced
to recognize, but often the balance
is swung from emotional health to
disturbance through the number
and rapidity of these changes.
Those interested in the broader
aspects of war planning have recog-
rlized that 1t is not only family
responsibility, but something the
entire community must take cog
nlzance of.
Should Stay at Home.
For example, mothers of young
children have been urged not to
participate to a large extent in
volunteer work. This in no way
minimizes the importance of these
essential activities, but 1t does en-
phasize that when mother Is con-
fronted with the choice of remain
ing at home and managing her
family and going out and doing
work which may be much more di-
rectly related to war activities that
the choice should be in favor of
maintaining the family unity and
security.
Experience from England teaches
us that if young children must be
evacuated from city area 1t is
much sounder planning to evacuate
the mothers with them so that with
the many other changes at least
the child can have the comfort of
remaining with his mother. Older
children have been evacuated in
school groups. Often they are able
to tolerate the break from their own
home if they can remain with the
group of children which makes up
most of their friends and outside
contacts.
The recent mass meeting for
planning of day nurseries for chill
Cren is hased m the recognition that
many mothers may have to go to
work and that it is Washington's
responsibility to plan the best sub
stitute for home care. namely, care
fully planned day nurseries.
Even with these efforts to meet
the broader community problem,
the responsibility remains with the
individual mother who knows her
children best to watch and protect
them from too many changes in the
details of their daily lives.