Evening star., 1942-12-23
No War Job Can
Ever Replace
Happy Home
Bored W0man Mighf
Spend More Time
Being Good Wife
BY Dorothy Dix

Dear Miss Dix: Probably I should
feel satisfied with loving husband,
two darling little children and a
nice home, but I'm not. I am bored
to death with the same old routine,
day in and day out, with not enough
to do half the time.
My husband leaves early in the
morning and doesn't come home
until late at night, generally after
I am asleep, so I hardly see him.
We moved to the city four years
ago and l have made few acquaint-
ances. l am a country girl, strong
and healthy, and need work to keep
me content. Just taking care of my
children and washing and ironing
my husbands shirts doesn't give me
enough to do.
1 feel that I would be much hap
pier and that l would be doing
something for my country If I could
get good girl to care for my chill
dren and get job in defense work.
Maybe, if wasn't always there when
he came home, my husband would
feel like giving me little more Of
his time. Or maybe I would feel
more content with a life of leisure
If I found out what working at a
job means. What do you think of
my idea?-P. B. o.
Answer think your idea is all
wet and that if you carry it out you
will spend the balance OF your life
in regretting 1t. I know a lot of
other women who are abandoning
their homes and families to go into
war work because 1t is more excit-
ing to work in crowd than it is
in the kitchen. and because they
get more money for punching rivets
or sewing on airplanes than they do
for darning the childrens socks and
changing the baby.
But when they find out that their
husbands are running around with
other women because there isn't any
wife to 60 home to of an evening
when work is done, and their chill
dren are growing up to be little
hoodlums, they are going to realize
that they made the sorriest bargain
that woman ever makes.
Because, you see, you can't throw
up the job of wife and mother if
you happen to get tired of it, as you
could that Of being a stenographer
Or a model or clerk in store II
you got bored with it after the
novelty had worn off. Marriage is
permanent. 1t is a life contract
And it imposes on the woman who
takes it an obligation that she can't
funk. She can't turn her husband
and her children over to some other
woman to take care of if she ever
expects to get them back.
You should approach your prob
lem from a different angle. First
spend a little of the leisure time
you complain Of as hanging heavy
on your hands in trying to appre-
ciate your husband and understand
ing that he doesn't work from early
in the morning until way past bed
time just for the fun of the thing
He does it to make you and his
children comfortable; to lay up some
money that would keep you safe
If he should die, and to give his
youngsters an education. I call that
pretty fine IN a man.
Right now is the psychological
time for any women to establish
social contacts by joining the Red
Cross or any of the branches of war
work Doing these things will give
you plenty OF occupation and they
will not take up all your time, as
holding down regular job would
AS for your saying that you would
get good girl to care for your
children, that makes me laugh.
Just try to find one. Even a cook
now is a jewel Of price that only
the rich can afford The reliable
competent girls are not nursing ba =