The Ely miner., 1943-09-16

caSo woman VINO nVeS LII
= a six-room fiat. Her hus-
band is devoted and makes good
money, but he works hard,
comes home tired and lately
has grown strangely nervous
and cross.
"The trouble is the children;
we have two girls and a boy"
writes Nancy. "Ann is eleven,
Billy nine and Gloria five. I'll
admit I'm a bad manager, a
too indulgent or too exacting
mother, I'll admit that they're
not well-disciplined children, I'll ad-
NIT anything! But as things are
now we're all going crazy, and even
if we've made mistakes all round,
even if we've been very stupid, there
must be some more sensible way to
manage things than the way we're
goingl Ann and Billy quarrel con-
stantly, and Gloria lives in state
of whining and tears.
William and I adore our children.
We were mighty proud when our
beautiful girl baby was joined by
small brother, and Gloria we re-
gard as fitting crown to lovely
family. For the first eight years of
our married life we lived in the SUBJ
urbs and 1 felt that my children
were as fine in manners and de-
pertinent as any other woman's chill
dren. But now Will must be near
his work, his hours are irregular,
so we traded homes with my mother,
and moved into town. And since
then everything has been going
steadily downhill. Ann and Billy just
recently have become rude. They
pretend not to hear my requests and
suggestions; they resent being asked
to help me, and do whatever I ask
slowly and ungraciously. All our Joy
and pride in them is gone; it is
scold, scold, scold and hush, hush,
hush all day and well into the night.
Home in Uproar.
''My mother has this apartment
rent free because she acts as man.
ager of the house. There are 70
apartments; her job, for which she
also receives salary, is not ardu-
Gus. It is merely matter of seeing
new tenants, of which there will be
none, for the place is filled, approx
ing bills, and paying the janitor staff
once month. have taken over
this work, to insure my mother her
income, and that with the household
work and wartime marketing, keeps
me busy. I need rest and quiet as
much as my husband does. But we
live in bedlam, and for the first time
William, in speaking of child
less couples, said to me thoughtfully
the other night, perhaps they were
lucky
''It breaks my heart not to be able
to rejoice In my children, feel sure
of my influence over them and their
affection for their father and me.
But they are getting entirely out-of-
hand. Do you know any cure, any
type of modern school, psychiatrfst,
system that will reach their stub
born little souls, and give us back
the delight that parents ought to
have?"
My dear Nancy, let me say in re-
ply that you don't need psychiatry,
or any other means of cure, when
you are attempting the impossible.
And impossible it is for two adults
and three small children to live in
six rooms with comfort for all con-
cerned, or even with reasonable dig
nifty and privacy. Racket and noise
and restlessness are inseparable
from childhood; children need space
and air, room for all their activities
and projects.
That all parents CANNOT give their
children these advantages is one of
the faults of civilization-one of the
faults that I hope we viii cure in
the newer, wiser world that is COM