The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-05-06
BY Katharine +. LENROOT

Have you been wondering whether
you are doing everything you can for
your children during this war period!
The doctors who study what goes
on in children's bodies and minds and
who know what has happened to chill
dren in other countries at war have
been doing Il lot of thinking about our
children in wartime.
I've been talking with some of these
what they have told me.
You may think it strange, but they
tell me there are some fathers and
mothers who say to themselves, Isn't
it lucky our Johnny and Jane are so
young! Too young to know what war
is"
That's the biggest mistake of all
True, grownups know best what war
is. But there is hardly Il child, how
ever young, whose body and mind are
not touched by Il Nation at war.
If ever children needed mothering
and fathering, they need it now. The
doctors say they need more of it in
wartime than in peace. They need the
kind of mothering and fathering that
builds a child's security in a world
that, even for him, if full of change.
Your Johnny and Jane know lots of
things are different at home today.
There will be more changes tomorrow.
Both for you and for them many of
these changes are hard to take. But
with YOU there, throwing your conf
dence and pluck and affection around
Johnny and Jane, they'll not be hurt.
These are the foods your children
grow on, just as much as the bread
they eat They need such food every
day of their growing lives
A child's spirit can be undernOuriSh-
ed as well as his body. Your faith, and
your courage, and your love are Grade
A foods for your childs spirit. There
are not others as good.
OF course it takes times to give
children that quality of care. Just as
YOU willingly give the time it takes
to provide the carrots, milk, and other
foods you give your child, you'll be
glad later for the extra time you spend
now in giving him atfectionate guild
ance Behind many youngster in
trouble is a parent Overburdened with
work, who thought he or she was too
busy for children.
Because the job you are doing is
so tremendously vital to the Nation,
a Chidren's Bureau Commission on
children in Wartime is helping our
Bureau to help you in every way we
! can.
Millions of you parents, during war,
will have no choice but to yield to
someone else some part of the place
you have in your children's lives.
Some fathers must go to war. Some
mothers must leave home to work TO
those of you who must, the doctors
say: Keep, the channels of affection
and the lines of communication to your
children as wide open as you can.
If Dad must be away from home al
together, try to put your children in
touch with some other male relative
who will keep an atfectiOnate eye on
your charges. Group activities, direct
ed by men in the neighborhOod or in
school or church, will help your young
ones without changing their loyalty
and affection for their fathers. And
when Dad leaves be sure that, if pos
sible, the letters keep coming back
home.
Fathers who are at home can help
nightly, too, if they will take time
to spread their companionship to
neighbors' children who must wait
until war is over to welcome home
their own fathers.
And you, Mother. 1t you are one of