CARE OF CHILDREN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 101, 1 May 1945, Page 3

CARE OF CHILDREN

DAY NURSERY WANTED

AUCKLAND LAGS BEHIND Approval almost invariably greets a suggestion that Auckland should have at least one central day nursery, but what does the average young mother think about it, and is she ready to become articulate, writes a correspondent. We have no means of knowing, but we can examine the day nurseries already successfully established in other centres of New Zealand.

In Wellington we see almost every possible type of such a service, the oldest one being the Citijiens' Day Nursery established in 1919 to care for the children of working wives or widows of soldiers. This centre, whose second name is Home of Happiness, is still expanding, and an average of fifty "under fives" are cared for each day while mother shops, visits or works. The nursery is supported by public subscription and Government grants, and has proved a boon to Wellington mothers and the travelling public. War came again and the Government; found it necessary to convert the Wellington Free Kindergartens offered by the Kindergarten Association into day nurseries for the children of mothers engaged in essential war work. The experience gained in this new venture should be of value to the Education Department in the near future. One of the most striking examples of the success of suburban collective effort is afforded by the Karori Children's Centre. Here a trained staff, Plunket, Karitane and Kindergarten, with cook-housekeeper and voluntary help, are active in catering for a kindergarten section, a nursery school section, a play centre section and a lunch and after-school section. "Under fives" are cared for for whole or part clay, and an average of 50 hot meals a day are served, some for primary school children who may return after school for play under trained supervision. For many years Christchurch and Dunedin have maintained day nursery service, and it seeifis extraordinary that Auckland should lag so far behind. We are continually told that a family should number three or four children, but one cf the chief obstacles to the attainment of this ideal is that mothers get so little opportunity for an occasional break from the kitchen. How often do we see tired mothers with tired babies in crowded stores risking summer and winter infections, in crowded city trams, juggling with pushchairs, risking many accidents, or, alternatively, neglecting essentisd medical, dental or pre-natal attention because of the difficulty and dangers of keeping appointments accompanied by one or two small children? Even if we could accomplish the ideal of suburban day nurseries, there will always be a need for a central nursery handy to transport junctions, for travelling mothers and those from outer suburbs; and near the city. War has greatly accentuated this need, for now soldiers' wives are compelled, some permanently, to attend to business affairs in the city. The existence of this need has been proved by the success of the much-valued creche, now unfortunately closing, run by the Y.W.C.A. for children of service wives. As the full cost of such a service can never be met by the necessarily low fees, it may be necessary to make appeals to public generosity; but if the slogan, "A Nation's Wealth Is Its Children" is to be put into practice, we should ask that the establishment of day nurseries be a full community responsibility under democratic control.