24-hour mother of 14 ‘lucky’

Press, 11 May 1984, Page 6

24-hour mother of 14 ‘lucky’

NZPA-AP Woburn, Massachusetts

As a new bride Margarette Masotta was told that she probably could not bear children. Twenty-five years and 14 children later — including two born on Mother’s Day — she considers herself the luckiest woman in the world.

For her, Mother’s Day is not a time to accept flowers and gifts from her brood, but a day to reflect on how happy she is to have nine daughters and five sons, aged from three to 24. “People have said all sorts of unkind things to me — like, ‘don’t you think you’ve had enough?’ To be honest with you, it hurt a lot, but I never thought we had too many kids. “I think I’m very lucky. I think I’m very spoiled,” she said. Mrs Masotta calls herself a 24-hour-a-day mother, who wakes at 5.30 a.m. to make school lunches, wash

10 loads of laundry, and oversee a bustling household with strict, old-fashioned order. She and her husband, Philip, own and run Masottas Variety, a homey general store on Main Street in the working class suburb of Woburn, 20km north of Boston.

The family lives in a rambling, three-story converted hotel above the shop. Mrs Masotta, aged 46, runs the show from the kitchen. She makes it clear that there are plenty of rules in her home, but a visitor can see an equal amount of warmth. All' the children start working in the store, without pay, at the age of nine. They cannot go out at night until they are 13, and then only two nights a week. Report cards are closely checked. Curfew —2 a.m. at the latest for the oldest children — is enforced. Mrsi Masotta has asked

her children to live at home until they are 25 or married. They have.

She and her husband do not believe in secrecy or drugs. They believe in family living.

“We have an understanding from the time they are very little that I own this house,” said Mrs Masotta, herself one of 10 children. “You can’t tell me I can’t go in your room. You can’t tell me I can’t open your drawers, because everything in there I bought. “If there’s something in there I shouldn’t see it shouldn’t be in this house. I’m very blunt about what I expect from them.”

The children do not seem to object. “I love the way we are," said Cantino, aged 22, as he worked behind the counter at the store. “There are rules, but they aren’t hard to live by. And I always have a place to —

home.” To get her children to behave, “I think I make them feel guilty,” Mrs Masotta said. “I ask, ‘is this the best you can do?’ My husband is not a believer in hitting children. “I don’t believe in discipline because it breeds hatred. I don’t believe in punishing children by telling them they can’t do something, because then they forget what they’ve done wrong.” Mrs Masotta and her husband admit that raising their family has not always been easy. “When one daughter was 14 she started hanging out with the wrong crowd ... (that) smoked marijuana,” Mr Masotta said. “But we kept right on her and we got some help from the priest. Thank God, she’s turned out to be a good girl.”

The daughter is now married, lives across the street from her family, and works in the store. Mrs Masotta met her husband at a party in Woburn when she was 21. Shortly after the marriage a doctor told her that child-bearing might be impossible. “I said, ‘that’s O.K.’ Everyone was always complaining about children, about how hard it was to have them and raise them. I wasn’t too upset.” Her first daughter was born a year later. Mrs Masotta will cook a spaghetti feast on Mother’s Day for the children, a granddaughter, three sons-in-law, and several other relatives. “I’m not a martyr, but you have to be a mother 24 hours a day,” she said. “There will be a time when I have time for myself. “I chose to have my children>”