A School of Motherhood

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 198, 19 May 1936, Page 11

A School of Motherhood

Sir,— It is reported that wmii-sne workers are to have a union and b-- ■ aimed together (o defend their rigm.;- as against their employers. In most home, the domestic worker is a mothers help, and as a mother s help stands next to the mother in importance and status. This, of course, should be recognised,, for after all the mother is the most important person in the State. In considering this problem the position of the mother should come first. Do we consider our motherenough? I think not; and also, perhaps, we have erred in not paying honour enough to our mother’s helps. But wha' is wanted io not a new law on the Statute Book, but a change of heart. M e must remember she who helps the motner help* the nation. , x The mother’s work is never done. Aon cannot limit her labours to eignt-hour shifts, you cannot decree she. shall have half-days off. and so much leisure every 24 hours. Hers is actually an all-time, job. The home is her kingdom—her factory —her laboratory—and it shomd be her happiness and her heaven. Domestic service exists primarily i" help the mother. It should be view*., definitely as a school of motherhood and a college of home-making. These Duugs cannot be learned in any institution. J hey belong to a different plane. Me should not try to import trade unionism into this free creative circle. If motherhoo,. is made toe difficult and arduous there will be no children among the more educated classes; only those on, the lowest intellectual and physical grade will have families. . What has happened in Kussia shouiu be an object lesson to us. There they have been trying institutionalism instead of thefamily. The Soviets decreed equality between men and women, freedom oL inteicourse between the sexes, married or unmarried, freedom of divorce, fieedom o* employment, with equal wages for equal work, and collective .nurseries and kindergartens to bring up the children. Tin worker —and every woman as well as every man was to be n worker had neither time nor strength to look alter babies. So these were to be cared fur bv the State and expert nurses anu teachers instead of their very own mothers. There was something rather noble in the attempt. The Soviets honestly wanted to raise the status of women and to give them all the privileges ot men But it was a man-made project. The fully developed mother mind would never have attempted such an anomaly. And what has happened to-day. Imsystem has worked very badly, Russia wants more children, and Stalin has sei about reconstituting the home. What is happening in New Zealand. The more competent women, physically and intellectually competent, marry, but avoid motherhood. Can you blame them. It is sheer slavery from start to finish. \ good mother’s help changes all this. A kind, unselfish girl is a perfect boon to the whole household, but her position must be elastic, not run on fixed trade union lines. The children must be taugat to look up to her as an elder sister, and the girl herself will learn how to run a home, and when she marries she will make her husband happy. Let us beware how we seek to import trade-unionism into the home. It will kill the home spirit which modern tendencies already endanger. At all events, let the mother’s help be an exemption; she must be as free to serve at all times and season* as the mother herself, and as ready, or ehe will be useless. —I am. etc.. M.E.R. Wellington, May IS.