THE DAUGHTER AS JUDGE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 23 June 1928, Page 19

THE DAUGHTER AS JUDGE.

(By Faith Foster.)

‘•The average schoolgirl greatly disapproves of -shorn locks for her mother and aunts.”

Such was the dictum pronounced by a head mistress, who further explained the schoolgirl’s attitude in this matter. “it arises,” she said, “from the innate conviction that there should be a differentiation between the generations. Accustomed all her life to regard her mother as one wedding authority and giving direction, the daughter finds it inappropriate that she should look and dress like herself. .Not long ago one of the ‘parents”told me a story of how, having visited her hairdresser, the man had curled her hair particularly beautiiully and made her look unusually younger and ‘fetching.’ Her little girl surprised her by bursting into tears when she caught sight of the wonderfully coif fed head: ‘Mother,’ she sobbed, ‘you look just like a young girl. I hate it.’ ” - If it annoys us sometimes when our children criticise our appearance, it is salutary for us to remember, that we, in our youth, were apt to class as “old” a great many people who we. now recognise to have been comparatively young. Had we seen them clothed and generally “gotten up” like ourselves, we also might have been critical. We are not likely to allow ourselves to be vitally influenced by the schoolgirl’s prejudices, but perhaps it is well to bear in mind what it is that underlies them. What she really disapproves of is anything that will militate against her sense of fitness in one who, as “Mother,” should be her confidante, guide, philosopher and friend; one whose hand she would take in her journey through school-life and after, always sure of the wisdom and experience that aie to direct her path. It is a subconscious judgment that she pronounces.

My Dear Smiles, —

Otakeho