MOTHERS WHO FAIL

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11985, 27 February 1932, Page 7

MOTHERS WHO FAIL

MANAGING MODERN GIRLS TIMES HAVE CHANGED. The Victorian mother did her duty by her daughters. She dressed them, chaperoned them, and married them off to the best of her ability and their good looks. It is true her methods lacked finesse, hut Caroline Emma and Maud were truly fond of ‘dear mamma, states Lady Ingram. Women congratulate themselves on being far more enlightened nowadays but is the modern mother, from her daughter’s point of view, an improvement on the Victorian brand ? I doubt it! I know, for instance a woman who has a, son. and a daughter. The other' day she: showed me with pride: lier 'boy’s prize poem which had been published in the school magazine. ‘You are lucky to have two such talented children.,” I said, rather pointedly. She. stared at in e , in surprise. She had not even heard that her daughter had won a scholarship at the Royal College/ of Music. “How secretive of Joan,” she: said complain* ingly, ‘she knows quite well I do not approve of her strumming. It always upsets Peter when he is trying to write!” Could .anything be more grossly unfair? Yet this mother is typical of a large, class of women who lavish affections on their sons, take no interest in their daughters and then declare, that boys are so much easier to manage than, girls ‘ A young friend of mine lias just got engaged to be mairied She is eighteen, her fiance is fertv-two. lhey seem to have little in common. “Are you sure Charles is really the right man?’ I asked. “He is, if I don’t want to die an old maid,” site' replied, bitterly. “Mother frightens away any boy wlio comes to the. house. You see they come only to see me. Charles lias sense enough to make up to mother, too!” Modern, mothers of the Ever-Young Brigade are always spoiling their daughters’ chances bv their unwillingness to take a back seat. They cling to a lingering conviction that mother, knows best what is good for a girl. This is a moot point, lor the girls of to-day have a, set- of completely changed values. Security and comfort do. not attract them in the least. They believe that life can only be truly lived through new sensations ; they want to. learn only by their own experience. Preisent-dav mothers fail to cope with their daughters because they do. not face these facts. Behind the modern girl's armour of self-sufficiency there is a craving for love and. sympathy. However modern she may he, she keeps tucked away somewhere, the image of an ideal mother; not a mother who wants to be “all girls together,” and manages to grab the best ofeverything that is going; nor a mother who. stands coldly aloof from everything she does not take an interest in herself. The mother who is always there with a, helping hand, who is human and makes allowances, who knows and understands without iussing and asking questions—the mother, in fact, with true love -and sympathy—has no failures with her daughters.