VALUE OF CHILDREN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17147, 2 January 1930, Page 7

VALUE OF CHILDREN

MOTHERS DISAGREE DO THEY BRING HAPPINESS (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Received Jan. 2, 11 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 1. Readers of the Daily Chronicle are giving astonishing answers to the question : “Do children bring happiness?” It might be supposed that a vast majority would answer “Yes,” but a considerable portion of the letters in the Chronicle say children are the frequent cause of unhappiness between husband and wives. One mother of 18 children writes: “Modern children are greedy, and are never satisfied. They make a husband drift from his wife.” A modern mother, aged 29 years, writes that men have altered since our mothers’ day. “The average man spends his evenings at a club, or on the dirt track,” she says. “I suffered agony bringing my boy up alone. No more children for me. They are the cause of over-many quarrels.” A young widow with a child, who married again, says : “No more youngsters. Affection between husband ana wife goes as soon as children arrive.”

On the contrary, a number of correspondents are of the opinion that children keep parents young and make life fuller and richer.