HELPING MOTHER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19986, 28 June 1920, Page 6

HELPING MOTHER.

SCHOOL GIRLS’ IDEAS. THRIFT EXHIBITION ESSAYS. She following aro some of tho essays sent in by girls under fourteen in tho competition promoted by the committee of tho Thrift Exhibition, the subject being “ How Can I Help in the Home?” : THE FLOWER OF THE FAMILY. When I have a holiday from school I help my mother in all I can think of I set the table, do the vegetables, and get the tea ready. After tea, 1 gather the dishes and wash the dishes. When I have finished that perhaps mother wdl bo darning stockings or in the garden. 1 can weed the garden, darn the stockings or help mother in what she is doing, That is only in the summer time .1 can work in the garden, because in the winter time it gets dark too quickly. There is another way of helping in tho home, and that is to cheer anybody up if they have very many troubles, or when my brothel's come home from work tired and weary I should go to the piano and play a cheerful tune to make them forget their tiredness and weary feeling. At homo 1 am the flower of the family, because if I see anybody that is troubled or is sick, I say a kind word to make thorn happy. ‘When 1 got up in the morning I get the breakfast ready, make three beds and gather the dishes and wash the dishes. When I finish that I sweep the floor and get ready for school. If Igo homo at dinner Line I get the dinner ready and hare it. When 1 have had my' dinner I gather tho dishes and wash them, and I sweep the floor again, and by that time it is just tho right time for me to go back to school. TUCK UP YOUR SLEEVES! There is always work in the homo to bo done, it does not need looking jor, and every little child, no matter how small, as long as he is willing, can help with little duties. The coal bucket wants filling, the morning wood to be chopped, the dishes to be washed, the mats to be taken out and shaken, as mother is ready to sweep the rooms. ■On a washing day mother says, “ Come along, you must burry up and help me, because I have a good deal of washing to do,” sol get some wood and coal for the ■ fire, then I tuck up my sleeves, and put my coarse apron on, and wash the stockings, and when the clothes are dry’ mother allows me to iron the handkerchiefs. On Saturday there is another busy day, the week-end cleaning has to be done, so I empty the ashpan while mother cleans the stove. I help to clean the knives and silver, and amuse my little brother and keep him happy and out of misheief. Here is something else to do, to make the home happy by being just like a sunbeam. When I come homo from shod I can help mother to peel the potatoes, and when father comes home from work, if wo arem usical wo could play the musical instrument, and make him cheerful. _ In the home good example should he given to the youngest ones, self-denial practised, and the virtues should never bo forgotten these are the three things which make a home happy. A PEAL HANDY GIRL, Mother says that I help her very much in the home, and that I do things so well that I could almost manage the house myself, although I am only twelve. V hen I arise I turn back mV bedding, and open the window of mv room. Then as I can got myself ready for school without aid, I can afterwards toast the bread, if needed, for breakfast, and heat the teapot. Igo all the messages, and know the price of everything, also where I can get certain articles more cheaply, thereby often saving mother a few pence. I often darn my socks, sew on buttons, iron the handkerchiefs for mother, and once I mended a tear in my dress so neatly that mother was proud of it. I make it a rule to put everything I use back in its proper place at once. I lovo to split the kindling wood, and as I can use a hammer and pliers very well, I am often called upon to do odd jobs in father’s absence. Out of school hours I wash the dishes, set the table, help sweeping and polishing, and clean the grates. Often I peel the potatoes, and make scones for tea. When I have attended to my studios, practised everlasting srnles for over an hour, had a short time for play, I go to my bod, happy in the knowledge that the day has been well spent—helping mother. AH! WHAT ABOUT COOKING P I shall give you my description of how I can help in tho home. My *work which I attend to is domestic work, which consists of scrubbing, polishing and ironing. One of the chief works is doing tho work which nobody else could manage to do. One of the best things is how to set a table. _ Ah 1 but what about cooking. Cooking is one of the chief items of domestic work. How excited I am when father returns home, hpving finished his day’s work, to find tho tea. cooked, ready for him. When Saturday approaches 1 am very glad, for lam fond of work. The first thing is what I call tidying the bedrooms ready for ninht time. Then I begin to do my other work. _ Then comes scrubbing time, which is very tiresome, because one is always kneeling down on tho hard floor. When’ dusk fades away and tho moon appears I am glad for I want to reach my comfortable crib. _ Then if nothing happens while the night is fading, I am waiting for the next dav to appear again. As lam the eldest in the family it is my place to stay at home to help mother. BUSTLE FOR HOME AND MOTHER Most children, as a rule, are fond of home duties, and nothing is nicer than to see little children turning to help their parents, and it also gives them a greater love for their homo when they can see the outcome of their little kind affections. During my recreation tinie at school I often find that I am thinking about what 1 can do for mother when I got home, and what duty will please her moat. Sometimes when I get home I think how tired and weary she looks, and then I turn round to see what little duty of love that I can perform, to bring her a little well-earned rest; so I bustle about and help her get tho. tea ready and feed the animals for her, and get the kindling ready to light the lire in the morning. When tea is over I help my mother wash up the dishes and tidy the kitchen for the morning, and 1 am sure mother’s smile well repays rne for the little help I have given. "When I happen to have a holiday op washing dav, then I do many little duties for mother, such as pegging the clothes out for her and such like, then preparing a nice cup of tea for her when she has finished her washing, which mother enjoys very much. When the clothes are dry I damp them down for her and help her with the ironing and putting away, my next duty being to help with the darning and mendingMother’s look of love and gratitude after my day’s duties are over bring mo great happiness. GIVING AUNTIE HER GRUEL. I used not to be very useful in the home. Auntie, with whom 1 jive, used to say, “ When you work, Dorothy,

the litter you leave after you is worse than if I had no, help.” But I’ve tried lately. Since going to the cooking lessons I am able to lot Auntie free every Saturday from the cooking. At first she thought I couldn’t manage, but I made a pie quite on my mvn for Sunday, and a roly-poly for Saturday’s dinner. And the vegetables, too, were done to a turn. At first Auntie used to keep popping out and asking about the meat and the fire, hut now she can just work away in the house. “It’s quite acomfort,’’ she says, “to get away from the stove for a day.” (i Auntie used to be always calling, "Where’s your apron, Dorothy?” But since I’ve had to put it on every Monday at school 1 never forget. Auntie was ill for three days; she worried at first about uncle’s meals, but sbe soon found I could manage. The gruel I made helped to cure her, she said f keep all our windows and knives polished, and Anntio lot mo get the right quantity of beeswax and other things the teacher told us about to polish the floors with. It was cheaper than the polish in the tins. \ou should see the cheap hats Auntie and I made of buckram. “ You’re getting really useful,” Auntie says, and I’m quite proud of that. WAKING UP FATHER. There are many ways in which wo cun help our home and our parents. Coming homo with a smiling face and a cheery word for all rouses mother’s drooping spirits, and she is ready to go on with her work,- which she does gladly for her children. . I'ather, too, can be awakened considerably from a, dreamy and troubled reverie by a smile and a word of comlort, and lie realises there arc many who are far worse off than he. By being kind, mannerly, patient and willing to do all wo can to help onr parents, we can make home-life as happy for others as for ourselves. Then there are the domestic duties, over which mother worries her head until she is quite ill. Washing, ironmg, spring-cleaning, washing dishes, rn m!in,v °^ lcrs is the lot that mostly falls to mother and in which we can help her. When she comes in from a hard day’s washing and finds a great pile of darning waiting for her ' the east wo could do to help her would bo to offer to do some for her, and she is both proud and happy then. A mother’s greatest trouble is to keep her children out of danger of disease, _ and in this we can help her by keeping ourselves and our brothers and sisters away from all children who nave sickness. If there is a garden around the house we should keep it cultivated and nell supplied with plants for it gives a w rfu ,l to the home. ~. , e . kuow that there are many children m the world who have no honTe at all, and this ought to make us all