Crying Babies.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20296, 4 May 1934, Page 6

Crying Babies.

Dear Sir,—l have been interested In the correspondence regarding 44 Crying Babies, and while I have every admiration for “ Great-grandmother ” and her achievement, I would like to place before your correspondents’ notice one or two points that have occurred to me as a young mother of the present day—one living in a city and dependent upon the caprice of a city s food and neighbour supply. In the first place, might I ask how her babies’ digestions responded to the cows being 44 turned on to the turnips,” as they almost always are at this time of the year. Perhaps she was fortunate in that the supply cf winter feed was uniform and guaranteed so bv her husband s personal supervision of the turning out of the baby s cow twice daily. Such care in food supply is not possible'in cities, where mothers are dependent upon bottle milk and the honestv of its supply, however good the milk may be. The city’s milk must be found even if the cows have to 44 go on to the turnips.” , Then again, was there ever a day or a week that went by when she did not see some of her own people-sisters, perhaps, if not her mother —those in whose hands she knew the children would be safe if she had to leave them, such rest and change being of unspeakable benefit to all concerned, lessening the wear and tear on the mother. In cities nowadays the young mother often leads a life far more isolated and lonel\ than did her grandmother of fifty or more vears ago when, as likely as not, the family were none very far from the other 1 may say that mv nearest kin are hundreds of miles away. , Then again, what happened when the baby bumped its herd—when the toddler tripped over the doorstep or on some chance toy left in his trail These things and their consequent cry seem to me to be inevitable in the life of a small child. ■\s regards the neighbour problem -whicn doubtless would not be so acute m its proximity in those days, I would Uta* to sav truthfullv that the only people who ever “ fussed" at the cry of any of my babies were the ones who had had no children of their own. They ftand in marked contradistinction to the few kind.y grandmothers that 1 have come to know in this citv. Hoping this writing from personal experience may throw some light on the present-day city mother's side of the question.—l am, e£k Nlp g IN THE MILK