A COUNTRY MOTHER’S LETTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 178, 31 July 1940, Page 8

A COUNTRY MOTHER’S LETTER

A country mother has forwarded the following letter in the hope that it will awake the public to the real need of installing a day nursery in Wanganui similar to those in other cities in New Zealand. She points out the dilfi- [ culties of mothers with young families and no domestic help, who come long distances to shop. She states that there are dozens of young mothers who would appreciate having a day nursery handy to the shopping centre. To the City Councillors, Dear Sirs, —I wonder if you have ever realised the need for a day nursery in Wanganui? Here is the story of a young country mother with three children on her monthly visit to Wanganui. She has to do all her month’s shopping in one day, a job which most women do two and three times a week. Well here she is. She rises extra early to get her housework done, the young babies’ milk made and bottled in three bottles to take with her, packs a case containing napkins, etc., for the baby, gets breakfast for her husband, who has to be away early on a contract, feeds, baths and dresses her babies and herself, then gathers coats and baby’s bag. One lis a toddler aged three and a-half, Sonny is five and baby boy is one year. She puts baby in the pram and goes half a mile down the road to catch the service-car, which leaves at 8.30 a.m. She reaches Wanganui at 10 a.m., puts baby -into pram and now, where to go to attend to baby and little toddler? Yes, the Ladies’ Rest. Oft they go. She attends to her children and puts a little wet parcel under the baby's pram pillow. What else is there to do with it? Off they go, baby in pram with mother's purse and precious shopping list tucked behind his pillow, the shopping basket on his feet and the children’s coats pushed in, too. Little toddler holds tight to the pram, Sonny wanting to look at this wonderful town and the trams and everything. Mother, used to the quiet of country roads, feels at any moment they are going to be knocked down and wonders if the townspeople have nothing else to do but stand in the way of women with prams. No “keep to the left” on Wanganui footpaths. She has to buy material for pyjamas for the family, wool for dad’s cardigan to match, orders some new rings for the separator, seeds for the vegetable garden, shoes for the children and many more things. She is not very familiar with the shops and often has to retrace her footsteps. Into one shop after another, trying to : keep her mind on her shopping while baby, getting very bored, decides to throw all the parcels out of the pram, and the other two wander about examining everything with interest. Sonny wonders why he can't touch all those lovely toys and that little gun he has wanted for years. It’s lunch time already and the children are hungry. Mother’s list is not near- : ]y finished and her head is beginning to ache. Into the nearest tea room they go—dinner for herself and Sonny, vegetables and gravy for toddler and baby. She feeds the toddler and baby and swallows her own dinner while holding baby’s bottle at the same time. She knows baby really wants changing and a crawl round the floor after his cramped position in the pram, but what can she do? She can't change hint here, and the Ladies’ Rest is right round the block and besides it's raining and she must see the dentist at 1.30. So poor baby will just have to stay covered in parcels and very sleepy, but he is so big for his pram he can’t get comfy. Up they ail go to the dentist, Sonny helping toddler up the stairs. Mother wonders if the children will be safe in the waiting room; Sonny must look after them. Little toddler sits on a chair, mother nerves herself into the dentist’s chair, wondering just what he will find and whether the children are all right. When can she come again? the dentists asks. Yes, when? On her next shopping day next month. She feels almost desperate and nearly asks the dentist if his wife could look after her children while she visits him. She then hears cries coming from the waiting room, grabs her hat and runs, calling over her shoulder she will let him know later. Later! Ye Gods! Then they go again down those awful stairs—more shopping to do. She would love to try on a new hat, but really she can’t keep those poor babies waiting another minute, so round to the Ladies’ Rest for a tidy up and then to gather up all parcels and heat a bottle for baby. Poor little toddler is so tired and wants to sleep on mother’s knee, but she tells her little baby must come first. Has she got everything? Just time to get the “Reader's Digest” for Dad and catch the car. In they get, pram, tired mother, baby asleep, tffed toddler. Sonny, parcels, empty milk bottles—a rest for forty miles anyway. Her feet are so tired, but she dare not slip her shoes off. Wonder if Dad will have time to light the fire?

Here they arc; she must have dozed. | off. Wake baby and toddler and collect everything and just a quarter of a mile to walk and they will be home. Home at last and a light in the kitchen and smoke coming from the chimney. Good old Dad! Now Io undress the children while Dad gets the tea. Feeds them and puts them to bed, picks up clothes, undoes parcels and ■scald baby's bottles and get cnc ready for the morning. Then wash up, set the breakfast table, open her purse and go through the money she has spent and wonder where it could possibly have gone to and remember all the things she should have dene and tell Dad that she must go to the dentist next month—then wonder if it's all really worth it. But out of her tiredness comes an idea. There must be dozens of mothers in the same position-. Couldn't something he done? Couldn’t the Wanganui people start a citizens’ day nursery where country mothers could leave the children as they do in Wellington at the