WOMEN'S DUTIES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue XVII, 26 October 1895, Page 532

WOMEN'S DUTIES.

* Need a women cease to be a wife when she becomes a mother ?’ This if asked would doubtless provoke derisive laughter or a look of blank astonishment. And yet it is a truism that there are scores of women who decree by their own actions that all things in the household, busband included, shall be subservient to the requirements of * baby,’ whose infantine despotism must be undisputed. Now, that the nursery shall be the most important room in the bouse, may or may not be correct, but that the husband should have to be included in this general subjection is the evil which we desire to see eradicated, wherever it is prominently asserting itself. And that it is an existing evil is no mere fairy tale of imagination, but a fact that persons of all ranks can vouch for as having seen, though they may have passed it by without comment. This fault affects alike the homes of rich and poor ; yet perhaps itis mainly found, or, at any rate,more conspicuous,amongst the middle and uppermiddle classes of the community, if such' an arbitrary division is to be tolerated. And strange to say, in many cases, the culprit is much beloved by her friends, and unanimously pronounced to be a * charming little creature,’ and, indeed, is altogether a nice woman but for this one thing. She is dining alone with her husband ope evening, for instance, and, almost before the first course is removed, there are familiar strains emanating from the direction of the nursery. Down goes the mater’s spoon into the soup plate with a re echoing jingle, to the imminent danger of the crockery, and she Hies from the room, not noticing in her haste that something else has dropped as well, viz., the corners of her husband’s mouth. Of course, if there is sickness in babydom that is quite another matter; but the scene enacted above is often of daily occurrence when the infant is strong and well, and just innocently indulging in the exercise of his lungs. Is it right that the husband should be thus sacrificed for the child? He had ceased to remark, ‘ Can’t Mary see to the baby, my dear ?' for he knows how useless it is ; yet, surely, if his wife were but to think of it seriously, she would see the mistake that she is making ; for she knows perfectly well that her little nursemaid is competent for the time being. Indeed, it would be precisely the same if she kept 14 servants or four. If the woman who feels that she may have been unconsciously too much of the mother, too little of the wife, will but bestow half an hour’s deliberate thought upon the subject, how easily things might be altered ! The result will be a happy one, and the consequent advantages speedily realised. It may be that this was just the little thing that was imperceptibly clogging the wheels of her household machinery, and which requires but this discretionary oil to restore perfect domestic felicity thereto.