"There
is no sadder sight in life than a mother, who has so used herself up in
her children's childhood, that she has nothing to give them in their
youth. When babyhood is over and school begins, how often children take
to proving that their mother is wrong. Do you as often see a child
proving to its father that he is wrong? I think not. For the father is
growing far more often than the mother. He is gaining experience year
by year, but she is standing still. Then, when her children come to
that most difficult time between childhood and full development she is
nonplussed; and, though she may do much for her children, she cannot do
all she might, if she, as they, were growing!...
Is
there not some need for 'mother culture'? But how is the state of
things to be altered? So many mothers say, 'I simply have no time for
myself!' 'I never read a book!' Or else, 'I don't think it is right to
think of myself!' They not only starve their minds, but they do it
deliberately, and with a sense of self-sacrifice which seems to supply
ample justification.
Mother must have time to herself. And we
must not say 'I cannot.' Can any of us say till we have tried, not for
one week, but for one whole year, day after day, that we 'cannot' get
one half-hour out of the twenty-four for 'Mother Culture?'--one
half-hour in which we can read, think, or 'remember.'
The
habit of reading is so easily lost; not so much, perhaps, the power of
enjoying books as the actual power of reading at all. It is incredible
how, after not being able to use the eyes for a time, the habit of
reading fast has to be painfully regained...
The
wisest woman I ever knew--the best wife, the best mother, the best
mistress, the best friend--told me once, when I asked her how, with her
weak health and many calls upon her time, she managed to read so much, 'I always keep three books going--a stiff book, a moderately easy book,
and a novel, and I always take up the one I feel fit for!' That is the
secret; always have something 'going' to grow by. If we mothers were
all 'growing' there would be less going astray among our boys, less
separation in mind from our girls...
A brisk walk will
help. But, if we would do our best for our children, grow we must; and
on our power of growth surely depends, not only our future happiness,
but our future usefulness.
Is
there, then, not need for more 'Mother Culture'?" Volume
III, no. 2 The Parents' Review
Mother Culture: What it Is and What it Is Not
Mother Culture: What it Is and What it Is Not