Mothers, Don’t Be Martyrs

Mothers, Don’t Be Martyrs

Here are a few forgotten tidbits reminding mothers not to be slaves to their children.

From 1913–

Some women think their whole duty to their children consists in drudging for them.

An eighteen-year-old girl boasts that she could work if she had to, but “my mother wants me to have a good time, she says I’ll have to work after I get married.”

If she marries a poor man, I shudder at the life he will lead–yes–and she also, for her only life is running through streets, and spending money for little things to eat and enjoy. She has never been taught to think of the good of others; yet her mother prides herself on her “love” for her child. I know it is difficult for mothers to know just how much to do for the children of the home and how much to require from them. We all want them to be happy, yet does it take from their enjoyment, if they are taught how to add to the happiness of others? Will not their future homes be happier and better ordered if they are accustomed to do the necessary work of a house?

From 1938–

When my daughter was “teen-age,” I suddenly woke up to the fact that I was a martyr mother and was teaching her to be selfish. The real awakening came when she got her first permanent and took on a patronizing air because mother never had had one. Well, I got one and she said, “Why, mother you are pretty?” So I went farther! Instead of buying daughter the more expensive dress she coveted, we each got a less expensive one and I hied forth to Sunday School with her. I know that she respects me more for it than when I dressed her so nicely that there was nothing left to buy a good-looking dress for me.

Blessings be upon the mother who has the courage to spend money for a new dress for herself and makes over an old one occasionally for her daughter!

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