The Nervous Housewife

To The Di

the disagreeable in the hous

rent, or disagreeable. There are as many different points of view as there are people, and in the end what is one man's meat may literally be another man's poison. There are, however, only a few ways of

n, as the fainting spell, or the great weakness which makes flight impossible. Fear is a much abused emotion. People speak glibly about taking it out of life, on the ground that it is wholly harmful. "C

isease and death gives medicine its standing; fear of the unknown is the backbone of conservatism, and fear of the rainy day is the source of thrift. Fear of death is not only the basis of religion, but of li

arouse anger. The anger may blaze forth in a sudden destructive fury in an effort to remove the obstacle, or it may simmer as a patient sullenness, or it may link itself with thought and become a careful plan to overcome the opposition. It may

ns are awakened by some disagreeable situation or thing, when there is a helpless anger, whe

destructive action, or it may be met with a de?nergization, confusion, paralysis, hopeless anger. It may cause an intense i

ing, education, social pressure, and her own desire to live in conformity with this ideal; there is opposing it disgust, anger, weariness, lack of intere

y of mind and body. Drifting is intolerable to the acute, active mind bent upon some achievement before death. Man is the only animal keenly aware of his mortality, and consequently he is the only one t

n, except in those cases where they arise from definite bodily disease, and even here a vicious circle is established. The weakness and fatigue state, the consciousness of impaired power brought about by sickness, are reacted to in a neurasthenic man

greeable let us turn again to the disagreeable factors

beautiful side of the mother-child relationship is well known and cannot be overestimated, the maternal instinct has its fierce, its jealous, its narrow aspect. Love and sympathy for one's own in a competitive world have often as their natural results i

hild diverge. There is a never-ending struggle between the rising and the receding generations, which is inherent in the nature of things and will always exi

heart of the modern woman. The desire to participate in the world's activity, the desire to learn, to acquire culture, engenders a restless impatience with the closed-in life of the mother-housewife. This interferes with single-mi

ildren. These are of importance in understanding her and have been touche

elf than did her ancestress. If this is true (and we may be dealing with the fact that obstetricians are often

a first child is born with rapidly increasing difficulty. The pelvis, like all the bony-joint structures of the body, loses plasticity with years, and plasticity is t

the body are very important factors as well. This part of the nervous system and these glands are part of the mechanism of emotion as well as of childbearing, and emotion plays a

gainst it, and yet, knowing its importance, she tries to "keep her milk." It often seems that the more women know about nursing, the less able they are to nurse, that the ignorant slum-dwe

undoubtedly saves infants' lives and is therefore worth the price. A secondary result of importance, and one not good, is the added liability to

them, she knew far less of hygiene than her descendant; she did not try to bring them up in a germless way; and her household activities kept her too busy to allow her to notice each running nose, or each "festering sore." Not having nearly so much knowledge of disease, she had much less fear and was spared this type of de

ly "mental." It means fatigue, more disturbance of appetite, and less restful sleep. These are

d fear. Certainly popular education has its value, but it has a morbid side that now needs att

rmed" is the actuating motive of the overconscientious parents, for they do not seem to know that the "trial and error" method is the natural way of learning. Children take up one habit after another for the sake of experience and discard them by th

self into neurasthenia, and her husband into seething rebellion, because of her desire for perfecti

ter III. I have seen women who made the dinner table less a place to eat than a place

ious neurasthenia as its great result. Similarly the Montessori method of child training which made every woman into a kindergarten teacher did a hundred times more harm than

punishment of a past generation, the appeal to pain and blame? Shall it be the nowadays emphasized moral suasion, the appeal to conscience and reason? Wit

at incentives to conduct. One cannot drive a horse with one rein; neither can one drive a child into social ways, social conformity by one emotio

odern housewife. Increasing knowledge and increasing demand have brought with them bad as well as good results. Here as elsewhere a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but

fficult to nurse, and who pass from one infection to another until the worried mother suspects disease with every change in the child's color. A sick child is often a changed child, changed in all the fundamental emotions,-cranky, capricious, unaffectionate, difficult to care for.

de?nergization follows. But in too many cases rest is not possible, though it is ur

y places, well equipped with nurses and doctors to care for their patients. But these are prohibitive in price, and at the present w

husband must work daily for their bread and unless they are willing to turn to the charitable organizations, it is necessary for the housewife to carry on, despite her fatig

end. No religion, no philosophy can bring them back into continuity with their lives. They go about in a sorrowful dream, hugging their affliction, resenting any effort to comfort or console; without interest in the daily task or in those whom they should love. Th

to the idiot. The children they once were vary as much. There are children who go through the worst of homes, the worst of environments, the worst of trainings,-and come out pure gold, with characters all the better for the struggle. There are others whom no amount of love, discipline, training, a

she refuses to see its defects until they glare too brightly to be overl

tion on the part of the housewife. Not only is pride hurt, not only is the expanded self-love injured, but such

nervousness" to his mother. As time goes on and the difficulty is seen to be fundamental, a battle between hostility and love springs up in the mother's breast that plays havoc wi

fall in which the head was hurt, difficulty with the teething, diet, etc., all receive the blame. Alas! In the course of time the child goes to kindergarten and the terrible report comes back that "the child cannot lear

due respect to eugenics and statistics I am convinced that the most of feeble-mindedness is accidental or incidental, and not a matter of heredity. Once a mother gets imbued with the notion that the condition is hereditary, she falls into

nces." So long as a child has a social streak in his make-up, so long as he at least is responsive to the praise and blame of others and understands that he does wrong, so long may one hope for him. But the child to whom the opinion of others seems of no value, wh

in the household, schooled in absolute obedience, "to be seen and not heard," to the central figures in the household. One of the strangest of revolutions has taken place in America, taken place in almost every household, and without the notice o

t of the individual child. But child-culture has taken on new aspects, punishment has been largely superseded, individual study and treatment are the thing. Personality is the ai

ring remarkable results. Even to-day some good has c

increases his self-importance and makes his wishes more capr

e newspapers, and the spread of

sibilities for good are enormous, their actual performance is conspicuously to lower the public taste, to create a habit which discourages earnest reading or intelligent entertainment. For children they act as a stimulant of an unwholesome kind, ac

ry child wants to read the funny page, though the funny page is not for childish reading. The humor is coarse

f his shoes, expressed disagreement by striking the other person over the head with a brick or a club; that women were always taller than their mates and usually "beat them up"; that all husbands, especially if elderly, ch

glish when the newspaper deliberately teaches them the cheapest slang? Of what use is it to teach them manners and kindliness when the newspaper constantly spreads

, so many revealed by movie and symbolized by the automobile, the cabaret, the increasing vulgarity of the theater (the disappearance of the dram

knows his place and power. The press and the theater both have knowledge of this and a recent witty play dealt with the sins of the children, paraphrasing of course the classic of a bygone day, "

Democracy has a r?le in the world of great importance,-but the spread of education and opportunity to the mass may make it more difficult for the best ideals and customs to survive in the avalanche of mediocrity that becomes released by the agen

child and keep from spoiling him; how to give him fr