Why Have Mothers’ Meetings? by Mrs. Mary H. Moore

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 19, 1915

Why Have Mothers’ Meetings?

By Mrs. Mary H. Moore

MRS. MARY H. MOORE

In urging upon any class of people a certain course of action, a question naturally rises as to the necessity of that action, and the results to be attained; so when educators, sociologists, philanthropists, and all those interested in social betterment unite in recommending and encouraging mothers’ associations and clubs, there must be an urgent necessity for, and very desirable results to be attained by, such organizations.

Life in general is very complex at the present day, and no man, or woman either, presumes to enter any calling hoping for success without a special preparation.

A generation ago young people obtained the best general education possible, made choice of a vocation or occupation, and entered upon it, expecting to obtain the special training necessary as they went along.

Now things are very different. Specialization is the order of the day. Vocational and prevocational training are required and provided in many places at the public expense as part of the public schools. Thus our artisans, our professional men and women, our artists, bookkeepers, reporters, and stenographers are given a fair start in their various occupations. The more complex and all-inclusive a calling is, the more careful and extensive the training required for success. Also the higher in the scale of ability required a vocation is, the more thorough and careful the training necessary.

Mothercraft Schools

Since nature itself leads to marriage, and motherhood follows by the same law of nature, it has always been taken for granted that the fact and experience of motherhood carried with it all the preparation and fitness needed. That this is a fallacy the experience of generations has proved; and now there is provided in some places training in mothercraft, by which mothers-to-be are fitted for their life task in a thoroughly businesslike way. Such a school not only attacks the problems of ventilation, sanitation, dietetics, etc., but also teaches story-telling, and direction of the occupations and amusements of children. The earnest and faithful young women students of such a school may thus fit themselves thoroughly to fill the office of mother, so far as such a school can fit them. But such schools are not common or easy of access, and many young women cannot avail themselves of their privileges. And what shall we say of the vast army of women who are mothers already, and, in the midst of the conflict, find themselves wholly unprepared to meet the demands made upon them?

There is no more complex or exacting calling than that of motherhood. A successful mother must be a doctor, a nurse, a dietician, a kindergartner, a teacher, a student of psychology, a disciplinarian, an instructor in morals, an administrator of justice, a financier, and a companion and confidential friend to her child,—all this besides the ordinary duties of housekeeper, lady of the house, wife, and sharer with her husband in the social relations of the family. Does she not need more than any other worker, a special training?

There are, according to the census, 700,000 defective in the United States,—

imbecile, insane, deaf and dumb, blind, and criminals,—victims of paternal and maternal ignorance. There are but three cities in the United States which have populations exceeding 700,000. Our standing army in time of peace is only about 86,000—these for our protection, and 700,000 for our weakening. These defectives are the result in most cases of failure on the part of the parents; for no man is, by nature, other than his heredity and environment make him. We are not discussing here the part of this burden belonging to the father,—that is another story,—we speak only of the failures of the mothers.

If women fail in other lines, they can harm only themselves or but few others; but an incompetent, inane, ill-trained, or frivolous mother is a curse unto the third and fourth generation of those who love her and fall under her influence. It has been said that woman is but an anex to man’s thought. If this be true, and her sphere be only what it always has been claimed to be,—wife, mother, housekeeper, home maker,—will she not be immeasurably better fitted for these duties if she has the opportunity for personal development which a mothers’ association affords?

The idea that because a woman has borne a child her nature must be motherly, is a fallacy. Think of the weak mother, who yields to the child’s caprice; the vain mother, who overdresses her child; the ambitious mother, who pushes her child unduly; the preoccupied mother, the faultfinding and unsympathetic mother. All these faults may be, and often are, the result of ignorance rather than of intention. Mothers’ meetings help to correct them by giving instruction, and rousing ambition to be and to do better. The study in these meetings leads the mother to look upon her work from the standpoint of a universal work; her problems are the problems of all mothers, her failures and successes set in action lines of influence which reach out to other homes and other lives, and extend on even to eternity. Daniel Webster aptly said, “If we work on marble, it will perish; if we rear temples, they will crumble to dust; if we work on brass, time will affect it; if we work on minds, and imbue them with good principles, we engrave on those tablets something that will brighten for all eternity.”