Worried Mothers

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Feb 11, 1904

Let no woman, overburdened with cares and labor, imagine that her case is peculiar, and under no circumstances should she envy childless mothers and unmarried women who have more quiet and leisure. There is no other way out of the hard place in which she finds herself than to go on and do the best she can, and hope for better times in the future. With intelligent care and judicious training now, these little ones who add to present labor, will all in a few years become helpers; but they will not grow up to it naturally—they must have line upon line, and precept upon precept, and, added to this, especially good example.

When advising the weary, exhausted mother to do the best she can, I by no means intend her to understand me as urging her to do all the work she can. That may be the worst she can do, by breaking down her health and adding to the cares and toils of others. There is such a thing as a wise selfishness. The most extravagant thing any woman can do is to waste beyond repair her own health and strength. There is no poverty so deep as that of the household where the mother is a helpless, irritable invalid. Better a disordered household than a discouraged one, and a woman—especially a mother—can not learn too soon and too thoroughly that she owes a duty to herself, and at the same time to her family, and that duty is to conserve her own energies and look after her own comfort. A household in which all the members, great and small, share alike, according to their ability, in the necessary work, is always a more cheerful, attractive one than that in which the one-slave method prevails. Let this truth be learned—the husband and children will love the mother more if she requires and accepts from them a reasonable amount of assistance in the daily routine of the home and housekeeping. Whatever else she may be, a wife and mother must be the ruling exponent of the peace and happiness of the home; she has no sort of right to deprive her family of her intelligent, patient guidance and oversight. In short, she must be more than a servant.—The Commoner.