Be Thoughtful of Mother by Margaret E. Sangster

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 31, 1914

Be Thoughtful of Mother

By Margaret E. Sangster

If mother would listen to me, dears, She would freshen that faded gown; She would sometimes take an hour’s rest, And sometimes a trip to town. And it shouldn’t be all the children, The fun and the cheer and the play, With the patient droop on the tired mouth, And the “Mother has had her day!”

True, mother has had her day, dears, When you were her babies three, And she stepped about the farm and the house, As busy as ever a bee; When she rocked you all to sleep, dears, And sent you all to school, And wore herself out, and did without, And lived by the golden rule.

And so your turn has come, dears; Her hair is growing white, And her eyes are gaining the far-away look That peers beyond the night.

One of these days in the morning Mother will not be here; She will fade away into silence— The mother so true and dear.

Then what will you do in the daylight? And what in the gloaming dim? And father, tired and lonesome then, Pray what will you do for him?

If you want to keep your mother, You must make her rest today, Must give her a share in the frolic, And draw her into the play.

And if mother would listen to me, dears, She’d buy her a gown of silk, With buttons of royal velvet, And ruffles as white as milk; And she’d let you do the trotting While she sat still in her chair.

That mother should have it hard all through, It strikes me isn’t fair.

— Margaret E. Sangster.