NURSERIES v. GRANNIES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 154, 5 June 1942, Page 17

NURSERIES v. GRANNIES

OW that married as well-as N unmarried women in New Zealand are being called upon to register with a view to being drafted into some form of essential industry, the following extract from an article in News Review may be of interest: Women plus nurseries equals higher war production, asserts Mary Sutherland, the British Labour Party’s Chief Woman Officer. When Ernest Bevin first called upon women to volunteer for war work he promised faithfully that their children would be looked after. Presumably that meant something more than being fed and safeguarded against getting run over. Yet subsequently the Health Ministry circularised local bodies to the effect that "It is hoped that most of the women concerned will make private arrangements with their friends and relatives for the care of their children," and appealed for 100,000 " grannies" to look after the children. Mary Sutherland disapproved. She has nothing against grannies, she maintains. They are often the kindest people in the world, but a child’s welfare is not always best secured by mere kindness. A woman over sixty, she thinks, is not only unlikely to be acquainted with modern ideas on child management, but is also getting past the age when she can cope from morning to night with squalling tots. Two courses are recognised by Mary Sutherland. The hest is the provision of day nurseries. Failing such a nursery -and there are admittedly difficulties in some areas about fixing one up-there should be a carefully planned scheme, covering all children of women in employment, of registered "minders." Willing women would be asked to give in their names at the local Town Hall; the Maternity and Child Welfare authorities would test their qualifications, look their houses over, and decide whether they would be suitable for taking children. Mothers using the service) would pay the authorities; who would pay the minders. And there would be no question of the scheme breaking down for personal reasons.