A Word for Mum

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 311, 8 June 1945, Page 8

A Word for Mum

[NTO the three minutes or so of its talk "Looking After Mother," heard from 4YA, the Health Department crammed so much necessary information that I feel the urge to recommend this talk to those members of the family

who haven’t already heard it. Anyone who has lived in a large family or read such a revealing book as Working-Class Wives will know that the health of the méther is the last to be considered and the first to suffer. It seems obvious enough that hot kitchens, airless bedrooms, and blinds pulled down so that the sunlight won't fade the furniture are things that mother can alter for herself if she is to get the benefit of fresh air and sunshine. But it requires the cooperation of the family to ensure that the cook housemaid nursemaid char, known familiarly as Mum, gets adequate sleep, a rest when she is overtired, and a quiet mealtime during which she does not have to get up from the table to ‘make tea, cut more bread, answer the phone, change the baby, or provide second helpings. In -other words the Health Department recommends that families cofisider, for ence, their mother as a person and not as a machine for providing meals and cleaning up after them. Flowers on Mother’s Day may be very nice, but an offer to mind the baby, run a message, or wash the dishes. is a present worthier of its recipient.