The Mothering of Young Children.The Needs of Children at Home and in Nursery Groups
- Author:
Gwendolen E. Chesters. Faber & Faber Ltd.
Pp. 82. 2s. 6d.
This admirable little book is especially welcome at the present time, when wartime nurseries are rapidly being multiplied, as are the problems of children whose home life is broken by the claims of war. It is a hard world now for young children as well as for their deprived parents, and in the nursery world to-day there are too many small inmates who have already suffered through adult ignorance of the essential importance of motheringUnder war conditions, when bodily safety is threatened, there is a tendency to emphasize the physical aspect o? child care to the detriment of the psychological. M’sS Chesters, in her work of organizing war nurseries, has already done much to combat this tendency by promoting a better understanding of mental health among local authorities and nursery staffs, and her book represents a further valuable contribution to the same end. f On the first page the fundamental relationship ot mother and child is made clear :
Children, like all living things, need a suitable setting in which to grow. The setting of a young child is calls’1 his environment. It forms the background of n.lS development, and he grows largely in response to nThe baby’s first environment is his mother. She form* at first his actual physical environment, for he grow* inside her. And she remains his setting after he is bornThough he is no longer within her body …
mothering of him forms the background of his life. own interest … tends to swing to and fro between himself and his mother, and to be largely centred in ni? relationship to her. Gradually the circle of his interest widens to include people other than her. He gets ni? first circle of friends.
The term mothering is defined as including at least two qualities, affection and wisdom, both necessary* “for each without the other can be equally destructive ‘ ? The sentence following might well be written in letters of gold for nursery staffs and the committees behind them :?” Little can be more damaging to a child tha>1 careful planning for his life without genuine warmth ?J affection for him,” and, it is added, without giving him a sense of his own intrinsic value. Many practical way? are suggested by which a child, even though separated from home, may be made conscious of this warrntn of affection both in the mother whom he has temporarily lost, and in those who are acting as mother-substitutesThe wisdom necessary to good mothering is amply demonstrated in the author’s observations, and advice* as for example, with regard to the causes of anger and its handling. ” It may be necessary to restrain anger, but we must be careful not to make the child feel guilty or wicked for feeling angry,” a remark which, incidentally, may serve to allay the emotional disturbances o> adults who, in dealing with small children, find their own impulses to anger acutely stimulated. ,
The book covers many aspects of child care and development?the planning of a child’s day; play relation to thinking, feeling and muscular control’ unsettled behaviour; friendliness and discipline. * ‘ has the charm of simple language and clear thinking^ while the advice given is clearly based on good observa’ tion and deduction. A.T.A
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