Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 3, Number 4, DeMotte, Jasper County, 8 June 1933 — NOT MUCH JOY IN BEING “BIG BOSS” [ARTICLE]

NOT MUCH JOY IN BEING “BIG BOSS”

(Mrs. Walter Ferguson, in the New York World-Telegram.) A custom that never goes out of style is the habit of telling women in what their whole duty consists. Children being our main business, it is not strange that advice about raising them should come from every quarter. It speaks very badly for us, I suppose, that we seem to have put all these excellent suggestions to such poor use. It may be that we have grown impervious to the clamors and through sheer weariness close our ears to wisdom. Anyway, such impertinent remarks as are contained in a letter from a gentleman with tendencies toward feminine reform, move me not at all. He wonders why we have so little authority over our children. “I can’t see,” he goes on, “why you women won’t learn to do at least one thing well. Is it because you are utterly incapable or merely fatuous that not one of you seems able to make her own youngsters mind?” The explanation of this apparent shortcoming is simple. Let us concentrate for the moment. Women fail to regulate their homes for exactly the same reason that men fail to regulate their world --it’s too much trouble. It takes strenuous efforts to keep people on their best behavior and even more to make children obey. Therefore, it’s always pleasanter for a man to play golf than to study municipal affairs so that his pockets won’t be picked, just as it’s easier for a mother to be lenient with the children and thus get in a few bridge games. The woman who sets her head to exact implicit obedience from the family won’t have time for anything else--and I doubt whether she’ll have a great deal to show for her efforts, in the long run. Raising a family and running a government are equally discouraging. You get all worn down from trying to have your own way. Taking everything into consideration, there’s mighty little difference between the home and the office. The person who sets out to be the Big Boss in either place is generally cordially disliked.