The care of the children is the most important of the mother's duties.
It cannot be thoroughly done under modern conditions unless the mother
has leisure to inform herself about conditions surrounding her
children at work and at play, and to keep in touch with their
interests, especially as they grow older. It includes caring for their
physical wants, bathing them and keeping them clean when they are
little, feeding them, providing their clothing, taking care of them
when they are sick; it also includes looking after their education and
training, choosing the school, seeing that they get to school
regularly and on time, following their work at school as it is
reported on the monthly report cards, encouraging them to greater
efforts when their work is unsatisfactory, praising them when they do
well, and, above all, giving them the home training and discipline
that they need. It is the mother who can teach the children good
habits, forming, as only the home life can form, their standards of
right and wrong; it means watching them at their play or seeing that
they play in a place that is safe without watching.
As they grow older it means a general supervision of their recreation
and their companions, judging surrounding influences, having in mind
the dangers that lie in the way of the unwary maiden and the perils of
the impetuous boy. Times have changed since she was young, and amid a
great variety of choice she must decide for her children which are
harmless influences and diversions. In the case of the older girls it
means the serious problems of clothes, of amusements, of earnings, of
prospective mating.
The mother shares many of these tasks with the father. Responsibility
for discipline, decisions, and training must be joint, but the actual
carrying out of these duties is the mother's. Usually the older
children help with the care of the younger, but the final
responsibility rests upon the mother.
[Illustration: A SLOVAK MOTHER, NEWLY ARRIVED]