BIRTHRATE AND HOUSEWORK
SIR,—I have followed with much interest the comments on my contribu- tion to your issue of August 18th, " Birthrate and Housework." I hope I may be allowed the proposer's privilege of a brief reply. It does not seem to me that a system of household helps for young mothers is incompatible with neighbourhood restaurants. I agree that help inside the house is. invaluable, if only to enable the mother sometimes to leave it without taking the children with her. I see no reason why a neigh- bourhood restaurant should not serve special meals for under-fives ; ocean-going liners habitually serve children's meals just before the regular service. Alternatively, small children could be fed at home and parked, under supervision, at the club while the others had a meal.
I detect a tendency to overrate the burdens of the mother of toddlers as compared with those of the mother of, say, three children between ten and sixteen. The variety and quantity of cooking for schoolboys in their 'teens (and the washing-up that goes with it) can make the toddler days seem like a dream of lost repose. The mending and renova- tions for those same boys are a herculean job in themselves ; in war-time a nightmare. The wear-and-tear on the house, and the consequent clean- ing, are tripled. And, finally, the mother of those boys is likely to be in her forties, not in her twenties. Perhaps I may add in a still, small voice that the writer of the original article is not a theorist-with-a-bright- idea, but an experienced parent, familiar with all the stages up to
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