The home front
Madam: I have read your new paper The Nursery World, and I am greatly impressed by the gravity of the great task you have undertaken. You have my warmest wishes for its success. Nowadays women, to all appearances, care for little else than pleasure and display - short hair and shorter skirts.
If they can be induced by reason to return to their homes and undertake the noble responsibilities of wifehood and motherhood, you will have done a work of national importance. England will be a great country again when women adopt that motto of their grandmothers, at which they now mock, that, 'A women's place is in the home'. Yours truly, a husband and father 9 December 1925
Man and boy
So often a father is made into 'the bogey man', the greatly to be feared one, who is to be called upon when the toddler is naughty. I refer to that obnoxious phrase one so often hears from mothers: 'If you aren't a good boy, I'll tell Daddy'. Don't allow this under any circumstances. It isn't fair to you and it isn't fair to your child. It explains, moreover, why so many children grow up to love their mothers, and respect and fear their fathers. 24 March 1926
The fairer sex
There are whole books devoted to collections of epigrams about femininity and the favourite quotation with many men is that 'woman never civilises'.
One of the claims put forward, however, for the woman of today is that she is less 'catty' than she used to be; that her entry into the workaday world from the sheltered home life of the greater part of the last century has given her a tolerance and fair-mindedness which used to be considered the attributes of men only, and then, usually, the products of a public school and Varsity education. 2 June 1926
Helping hands?
If your wealth consists of, not sheep, nor cash, but a bevy of little girls, then thank heaven and go back to your sewing basket - they will probably join you there.
But if, like me, you produce nothing but beautiful boy babies, you must decide quite early in their lives just how much, or little, you will expect from them in helping with the household chores.
It is so often taken for granted that small girls join their mothers at the kitchen sink - have you ever seen a scruffy little lad in one of those bubbly washing-up advertisements on television? Yet, in fact, toddlers are quite sexless and my youngest son's hands are really only clean when he is doing the dishes, protected by a large plastic apron! 12 August 1965
How to react
How would you react if your prospective au pair or mother's help were male? Laugh him down the path? Why should childminding be a female prerogative? Many young men are as good as, if not better with children than women.
What's more, foreign males are not so prone to Latin outbursts, or Teutonic sulks, or falling in love with your husband. 7 October 1976
Non-existent
Mr Watts said, 'We didn't even know that male nannies existed. We thought a nanny was like a nanny goat - female.'
10 August 1989
Equally caring Childminder Mark Shepherd says, 'Nowadays I think more people are looking for male childcarers. The stigma of men working with children has gone.
Some single mothers have come to me specifically because they want a male influence in their child's life.
'Generally, children only see women in a caring role, but the children I mind know that men can be equally caring. I do a lot of cooking and cleaning in front of them and they are used to seeing me put my Marigolds on. The oldest child I mind says that he too wants to be a childminder when he grows up.'
11 August 2005
True romance
Many lasting friendships have been formed through the pages of Nursery World thanks to the Nursery World Friendship League, formed by lonely nannies in 1926. But the magazine has also sparked love and marriage.
In January 1993, nanny Ingrid Brooks placed a personal advertisement in Nursery World looking for friends. It caught the eye of Shane Hughes, a nurse in the paediatric department at the Royal Free Hospital in London, and, following a flurry of letters, the couple met after six weeks and married four months later.
Nursery World (24 June 1993) reported the marriage:
Shane (25) explained, 'I'd been working really long hours and the only person I'd been seeing was my flatmate, so I decided to try to meet some more people.'
Meanwhile in Winchester, Hampshire, Ingrid (21) was in a similar position.
'I'd just moved to Winchester and wanted other nannies to socialise with'.
In fact it took her some time to pluck up the courage to write to Nursery World, but eventually she put pen to paper.
Shane said, 'Although the ad was looking for other nannies, the person advertising lived near me, and was relocated to a city I know and visit regularly. On the slim hope that she might like to enjoy corresponding with someone with shared interests and who knew the city she was moving to, I wrote, never truly expecting a reply.
On the menu To this day, Nursery World advocates the importance of children having a balanced diet containing plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and oily fish.
Over the decades there have been some interesting concoctions suggested.
They include:
* Bone and vegetable broth - 24 November 1926
* Irish moss jelly - 6 March 1935
* Creamed meat and macaroni au gratin - 16 January 1947
* Fricassee of brains - 6 February 1947
* Steamed fish mould - 16 August 1962
* Prune jelly - 16 February 1965
* Jellied chicken salad - 5 August 1965
* Strawberry sweet omelette - 23 July 1970
* Baked fish with bacon and prunes - 27 August 1970
* Surprise cheesy fudge - 5 April 1984
