 |
home >
writing tools and books > view
all books > save some for me
Save Some for Me: Inspiration for Single Mothers and the People who Love Them
by Susan A. Jennings
Price $
14.95>> 
 Fairy Tales My Mother Told Me: Expectations-Role Models of My Childhood
Those of us who were born in England in the 1940s either during or just after the Second World War, were born into an abnormal lifestyle. Women were going to work in the factories to help fight the war as the men were fighting in the trenches away from home. Women took on the role of head of the household. Some men didn't come home, leaving behind widows and orphans. It is surprising to me that life seemed to go back to "normal." Widows remarried, women went back into the homes as housekeepers, and men were once again heads of the households and breadwinners. Roles were clearly defined, as they were when my mother was born in 1920. It was as though nothing had happened. The traditional roles and lifestyle survived. I, like most women of my generation, was raised with those traditions.
As a small child, my play was typically with dolls and houses. Christmas and birthday gifts were dolls, clothes, baby carriages, tea sets, mini baking tins, etc. It seemed that any household item could be produced in miniature to provide little girls with toys that could teach them the finer art of housewifery. My toy box was full of them. Hours were spent playing house with other girls. I was being groomed to be a wife and mother. My mother was a very good role model; she taught me to cook, sew, keep house and be a good companion to a husband. I believed that if I was good and kind and did everything right, I would live happily ever after. These expectations were reasonable at that time. In my mind, as a child and teenager, my expectations were fairy tales that would come true.
The biggest fairy tale of them all was my interpretation of being a good girl. Be slim and pretty, be nice, don’t argue or talk too much, and your reward will be Prince Charming, tall dark and handsome, kind, and generous with piles of money. He will sweep you off your feet and carry you off on a galloping white horse, take you to his castle where he will pamper you and take care of you until your dying day. You will have beautiful children and live happily ever after.
>> Back to Table of Contents
|
