Next week little sister starts to school again. She is in the third grade. I will just have brother and sonny to keep me company in the new house then. But 4-year-olds and 3-year-olds can be lots of company and lots of help.
I wonder why it is that we mothers always feel sad when the babies start to school? It must be a sort of jealousy. We are so used to being the biggest part of our child's world!
We are jealous of the widening world. We are afraid to compete with the new personalities that are going to loom large in the baby's life. The new things, the strange places are most attractive to use all. We are afraid that we will lose our place on a pedestal. And very likely we will. It is natural for a growing child to take its mother as a matter of course, as he takes and day and night, heat and cold, breakfast, dinner and supper. It will be the outside things that thrill him, and change him and make him grow.
But there is always this consolation: After the busy school years, when our babies settle down to life and have babies of their own, they will turn to us again, with a bigger and deeper appreciation of our love. Especially our daughters will grow nearer and dearer to use through the experience we all must meet. And from that time on, mother will have again her place on the pedestal, and will become more and more the object of devotion. That is when we shall have our reward.
So during these growing years of the babies, let us be "up and doing with a heart for any fate." We had better be busy and happy in other things wile we wait.