Raising Strong Girls
Without Prejudice
They say that the best thing you can teach a child Is independence at an early age. Mine certainly learned that and more at the hands of their parents. I was 17 when I married, three months off turning 18. A child bride thrust early into Motherhood and wifely duties. I played with my babies and by the time I had my second fell easily into Post Partum depression. I didn't realise what it was but just wanted to sleep and couldn't.
I had 4 girls in six years and was bone tired all the time. There's not a lot you can do in that situation except rely on your girlfriends for amusement and baby sitting. My Family lived interstate, my hubby worked seven days a week so it was just me and the girls most of the time. And the most independent of all was Yvette, if you locked her in a room, she was out the window at 4. They all became very independent, early, as we had to work a business as well as a Family, we had no choice.
My hubby came from a farm and knew the tough life all his life. It was work or perish and he had an indominatable spirit to work. He could be working till midnight and still be up at 6 the next morning. He said that he was putting a thick rope around his neck and he would work and work like a demon until he was 40 and then retire. We went along with his vision.
The oldest, Deborah was baby sitting by the time she was 4, I was in hospital having my third daughter Alena and she had to watch her little Sister, Yvette, in the house while Dad went to work. The district Nurse came around, early, the day before I was coming home from Hospital, and was alarmed to find the 2 little girls on their own.
But the lady next door, Sandra, asked Debbie to baby sit her baby, who was asleep and Deb was just 5. She did burst in to tears, God love her, when the baby woke up and grabbed the baby and came home. Alena did the same at two, struggling out of the nursery once with her little Sister Lauren in her arms, saying,
" Baby crying, Mum "
She sure was, purple faced and screaming as Alena had her by the neck. Alena refused to call her Dad, Dad and in a deep husky voice would call out Bob, Bob from the depths of her bath and only he would do to get her out. She was his boy, he said. And she followed him everywhere. He crossed the Nullabor once with a trucker friend and bought Alena a Humphrey B Bear back, she dragged it everywhere.
They became tough little girls as their Father was tough and I had to become that as well to survive. I had been brought up with brothers and was a tough tomboy child until I turned 12 and became a woman, early. My developing body causing me all sorts of unwarranted attention and I hated it. Kees Varker Veezer, trying to find me at home and I was up a tree at the top at Helena Road, Mount Eliza. A tall Dutch boy who thought he fancied me.
He chased me all over Mount Eliza, and Darcy State School and I hated it. In the end I avoided him so much he finally gave in and left me alone. I had enough to contend with, Jackie my Sister also developed early but she was 16 and allowed to have boyfriends. I was certainly not. Jackie had a lovely young soldier boyfriend, a friend of my older brother, Ian's, his name was Doug Tink and he followed us to Adelaide when we went there before we fled to England.
To be continued........
They say that the best thing you can teach a child Is independence at an early age. Mine certainly learned that and more at the hands of their parents. I was 17 when I married, three months off turning 18. A child bride thrust early into Motherhood and wifely duties. I played with my babies and by the time I had my second fell easily into Post Partum depression. I didn't realise what it was but just wanted to sleep and couldn't.
I had 4 girls in six years and was bone tired all the time. There's not a lot you can do in that situation except rely on your girlfriends for amusement and baby sitting. My Family lived interstate, my hubby worked seven days a week so it was just me and the girls most of the time. And the most independent of all was Yvette, if you locked her in a room, she was out the window at 4. They all became very independent, early, as we had to work a business as well as a Family, we had no choice.
My hubby came from a farm and knew the tough life all his life. It was work or perish and he had an indominatable spirit to work. He could be working till midnight and still be up at 6 the next morning. He said that he was putting a thick rope around his neck and he would work and work like a demon until he was 40 and then retire. We went along with his vision.
The oldest, Deborah was baby sitting by the time she was 4, I was in hospital having my third daughter Alena and she had to watch her little Sister, Yvette, in the house while Dad went to work. The district Nurse came around, early, the day before I was coming home from Hospital, and was alarmed to find the 2 little girls on their own.
But the lady next door, Sandra, asked Debbie to baby sit her baby, who was asleep and Deb was just 5. She did burst in to tears, God love her, when the baby woke up and grabbed the baby and came home. Alena did the same at two, struggling out of the nursery once with her little Sister Lauren in her arms, saying,
" Baby crying, Mum "
She sure was, purple faced and screaming as Alena had her by the neck. Alena refused to call her Dad, Dad and in a deep husky voice would call out Bob, Bob from the depths of her bath and only he would do to get her out. She was his boy, he said. And she followed him everywhere. He crossed the Nullabor once with a trucker friend and bought Alena a Humphrey B Bear back, she dragged it everywhere.
They became tough little girls as their Father was tough and I had to become that as well to survive. I had been brought up with brothers and was a tough tomboy child until I turned 12 and became a woman, early. My developing body causing me all sorts of unwarranted attention and I hated it. Kees Varker Veezer, trying to find me at home and I was up a tree at the top at Helena Road, Mount Eliza. A tall Dutch boy who thought he fancied me.
He chased me all over Mount Eliza, and Darcy State School and I hated it. In the end I avoided him so much he finally gave in and left me alone. I had enough to contend with, Jackie my Sister also developed early but she was 16 and allowed to have boyfriends. I was certainly not. Jackie had a lovely young soldier boyfriend, a friend of my older brother, Ian's, his name was Doug Tink and he followed us to Adelaide when we went there before we fled to England.
To be continued........
