ABSTRACT
It was clear that many mothers were on the defensive against any implied suggestion that they might be spoiling their children. In replying to the health visitors, 16 per cent admitted that they would leave the baby only for a very short while (five minutes or less) before going to him; but when the questioner was the University interviewer the proportion in this category rose significantly to 31 per cent.l Whenever the mothers reported receiving professional advice from doctors or nurses, it was in fact invariably in the direction of urging them not to 'give in' to the chUd. They were often told that in the long run it was kinder to the child to be hard-hearted than to give way; yet most of these mothers found the advice either impractical or incompatible with their attitudes and principles, and, in consequence, they either felt guilty or resented the source. It v.ill be noticed, in the quotations that follow, that the assertion that 'crying does a child no harm' seems to have been presented with an authoritarian certainty which is hardly a good advertisement for the scientific humility of the medical profession.
