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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (July 8, 1962)
mm iWCTNpw Hnnp tnr leaved its Mark Mr 6 Keep your tight, dry skin smooth and soft with mothers friend. Neglect of body skin tissues during pregnancy may show up for Vje rest of your life. This fa mous skin conditioner is especi ally compounded to relieve the discomfort of that stretched feel ing in your skin. You'll find a mothers friend massage can be soothing tor that numbing in legs and back, too. Take care of vour horiv skin with MOTHERS FRIEND. You will never 1 regret it. At Drug Everywhere MOTHERS I FRIEND" Product of S S.S. COMPANY Atlanta. Ga. HOW TO STOP PIPE DRIP 1 IN 3 EASY STEPS f Go to any hardware, plumbing or building Hi - supply slora. 2 ASK FOR NO TAPE Pliable, cork-filled tape thai forms seated pipe til itchel stops cold water pipe sweating permanent- jji ly and never needs maintenance. The only nation- Hi ally advertised "do-il-your sell" pipe insulation (hat g is 100.' i moisture-proof! 3 Apply it yourself in minutes. Requires no tools- no special sKitl. For Information about other quality "do it yourself Mortell products, write m ortell COMPANY Ml Buret) SUNt KankaiM, IIIKtoli EAT ANYTHING WITH FALSE TEETH ! Trouble with looie plate that tlip. rtuk or cauie tore nunu ? Try Hrimmi Plain-Liner 3 One application makes nlatet lit mngly u nh- jj mi ppu Jrr, fwitt or ii'i. Hfimnii Plain- " l iner ailhere permanently to your plate: jj end the notlter of temporary application. tin plate hi hi nrrnk hv Platli l iner. 3 YOU CAN CAT ANYTHING I Simply lay oft imp ol Plain-l iner on troublesome a upper orlower. Hue ant ii mokU perfectly. fan mi, latteleM, otlorleti. harm let to ;j tiiu and your platet Removable at d .retted Money-hath, guarantee. At drug stores. Parents ii Without Partners ir r r V By EDWARD R. SAMMIS Single parents are helping one another face those crushing questions: "Why don't I have a mother?" '"Why don't I see Daddy any more?" "TV TY HUSBAND and I are divorced, and our lVx six-year-old son doesn't see his father any more. Recently, he has begun telling his playmates that his daddy is dead. This is too much. What should I do?" The anxious mother's question unsigned to guard her privacy was passed forward to the speaker's platform during a meeting of Parents Without Partners, an organ ization dedicated to helping mothers who have lost their husbands and fathers who have lost their wives. The answer to her query came from a child-guidance counselor who was the group's guest speaker that eve ning. He explained that every effort should be exerted to make the father realize the serious emotional plight of his son. But if this failed, a "father substitute" should be found among family friends some man whom the boy could look up to as a model in things masculine. Until recently, this mother and others like her were pretty much on their own in meeting the problems of rearing children with only one parent in the house. But today, the Parents Without Partners organization is giving such people help, both through professional counseling and through the friendly exchange of view points with others in the same plight. Since the organization was founded five years ago in New York, it has grown to include chapters across the country. In addition, a number of independent local or ganizations have modeled themselves after it. There is room for all of these groups, for the extent of the problem is tremendous. Four million married persons in the U.S. are living apart from their spouses, according to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and nearly G.500,000 children live with only one parent because of death, divorce, separation, or desertion. But statistics only hint at the cnormousness of the problem. They cannot reflect the sense of loneliness and isolation, of frustration and helplessness, the sup pressed feelings of guilt and anger felt by parents who arc trying to rear children without the help of a partner. When these troubled people gather at Parents With out Partners meetings, there is a flood of questions. How can I keep my fatherless (or motherless) children from feeling they are inferior to their playmates? How can I deal with the tensions that arise when my children visit my divorced spouse? What about dates? I have chances to go out, but I don't accept because I'm afraid it might upset the chil dren. How can I explain to them my own social needs? Members of Parents Without Partners get helpful an swers to these and thousands of other questions. Each problem is considered individually, but these five points of general advice have proved fruitful: 1. Try to get rid of the hostile feelings resulting from the breakup of your marriage. Such feelings can only harm the emotional life of both you and your children. 2. If you are a "part-time father," you must realize that the emotional security of your children depends on your active participation in rearing them even after the di vorce or separation. Financial support isn't enough ; love, affection, and moral leadership are necessities. 3. Recognize that possessiveness toward your children may develop as an attempt to compensate for the loss of your mate. Fight against it, so that your child's growth toward independence will not be impaired. 4. Try to overcome the feeling of being "cut off." Cul tivate outside interests and hobbies. The single parent's emotional life is reflected in that of his (or her) children. 5. Keep your child from feeling that his predicament is strange. See that he gets to know other children who are being reared by single parents. Such suggestions fall on fertile ground because a new attitude is developing toward the broken home. There is a growing tendency to pick up the pieces and try to "get on" with normal living. To help single parents help themselves, the Parents Without Partners organization has expanded to include national workshops and a monthly journal. And the mail grows steadily heavier at the organiza tion's headquarters 80 Fifth Ave, New York, N.Y. as more and more single parents discover that there is a group dedicated to helping them with their problems. "The plight of the single parent seems to arise from the highly organized state of our society," says Mrs. Ela Hathaway, one of the pioneers in the movement. "There fore, the best way to meet it seems to be as other similar problems have been met by organization." Family Weekly. July J. 1962
