Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

—lessen the shock of the breaking up of familylife, and to find—during the absence from themother—a really good substitute for the motherrelationship.In this respect also many nursery schoolshave tried to do their best. Attempts have beenmade in many places to break up larger groupsinto smaller ones; to assign no more childrento one worker than would be natural in anordinary family; to let, as far as possible, thesame workers always handle the same children.I do not think that these attempts, necessaryas they are, have been completely successful.In residential nurseries, especially, noplanning of this kind does away with the factthat workers need off-hours during the day, offdaysduring the week, and have to have thenights to themselves. The mother relationshipin these early stages, on the other hand, is basedon a twenty-four hour attendance to the child'sneeds. Many children of two, when enteringthe nursery have never been separated fromtheir mothers for one day or night. Alsoworkers are not tied to their jobs as mothersare tied to their children. Wherever we basenursery work purely on the personal tie betweenthe individual child and the individualworker, we prepare the way for possible newshocks of separation, and for repeated disappointments.187