Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

I have seen other nursery schools despair ofthese attempts. Instead of creating mother substitutes,they try to lay greater stress on the newand positive elements of nursery life itself.After all, the child gets more companionshipand social life than he would at home. Andwhat is lacking in mother's love might be givenin a general atmosphere of friendliness andaffection, in intelligent care and better educationalefforts than the untaught mother wouldhave been capable of.Ihave seen astonishingly few attempts madeto include the real mothers themselves in thelife of the nursery. There are very few nurserieswhere mothers' visits are welcome, whereefforts are made to bring home routine andnursery routine into one line. The danger evidentlyis not realised that the child who goesback and forth between home and nursery may,in the end, feel strange in both places. Evenin residential nurseries no material help isgiven to make mothers' visits more frequent; norto provide facilities to lengthen the durationof such visits.I once tried to explain to an official visitorwhy the nurseries I am connected with spenda good deal of time and planning on parents'visits, and gladly suffer every disturbance ofroutine to make the parents take their share inthe life of the nursery. My visitor said that,188af-