Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

her mother's lack of fearnot develop air-raidanxiety.One of our own mothers, aand excitement, willcomfortable andplacid Irishwoman, the mother of eight children,when asked whether her rooms had beendamaged by bombing, answered, with a beam-Weing smile: "Oh, no, we were ever so lucky.had only blast, and my husband fixed the window-framesagain".Blast, which removes the window frames,not to mention the window panes, can be a veryuncomfortable experience; but again, we canbe certain that for the children of this motherthe occurrence of the blast was not a veryalarming incident.We had, on the other hand, the opportunityto observe very anxious mothers with very anxiouschildren. There was John's mother, whodeveloped agoraphobia during the air raids.She never went to bed while the alarm lasted,stood at the door trembling and insisted onthe child not sleeping either. He, a boy offive, had to get dressed, to hold her hand andto stand next to her. He developed extremenervousness, and bed wetting. When separatedfrom her in the Children's Centre he did notshow special alarm either in daylight or innight raids.Iris, a girl, three and a half years old, whosemother was "quite nervous" since their small34