Wednesday’s wise women … mothers.

We hear a lot about baby boomers; children who are born during the boom period  after a war.  Their existence; the opportunities and success they are bound achieve.
But what about the girl who is born fifteen years before a war. Her life is cut short; her education ended.  Her opportunities will be null and void.  Any hope of university, a chance to develop a career or indeed form a long and meaningful relationship and have babies will be dashed. Instead she will seconded to the war effort making arms, working on a farm or fighting on the front lines.  After years of disruption and loss; she returns to her home if it is still there to pick up the pieces.
Without a complete education the girl is at the mercy of the homecoming heroes.  To recreate the lost community. She becomes a machine to produce a future workforce, slaves and warriors when needed.
How can a girl hope to cope with this without education and proper parental guidance that was lost during the war?
Any woman who can survive this; bring up 2 or 3 children or more on a limited income with little or no support from a spouse gets a medal in my mind.
My mother for instance, had me and my siblings; had at least one miscarriage and a stillborn child and to my knowledge with no medical and psychological support at all.  Premenstrual tension, postnatal depression or any other psychological disorder that occurs when we are exposed to stressful situations – such as  poor living conditions, poor wages and a absent fathers was never a consideration … does this mean it didn’t happen?
I see this from the British perspective (1939-1945) but it has and does happen throughout the world and ages.  Wars continue and while this happens the education of young women and the bringing up of children is seen low priority.  It seems that the mother’s of the boomers are seen as part of the machine; part of the recovery of war and  that the end justifies the means.
This is shocking as my mum reaches her 90th year.  Although her education at grammar school ended before she had hoped; our education was always her utmost concern.  I bear witness to that.  She never complained directly; I saw her pain, anguish, her empty plate , empty purse, the squalor and despair and the difficulties filling our empty bellies.
I am not going all melancholy and nostalgic – it was shit – my mother harsh at times and perhaps affected by pretty ghastly psychological disorders.  But she was dealt an awful hand and motherhood is not all instinct and love.
It is to do with education and respect   And women still do not get it.