Women's Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1918-1939 by Catherine Clay Maria DiCenzo

Author:Catherine Clay,Maria DiCenzo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Loneliness, Friendship, and the Support of the Expert

The difficulties reflected, particularly in the last two letters, offer a clue as to why loneliness was such a common theme in these magazine’s correspondence columns. With no obvious social equals and often living far away from their families, nannies used the magazines to make contact and cultivate friendships, while mothers, often equally isolated, also used the columns to seek out like-minded friends. Jenna Bailey’s book Can any Mother Help Me? charts the development of a long-lasting correspondence club between isolated mothers, beginning in 1935 after they had responded to a cry for help by ‘a mother of three’ in a letter to ‘Over the Teacups’ (2007: 5). Nannies formed similar friendship circles, often corresponding with their fellow students for many years after they had finished training (Holden 2013: 187). Subscriber address lists in college magazines helped nannies keep in touch and the letters page offered news of their fellow nurses. One nurse working in China stressed the pleasures of keeping in contact with other nurses: ‘so we three Norlanders far, far from home do talk such a lot of “shop” but we also bathe together, shop together and tonight . . . have dined together’ (Norland Quarterly Dec 1926: 9).

The correspondence columns were also important for nannies who did not have college connections. In an early edition of Nursery World a correspondent living in the country who ‘lacked companionship’ asked: ‘would it be possible for two lonely nurses to arrange, through this column, an occasional meeting?’ (27 Jan 1926: 232). This letter led the magazine to set up ‘The Nursery World Friendship League’, which acted like a lonely-hearts column for (mainly) nannies, with the magazine forwarding replies in stamped addressed envelopes free of charge. While a few mothers initially made use of this service, by the mid-1930s it seems to have been used exclusively by nannies, suggesting that it had become a service that was only meant for them.

It is also evident that in contrast to the early editions where correspondence in the ‘Over the Tea-cups’ column was more equally divided between nannies and mothers, by the mid-1930s letters from mothers were more frequent (Nursery World 12 Feb, 4 Mar, 6 May, 27 May, 13 Dec 1936). This shift reflects middle-class women’s increasingly significant role in caring for their own children. A 1929 edition of Nursery World displaying a romanticised image of a mother alone with her two children on the cover (Figure 16.1) is suggestive of this change, and can be compared with an earlier cover where a nanny is shown within the family circle (23 June 1926).

By the mid-1930s both mothers and nannies were also engaging directly with the advice of Ursula Wise on ‘childhood problems’, which was regarded as an important source of advice and support by readers. The greater influence of mothers’ authority is suggested in a debate on ‘love and punishment’. Here nannies advocating smacking were criticised by Wise and by several correspondents, though one mother did support the position of nannies who smacked.

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