| At the core preventing mental illness is the fact that | | | | powerful enticements known as commercials. |
| babies need mothers, and the emphasis must be on | | | | Thus the values of motherhood are constantly being |
| prevention of separation traumas, with delineation of | | | | eroded and challenged and replaced by the changing |
| illnesses caused by separation traumas at specific | | | | societal values and pressures to conform. The joy of |
| ages in the first thirty-four months of life. | | | | motherhood is in danger of being lost as more of a |
| But that is not the whole story. There are many | | | | mother's time is taken from her true love, the |
| other important factors in child development. Mother's | | | | precious little bundle she loves so much. Consequently |
| love and the quality of mothering is critically important | | | | we have to shift our focus back to our babies and |
| at all stages of development, particularly in the | | | | away from the distractions that abound all around us |
| earliest years of life, and even during pregnancy. | | | | in our materialistic world. |
| While practically everyone knows that babies need | | | | In the wild, a mother bear watches over her cubs, |
| mothers, careful scrutiny of the subtle but changing | | | | and her attention is focused on protecting and |
| lifestyles in modern societies makes it clear that | | | | feeding them. She is concerned about potential |
| merely "knowing" that babies need mothers is not an | | | | dangers to them; and her focus is on nurturing, |
| adequate safeguard against the gradual shifting of | | | | guiding, teaching, and training them for the demands |
| importance of the mother's role in child rearing. | | | | of their world to come. This is pure love, as |
| In recent decades, there has been an erosion of the | | | | demonstrated in a lower species. Is this still the |
| importance of motherhood, brought about by | | | | primary focus of the highest species of all? Are our |
| commercial endeavors through nearly all news media. | | | | other needs artificially increased to a point where |
| The impact of this global commercial endeavor might | | | | they begin to detract from our love? Are we |
| not be recognized for what it is. It results in a shift in | | | | bombarded with so many distractions and misleading |
| societal values that can work against the expression | | | | temptations that our attention is taken away from |
| of mothers' love, and even cause her to minimize the | | | | what should be most important to us? Have we |
| importance of spending time with her own child. | | | | bought into "I need time for me" to the extent that |
| Mothers are being pulled from all directions to focus | | | | the baby's need for a mother's love is not even |
| on different needs-needs of their own, needs to | | | | recognized? The needs of the adult do not begin to |
| purchase goods, to have more, be more, do more, | | | | compare with the needs of the infant. |
| get more. They are coached on how to find the | | | | These are questions and issues we must search in |
| very best daycare center and the best babysitter. | | | | earnest, for we have seen that we cannot get |
| Having a career is made into an ideal, and then they | | | | happiness, it is the by-product of giving. And a new |
| are enticed into having the finest new car and | | | | baby is a one-way street; it is total need into which |
| wearing the latest fashion. Some surveys report that | | | | we give our all. This is the real means of mothers |
| the average American adult watches approximately | | | | achieving happiness, and it is the means by which |
| five hours of television per day with as much as | | | | mothers, through example, teach their babies how to |
| one-third of some programs devoted to those | | | | love, so that they too might find happiness. |