Little Mommy

There I was in AC Moore. I really only ran to the back of the store to put away a ball of yarn I had decided against purchasing (yes, the sale was lovely, but a girl really should use what she already owns before buying more!). It was then that the rack of books caught my eye, and one book in particular stuck out: Little Mommy. I suddenly remembered reading about this very book on a much enjoyed blog a few years back, and being intrigued by Lauren’s description of it. So, despite my waiting family, I pulled it off the shelf, briefly glanced through it, and decided I wanted to bring it home.

After arriving home and warming up beside the warm fire, I pulled my new little book from its bag and took a deeper look. It began: "This is my house and I am the mommy..."



From the rhyming lines to the adorable pictures, this precious little book is even more enchanting that I had anticipated. I love this story of a little girl playing mommy with her dolls and all the duties that fill a mommy’s day. I love how she’s sweetly dressed in an adorable, smocked play dress; I love that her brothers occasionally join in her play – but only in the manly roles of daddy (i.e. driving the play car to "work" and then assisting in eating the cookies for “dinner”) and as physician when a dolly gets sick (he kindly makes a house call). I love the blue and white dishes that are illustrated all throughout the book and that “Little Mommy” is a homeschool mom, carefully taking time to educate her dollies in the midst of her busy day. I love the worldview behind the book which teaches young girls how wonderful it is to be mommies and the household responsibilities that go along with the task. It’s just a completely charming little read.



Mom and I guessed at the book’s age as we carefully looked at each picture, and we were close; the book was originally copyrighted in 1967. I couldn’t help but compare this delightful story to Betty Friedan’s book, Feminine Mystique, published just a few short years earlier. The feminine, home-centered culture portrayed beautifully in Little Mommy was exactly what Friedan tried, very successfully, to destroy. I also was struck while reading that “Little Mommy” has three dollies and is also a member of a 3-child family. (At least, there are three children that we know of in the book.) Although this doesn't seem out of the ordinary now, two children were considered the appropriate amount for a long time. Ozzie and Harriet Nelson have two sons; it’s the same in Leave it to Beaver. Donna Reed has one of each gender in her TV show, while Dick Van Dyke gets along fine with just one child. Even in my own family, my great-grandmother used to talk about how she would never have had more than two because she was educated and knew better. Margaret Sanger did her work well… I guess I was pleasantly surprised that this little book didn’t follow the pattern and treated children and their care as blessings.



So now I’m eager to have guests with whom I can share my new book. Earlier this week I had the opportunity to read aloud Peter Rabbit and Charlie Needs a Cloak which are among my favorites, and Little Mommy will join the ranks next time I have young female guests eager for read-aloud. And someday, if I am blessed with a little girl to dress in smocked play dresses and Mary Jane shoes, I hope this book is inspiring and a fun tool for sharing the joys of homemaking and motherhood. Thank you, Lauren, for pointing it out!