Als ouder heb je te maken met tal van opvoeddilemma's en soms vraag je jezelf doe ik het wel goed? Gerjanne van Lagen ontdekte in een doos oude tijdschriften de opvoedadviezen van J. Waterink. In het destijds veelgelezen tijdschrift "Moeder" beantwoordde de pedagoog jarenlang vragen van moeders. Het verraste haar dat deze adviezen van bijna honderd jaar oud zó verfrissend een verademing om te lezen. Gerjanne verzamelde in dit boek een veertigtal waardevolle opvoedingsadviezen en licht deze selectie per onderwerp persoonlijk toe, vanuit de wens om hiermee veel ouders van dienst te zijn.
This book sparked my curiosity. The author found a box full of old magazines in her grandmother's house. The magazine was aimed at Christian women and was published between 1934 and 1957. The editor was a child psychologist and each edition contained parenting advice in an editorial as well as his answers to readers' letters. This book is a collection of articles from the magazines with some comment from the author. I was interested to see how parenting advice might have changed over the years and was struck by the wisdom and the gentle tone of the articles - I guess I expected a more authoritarian tone. However, the thing that amazed and disappointed me about this book was the complete absence of the bible. None of the advice is backed up with biblical arguments. I wonder if this is because society was so much more Christian at the time and there was an assumption that everyone knew and believed the same things? It is a shame the author didn't pick up on that in her commentary...