Broken Homes: A Study of Family Desertion and its Social TreatmentColcord, Joanna C. (Joanna Carver)
General
Broken Homes: A Study of Family Desertion and its Social Treatment
Colcord, Joanna C. (Joanna Carver)
Desertion and non-support
Very many processes are indicated in such a story. To bring about the
conviction of wrong-doing, to awaken desire and supply an incentive, to
keep the hope of attainment alive, to encourage weakened nerves in a new
and persistent effort, and all the while to build and strengthen and
develop faculties and powers that had been dormant and well-nigh
destroyed, is a task that demands a high order of skill and
resourcefulness.
The story just told emphasizes the work which was done with the husband.
Equally careful work had undoubtedly to be done with the wife to carry
her along with the plan. The period of "stay-away probation" for the man
is a difficult time for the woman. Neighbors and friends know that he is
taking steps in the direction of reformation, and often hold the
attitude that it is her duty to let bygones be bygones and receive him
again. The promptings of her own heart are often in the same direction;
and affection not outlived combines with custom, religious precept, and
economic pressure to make it almost impossible to hold to her decision.
The social worker can sometimes slip some of the burden of the decision
off the woman's shoulders to her own by exacting a promise from the two
that they will not try living together until the man has "shown what he
can do" for a certain definite time. The economic pressure can be eased
by a wise policy of relief; but most of all such a woman needs continued
encouragement from a person whose judgment and kindliness she has
learned to trust. This is another good point at which to introduce the
right kind of volunteer visitor, one who will already have established
friendly relations with both when the time of readjustment comes, and
who can help bridge over that difficult period. In some cases it might
be possible and desirable to procure as volunteer visitors to a couple
whose marital relations have come to shipwreck, another married couple
who have learned how to live together successfully.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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