MOTHER'S HELPER

When I was a kid my friend Heidi  and I loved to play this game, Mother's helper. I think the object of the game was to complete all your chores first and be the apple of Mother's eye. I have been trying to decide if the game was sexist. I guess it was but the world was blatantly sexist in 1969 when the game was first made. We played in the 70s, we're not THAT old.

   I do know that Mother sure had an enormous amount of chores to complete because as her helpers (indentured servants) we raced all through that two dimensional house, fetching baby bottles, mopping up spills, doing laundry and whatever else Mother needed. When I think about the Mother now, I picture her as kind of a Stepford Wife,eerily polite and perfectly coiffed. She would do nothing else all day but stand in her cardboard kitchen and remove perfectly formed cookies from the oven ,promising to give us a taste if we would just complete those chores.

      I can remember staring at the game board convinced that I was going to have a house just like it when I grew up, only three dimensional. Well I do have a house and yes mother does have an enormous amount of daily chores!  It is much harder  to recruit helpers in reality. Not to mention Mother has to leave her kitchen to go to work  at her PAYING  job so she can bring home the vegan bacon!


        Even though the game was sexist and we were naive, It elicits nothing but  the good memories of  sitting closely with friends  on a summer afternoon on a back porch or  living room carpet . Playing board games or making up our own games. Unless , of course, there was a good cartoon on tv.