Sepia Saturday 336: My fantasy Motherhood

I have no children; I missed being part of a scene such as the one depicted this week in our Sepia Saturday prompt. No photos of sleeping babies or nurseries were unearthed from my photo albums. I did bump into this baby picture of my sister...the classic baby nude, made into a post card. 

Whenever I've had fantasies of motherhood, the scenes I dream up for myself are similar to this one; the pretty bassinet, the gorgeous baby with an enormous head (is that a photographic effect or are normal babies heads that large?) sleeping so peacefully. In my fantasy, there's a lovely tinkling lullaby playing in the background and I'm reading the baby a children's classic -  something Dr. Spock would approve. My fantasy baby never needs a change, never throws up, never wakes up in the middle of the night. There are no ear aches nor colic and no crying. My name is Rachel and my beautiful boy is GT (Grosse Tete). In my fantasy, life is permanently like the photo, but I wouldn't have that awful racist Golliwog* doll on the dresser.

Shazaam...got rid of that!

Continuing the fantasy, I have perfect hair and a closet full of beautiful dresses that I wear for just these night time reading occasions. The fantasy nursery is always clean and tidy. There is no loud and boisterous husband/father to mess things up; the fantasy father, Biff, only enters the scene to bring home a large  very large paycheck which I deposit into my own account and use for beautiful dresses, manicures and hair styling at the beauty salon. There's plenty of money left over for the Swedish nanny who is busy just behind that curtain washing and ironing the babies clothes and perhaps, if she has time, making Swedish meatballs which GT and I will enjoy after naptime.

The Swedish nanny's name is Ingrid of course. She came to us straight from Stockholm where she graduated from the University with a degree in Child Development. Graduated at the top of her class - what else? .....

Because even my own imagination cannot stomach such perfection for even one more paragraph and because my imagination is, as we speak, cooking up an utter disaster to end the idyllic scene, I'm leaving Ingrid, Rachel, Biff Paycheck and GT alone...frozen in bliss forever.

As a footnote to my fantasy and an antidote to all the saccharinity, here's what I really think motherhood would have been like for me.

www.123rf. Vector Cartoon The real relationship.

*From www.historyofdolls.com

Golliwogg is a type of a rag doll. It is also known as golliwog or golly. It is made from black fabric and has black eyes bordered with white, red lips with white teeth and frizzy hair.

Inspiration for gollywogg dolls came from Florence Kate Upton who was born in 1873 in Flushing, New York and was daughter of English parents. Her father died when she was 14 and she moved back to England. To be able to afford art school she illustrated book “The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg”. It was a children’s book which had a character by the name of Golliwogg who looked scary but was a positive character. Inspired by blackface minstrels he had black skin, red lips and frizzy hair and was dressed in traditional minstrel cloth. Golliwogg proved very popular and the book was sold very well in England along with its sequels. Similar dolls and images started carrying name gollywog because of that popularity and because Florence did not patent the name. This made the doll a popular children’s toy during a large part of 20th century. It's fame was so wide that it spread to advertising and other selling items like children's china and toys, ladies' perfume, and jewelry. James Robertson & Sons, British jam factory, used Gollywog as a mascot from 1910 until 2001. “Blackjack” - aniseed candy made in United Kingdom used gollywog’s face from 1920s until 1980s.

One theory of the origin of the name “Golliwogg” says that while British soldiers held Egypt in the second half of the 19th century they had Egyptian laborers that worked for them. Workers wore insignia W.O.G.S. on their armbands which meant “Working on Government Service”. British troops spoke of them as “ghouls” - which is an Arabic word for a desert ghost. Egyptian children played with black dolls which they would sometimes give to British soldiers or they would buy dolls from children. That dolls were later called “Ghuliwogs” and later “Golliwogg”. How much truth is in this theory - it is not known.

“Golliwogg” doll in time became very controversial. While some see it as a part of tradition and part of childhood other see it as racist. That is why they started disappearing from shops and advertisements but they still can be found especially on the Internet. There is a possibility that “golliwogg” evolved into “wog” which is a racial slur applied to dark-skinned people.