Child (1831) was a compassionate social reformer and active and vocal abolitionist. Her advice, like many of her contemporaries, came from the belief that the ideals of domesticity, embodied in the habitus of the upper-classes, could promote a more peaceful and just world. Yet from a multi-vocal perspective, Child’s advice suggested that the ideal of “constant” teaching may have indeed proved more annoying than natural:

I am aware that these habits of inquiry are at times very troublesome; for no one, however patient, can be always ready to answer the multitude of questions a child is disposed to ask. But it must be remembered that all good things are accompanied by inconveniences. The care of children requires a great many sacrifices, and a great deal of self-denial; but the woman who is not willing to sacrifice a good deal in such a cause, does not deserve to be a mother. (p. 15–16)

While literacy roles for mothers seemed indeed conflicted and wrapped up in concerns for children’s moral and religious upbringing, it is important to recognize that the rather intensive forms of mothering prescribed in texts were directed to upper class women who hired nurses to attend to the everyday care of children and the running of the household. Indeed, opportunities to impart instruction appeared when mothers visited their children’s nurseries, “or when their little ones are permitted to visit them” (Mothers’ Magazine, 1862, p. 124). For these mothers, advice for managing their children’s literacy involved, in large measure, monitoring and regulating the women who performed mothering and literacy work in their children’s nurseries. In the pattern of anonymous women advisors who drew on their own experiences to offer advice for the benefit of others, one author wrote in 1838 “The Nursery Maid: Her Duties and How to Perform Them,” for the benefit of girls from poor families and those who trained them in upper-class standards for caring for young children. These girls were advised to allow the children’s mother to choose which books she should read to the children, and perhaps as an acknowledgement that a nursery maid may not be able to read, suggested they “repeat the stories” in the books provided. Yet, reading to children seemed a minor part of the work of a nursery maid and was mentioned in but a few lines of the book. By contrast, in the Nursery Governess, (1845) literacy advice to would-be governesses was provided in a story in which “Mary Manners” is assisted by her mentor in preparing her belongings to take her new employment. The mentor helps Mary to carefully choose suitable books, counseling her that teaching is much like the work of a mother hen and accomplished through books that were the “food of the mind”: