1910s: How to Keep a Restless Husband at Home.

 After a hectic Christmas Week with gatherings next to every night, the Whittakers are quite pleased to get back to their usual calm life. New Years Day is a day spent with the family. Joseph and Josephine builds a snowpal: 

Baby William stands up for the first time and then tops it off by speaking his first word:

And Alice is starting to find a passion of her own: Acting. Anna helps as best she can, as no one else in the family will find this particular pursuit a suitable one, but Alice is having fun and Anna is determined to help her sister follow her dreams, whatever they may entail.

On Monday, Abigail takes the opportunity to visit Ida and her new bundle of joy. A little girl they named Madison:

But all is not well in the Preston household. Without reason, Nathaniel has sudden outbursts of anger, throwing accusations at his wife for no reason.

It seems his newfound jealousy has taken over his personality and his fear of being cheated on makes him act out. Ida is having none of it, however. Sitting him down she makes him talk it out with her, ensuring him of how much she loves him. Eventually the calm settles on the household again - at least for now - and Ida and Nathaniel can go back to what they most enjoy: caring for their children.

In the younger Whittaker household, problems run more severe than that. While her days are filled up with John and Edward and their needs, Frank's is taken up by politics, socialization and interesting conversations. Instead of being curious about his children when he comes home, he is mostly just bored with the lack of stimulation at home. And unlike before, he no longer tries to hide it. When Emily tells him a story at dinner, he just stares at her. Then insults her.

The moment she goes to put the children to bed, Frank heads out the door, only to return in the middle of the night when everyone in the house is sleeping. Other than dinner, which is painful, Frank and Emily, once so in love, spends next to no time together.

In the senior Whittaker household, Abigail and Joseph worry, but at the same time, they do not want to interfere. They tried their intervention, but it did little if anything to help. But there is a glimmer of hope when Frank late one night shows up on their doorstep. He might have left home, but at least he's not at the bar.

Joseph sits him down and have a long conversation with him. About his plans for the future, his family life, and his behaviour. "But family life is boring!" Frank complains. Joseph will not hear that side of it. "Your family needs you! It's your duty!" He sends Frank home and hopes his words had an impact. 

As the week progress, the family quickly find their normal rhythm. Joseph spends his days writing: 

The kids spend their days in school, and then once home, doing schoolwork:

But they do find time to make use of the ice rink outside their home. Almost everyone in the family joins in:

And then one day as the family is having dinner, William, stubbornly interested in the toys that are just too far away, learns how to crawl:

Once he's crawling, he crawls everywhere, and touches everything. The cat seems interesting:

But after exploring for so long, a small infant can get really tired. Then it's good to be able to take a nap in mummy's arms:

On Thursday afternoon, George Addington comes over to spend some time with Anna. They have a great time, until George starts flirting and reveals he's interest is not only of Anna as a friend. She promptly send him home with unfinished business.

That same afternoon, Joseph decides he misses spending alone time with his wife. There is almost always some child around. Therefore he takes her out to one of the newly opened cafés in Newcrest. The town is becoming a quite bustling place, filled with life and movement.

Friday morning, Abigail gets word that little Madison is now an infant. She heads over to spend some time with her, and of course with Ida and Melanie as well. The little angel looks just like her mother at the same age.

As the weekend comes around, Joseph has decide it's time for a family excursion. He takes all his girls with him to the Newcrest observatory and science museum.

Anna is delighted!

Alice thinks this is so much more boring than art. Who cares about flowers, mechanics, some old bones or looking at the sky?

Anna tries to persuade her that this is the best thing ever, but fails. She sneaks up into the observatory to watch the sky instead. It's so amazing!!! Anna stays longer than anyone else in the family. When she gest home she researches universities. She can't wait until she's old enough to apply!

At Emily and Frank's, Emily has gotten an idea on how to keep her husband at home. Frank has made it abundantly clear that he finds her company less than entertaining (boring) and that nothing she can talk to him about is interesting enough to hold his attention and that his friends are more interesting than her and the kids. So if she is not enough to hold him at home, she'll have to invite his friends more often. Even that awful Mathias. But Mathias, for all his faults, has one thing going for him. He too has a wife, even if Emily has never been introduced to her. Said and done, Emily decides to invite both Mathias and his wife to the house. She includes their toddler, at the same age as John as well. She shares the news with Frank over a game of chess that she knows she will lose before they even start playing.

To her relief, Frank thinks guests is a great idea. He immediately celebrates not having to be home with just his family with a bottle of fizzy juice:

Emily in turn, makes sure Virginia makes a suburb meal, and tells her to keep the drinks within reach but not too plentiful. The dinner goes off well, it turns out Mrs Bradshaw and Emily has quite a bit in common, and both food and drinks go over well with the men.

As the night comes to an end, Frank discovers another bonus with staying at home. As the drinks makes him flirty, there is a wife to entertain him. Woohooing is an aspect of married life that he appreciates. 

 

As far as Emily is concerned, this is a win. No she has not stopped her husband from drinking, but she did keep him at home. If all she has to do is to make sure there are always company in the house, she thinks she can do that. Perhaps then Frank will learn to see the good in their family, and be less eager to run off. She sincerely hopes so.