June: naive or in denial?

[kixon66]

Many episodes deal with Beaver or Wally and a "rite of passage" such as a driver's license. It seems June is always caught by surprise by whatever event is taking place and telling Ward "I don't like this" or "I'm against it." Then Ward has to point out that "we always knew this day would come." It's also mentioned on many occasions that Ward "got around" or was a "man of the world." Did June really live a sheltered life where ignorance was bliss? Or did she just not want to deal with a world where she had to ask things like "who is she and what is she doing to our baby?"

[MickeyMac]

I think was just being slighty over protective, and in her eyes Wally & Beaver were still little boys. All the things they wanted to do just reminded June that they were growing up and soon be men. I think all parents (particulary mothers) feel that way.

[Jack1000]

I think for the first Season, June Cleaver qualifies as president of the over-protective Mother club. She would ask Ward to do things that she was perfectly capable of doing for herself. Isn't there an episode where Wally goes camping overnight with his Boy Scout Troop, and June calls Ward at the office, and I think gets him out of something important because, "It looks like rain!"

Or the time when she gave Ward angry looks when Beaver ran away because he thought Ward was being too mean. (Yelling at Beaver when he and Larry made drill holes in the garage wall.) "Oh! My little baby's out there cold and hungry!" Turns out Beaver's happy as a clam enjoying dinner with Larry over at his house.

It might have been another episode where Wally said, "Beaver said he was gonna run away, become a Pirate and come back with a wooden leg!" LOL! Ward laughs and June gets really pissed:

"Ward Cleaver if he does, I'll never speak to you again!"

In fact, there were rumors that Barbara demanded script and story changes when she thought Beaver was "getting it too harshly." She adamantly denied this in many interviews, saying that many people worked to make the scripts the best as possible. Everyone helped contribute something positive in any re-writes that were done."

Blame her Aunt, Martha Bronson, for June's sheltered life. Martha I think was very domineering in June's family. Her insistence in traditional ways and difficulty adjusting to the outside world could have been a reason for June's resistance to change. We don't know too much about June's Mother, if anything. However, we know that she went to an all-girls boarding school. Maybe this was something on which Martha insisted. June was very close to Martha, and instilled those prime and proper traditional values in her own children.

In later seasons, for example 3-6, we see the boys becoming more independent and June a little less over-protective of them, especially Beaver. Notice how the writers began to make Ward more informal with causal dress, whereas in the early years, he is almost always wearing business attire. In later years, June had to learn to let go of her trite and traditional ways, and this was a great challenge for her.

Jack

[Cincy Guy]

In one of the episodes, Ward is encouraging Beaver to read "Tom Sawyer" noting kids have read that book for many years. June responds that the book she recalls reading when she was young was (and I'm not sure of the girl's name in the title), "Mary Clark of Haddon Hall".

[howilu]

Originally Posted by Cincy Guy

In one of the episodes, Ward is encouraging Beaver to read "Tom Sawyer" noting kids have read that book for many years. June responds that the book she recalls reading when she was young was (and I'm not sure of the girl's name in the title), "Mary Clark of Haddon Hall".

You're close on the title of the book June read. The correct title was "Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall."

[Hughsgirl]

I think it was denial on June's part and though people tend to give her a bad time for being too over-protective, I feel she was most of the time just a normal mother. Most mothers dread when her kids grow into adults - particularly her boys, JMO. I think in some weird way that June may have been one of those mothers devastated at the idea of not being the most imporatant woman in her son's life and not in a sick way but in that way that because she was the one who raised them and nurtured them into men.

As for the first few seasons and her asking Ward to handle things that people feel she could have, I wouldn't be so hard on her for that either. I have done some research on the 50's and 60's and it seems that the women depended on their husband to handle everything because they were the head of the household and she trusted him to to do so. I think June was the best example of that kind of wife that had that faith in her husband to do what was right for her and their family and she knew she could count on Ward to reassure her on her fears/concerns or whatever. I think that's one reason why I like Ward too is that he cares about her feelings throughout the boys experiences. I mean look how he put up with that horrible Aunt Martha - all out of love and concern for his wife. Now in the later seasons we June changing some, which IMO, doesn't really fall in line with how the roles differered between man and woman in that era, but I still loved the show anyway.

[MurphyCarmichael]

It seems she was just being too overprotective. She seemed to always see Beaver and Wally as little kids no matter how much they were growing up. She didn't want to accept that they were grown up enough for things like getting a license and going out with girls.
She seems to have maybe led a sheltered life, with things being prim and proper and not realizing certain things in the world. And, with her Aunt Martha being domineering and expecting things done in a more traditional manner seems to maybe have something to do with the way June is. Also, the all girls boarding school would probably play a big part in her being a bit naive to things in the world as would the traditional ways her Aunt always expected of her and I'm sure of her parents as well.