My mother worked for about 18 months when my brother and I were in our teens. BUT

She had middle-class aspirations.

She was under pressure from her mother, who didn't approve of married women working "If he can't keep you he shouldn't have married you!"

But most of all, because she was a lazy cow! With her, a womans' work was never done because she never did it.

Needless to say, we struggled, but Dad wasn't the kind of man who drank his wages.

Anne and I were lucky. When the kids were small, we managed to work, turn and about, for some years, so that when Anne was working I wasn't, and vice versa. So the housework got done and the kids got parented big time, but there was also an income, of sorts. We learned how to hold household. Then we both joined the Civil Service, which lasted until Anne became too poorly. but by that time I'd moved to a better-paid job. We were lucky, as I said.