My husband and I looked at each other. The news which we had dreaded had come, and our income was cut past believing. 

“That means no help,” said I, and very sorrowfully, I said goodbye to Nanny and faced alone the care of a home and two small boys. Feeling all the time the impossibility of getting through, I struggled manfully with the work which she and I had shared, and at the end of the day, sank into bed utterly exhausted.

For a couple of weeks this went on, and then one evening; I caught the worried ~ look on my husband's face as I protested that I could not stop to listen ‘to the wireless, there was still too much to do, and, against my will, I let myself be persuaded. As we switched on, a voice came out unexpectedly in that old song? "Am I wasting my time on you?" It was only sentimental doggerel, but the question set up a train of thought which led me along new paths. 

"Are you wasting your time on us?" twinkled the brass candlesticks on the mantlepiece “and on me?" asked the silver teapot. They were shining and spotless, but I had spent half the sunny afternoon over them, refusing to join the boys in the garden. Looking at them with new eyes I answered honestly: "Yes, I am. You were meant to give pleasure. Now you have become a burden, you are useless away you go." 

Fired with a new purpose, I leapt to my feet and toured the house, hunting out all those things which are a joy to the leisured, but to the single~handed not worth the work involved. I was amazed at the things I found. That table-silver which could so easily be replaced by china, those embroidered cloths and runners which took so long getting up, those valuable ornaments which meant : Saying “Don't touch" so often, and needed such care in their washing and cleanings.

 I Carefully packed them all away in drawers, ‘They will come out again when the children are bigger, and we shall enjoy them more for their temporary absence. Those wastepaper baskets in every room ~~ they were meant to simplify clearing up, and so they did till the children arrived. Now I retrieved them dozens of times a day from the castle into which two-year-old Peter had built them. Away they went on a high shelf in the boxroom.

Last I came to the kitchen, and there in front of the fire were my usual clothes horse of white woollies, What pride Nanny had always taken in keeping Peter white and spotless, and I had taken it for granted that I mst carry on, even though it meant a nightly wash after a long day's work. But must I? Which was most important - beautiful clothes or a happy, unruffled mother? I made myself look at the matter sanely, and next day I got out my machine and ran up a set of dark overalls for playtime for each boy, overalls which I allowed to get grubby and which thoroughly protected the Woolies beneath.

The more I looked, the more I found of work which could be eliminated, work good in itself but of secondary importance compared with the comfort and happiness of my husband and children.

 Perhaps my greatest discovery was that the children could be work-savers as well as work-makers, even though they were so young. I had not realised that three-year old David wes longing to help till one day, finding them both under my feet as I made the beds, I gave him a rubber bottle to carry downstairs. He was back at top speed, glowing with pride, and demanding something else. So we made a game of it, and he ran to and fro, hanging up his and Peter's dressing-goens, arranging their slippers beneath their cots, and, at his suggestion - mine and Daddy's. ‘Trembling for my china, I let them help to clear meals, and found David wonderfully neat and sure footed, though Peter was responsible  for a good many breakages when he also lent a hand. Here again my new outlook came to my help. The best china was put away for happier times, and a very few shillings bought gay pottery, the breaking of which was worth less than the training in helpfulness which the boys were getting.

Today, when I look back on those first few weeks, I can never be thankful enough that I was pulled up in time. My house may look bare and empty, we are doing without many luxuries we once thought essential, but the work had dropped into its rightful place. I have found time to play with the children, and to laugh with my husband, while we can still laugh who cares about a reduced income.