You go to a charity school until you're 10 years old. You get bored of learning knitting and sewing which takes up most of your day – you'd rather be learning history or arithmetic. You leave because your parents want you to help with looking after the younger children.
You start work when you're 15 but leave after four years when you marry. Once married, you stay at home during the day, but supplement the family's income by charring and taking in washing for other families in the area. You also offer to help out your friends by looking after their babies when they're at work.
You haven't got time for fun: you're too busy looking after your four children or trying to bring in some extra cash for the family. You've had one baby each year for the last six years, but two died as babies. You are constantly exhausted.
You grow up living with your parents in the lodgings alongside the factory they both work in. It's cramped and when you complain, you're beaten by your father who spends a lot of his time time in the pub. When you marry you move into cramped lodgings with your husband and share a room with another family.
You marry when you're 19.
|
