Life is so different now isn't it Umpire.
Like you we were not flush with money although dad always worked. With three children and mum at home tending the house things were tight but we always had food on the table and shoes on our feet - even if the shoes were got by the use of a Provident Check! ( is that facility still going? )
By the age of 11 years I was helping mum ( i was expected to!! ) with cleaning and shared the care of my brother who had just been born.
It was always a strange kind of relationship between us a sort of brother sister - mother daughter thing. I guess that's what happens when you share care.
I remember the men forming a small queue outside the local pub at 11.55am on Sunday's if they were not working ( my dad was one
) - waiting for that much needed pint after a week in the pits -
I was fortunate enough to go a pit ( or maybe not ! ) It looked a terribly hard place to earn a crust!