ABSTRACT
MoTHERS, F ATHBRS AND SoCIAL CLAss 203 with his family but also the extent to which he is prepared to help in the baby's care; indeed, the whole pattern of family living is determined by the father's hours of work. This is especially obvious in certain occupations: miners and factory employees often work in alternating shifts; commercial travellers, long distance lorry-drivers and steeplejacks may spend several days at a time away from home; electricians, railwaymen and doctors may be constantly on call; teachers, shop-keepers and young professional men often work late in the evening preparing lessons, doing accounts or working for qualifying examinations. Thus some men have finished with work once they get home, some bring it home with them and are therefore only semi-available to their families for much of the time, and some, like small shop-keepers and writers, live with their work and are in and out of the living quarters all day, as their children are in and out of the working-place.
