Mrs Pearson takes charge

The family comes home, expecting things to be as usual. They get a shock.

• Doris wants her yellow silk ironed for her date with Charlie Spence. 'Mrs Pearson' refuses, smokes a cigarette, and makes fun of Charlie's buck teeth.
• Cyril expects his tea to be ready, and complains that he has worked an eight-hour day. 'Mrs Pearson' replies that she has done her eight hours too. She tells the children that she works twice their hours, and gets no wages and no thanks.
• George comes home to find his wife drinking stout. She tells him that the men at his club laugh at him behind his back, and call him 'Pompy-ompy Pearson'. Cyril admits that it is true.

She calls Cyril a 'silly, spoilt young piecan', and mocks his love of greyhound races and ice shows.

The humour comes from exaggeration: no ordinary mother would behave like this. But every jibe hits a real fault in the family: their selfishness, their ingratitude, and the way they treat a mother as a servant.