IT WAS NOT WHAT I EXPECTED

Plenty of participation in parental problems as the author tells of her three boys, John, Peter and Topper, and the changes that occurred as she got the family she longed for. From a conscientious, hag-ridden mother of one, to the old-hand attitude when there were two, then further modulation when there were three, Mrs. Teal, with considerable hilarity, discovers the blanks in book learning on how to raise a family. Relations bring complications in their too verbal helpfulness. Each of the three was an individual, amazingly different. She goes on to their school life, the qualities of their holidays, the attitudes of husband, friends and neighbors towards the boys' escapades. She finds life quite different from their memories of her own mother and her many brothers and sisters. The loss of two other babies is balanced in part by the arrival of a baby girl. Steering away from sentimentality, she produces a vivacious, gaily turned account of modern parenthood.