In I Stand Here Ironing, a mother talks about how she became a young single mother with a husband who walked out on her and his daughter. She discusses year by year and step by step how everything happened in her daughter's life; from the first steps to her first day of college. It all begins right after her husband leaves them saying that he can no longer stay with them. Times are tough as this period in their lives takes place in the Great Depression. She talks about having to work long days and leave her daughter with a baby sitter downstairs and never spend time with her except a few hours each night and how she then changes jobs to work nights and spend all day with her daughter.
            
             It comes to a point in her life, where she can no longer support her daughter and she leaves her with her relatives. She continues to work for a year and develops the money to take her back. After this has all taken place, she has missed her first steps, first words and other important aspects of her life.
            
             She is now two years old and is able to go off to day care or as she likes to call it "a place to park your kids". After being enrolled in the day care the daughter finds way to tell her mother that she does not want to go back because she does not like it there. Everything from telling her that she does not feel good to making excuses that today is a holiday and the day care would be closed.
            
             We move on to the later days of her life when she is in high school and she now has four other siblings. She is now responsible for helping not only her self but her mother as well. From helping the kids get up in the morning, to preparing lunches, to making sure they get on the bus for school. In doing this, she sometimes was forgetful herself and had a hard time keeping up with her studies. Late nights of studying and excessive eating caused her grades to slip a little.
            
             Her mother always suggested that she do somethi...