Last spring I heard Allison Pearson speaking in Patrick's Restaurant, Mumbles, about her best-selling book 'How does she do it?'

The book has sold more than four million copies and a film has been made, starring Sarah Jessica Parker.

Allison has based the book on newspaper columns she wrote about the difficulty of bringing up children and working to pay the mortgage. The book found an echo in the lives of many women in a similar position. Despite not having children until she was in her thirties, the writer still needed money to maintain the standard of living she had become used to.

I remember in the fifties, in Fishguard, the Mothers' Union had a lively debate about whether women with families should work. The conclusion was 'Yes, if they need the money, otherwise don't bother'.

No one mentioned, or perhaps they did not realise it, that the well-being of women who go out to work is often better than stay-at-homes mothers, but it depends on the hours of the job.

Allison Pearson has gone on to write about the severe depression she suffered, probably due to the stress of working and making child-care arrangements.

The problem with life is that the years before a woman is forty and still fertile are filled with the need to build a career,manage on one's own earnings and then, vitally(!) find a man. A woman's fertility begins to wane in her thirties so time is short to achieve everything.

I can't help wondering would it be better, with so many mothers suffering from TAT (tired all the time) if they should settle for a cheaper house, change the car less often and various other economies.

I am left wondering not, 'How does she do it?' but 'Why does she do it?'