Victorian AIBU

[HairsprayBabe]

Inspired in part by the chimney sweep thread and catching up with the Victorian Slum on iPlayer!

AIBU that my husband won't buy a elephant's foot umbrella stand he thinks it is cruel! I think he is talking nonsense!

AIBU to give the baby (6mths) opium in her milk I think she is teething and won't stop screaming, Mrs Brown downstairs swears by it but I am not sure?

AIBU to send DT(7) out selling posey's at the market? DD(12) normally goes but she has just got a job cleaning the underneath of a cotton jenny in a factory. With two of them they could bring twice as much in and I could finally pay of the tick in the shop!

[pipsqueak25]

i think you are being a very practical victorian mother, on limited incomes we have to do what we can to make ends meet, my 6yo ds wants to be a dong farmer and my dh is a leather dresser in bermondsey leather market, comes home stinking but it's nothing the weekly bath won't put right

[pipsqueak25]

opium in the baby's milk ? works a treat, have some yourself too, i quite like arsenic as a means to bump off irritating neighbours too.

[nannynick]

Mrs Winslow's soothing syrup.
Morphine never tasted so good!

[CigarsofthePharoahs]

AIBU to add yellow lead to my milk before I sell it?
The dairy business is tough and my profits are razor thin. If I water down the milk and then add some yellow lead I can sell more pints and then perhaps finally save enough to get my uncle out of debtors prison.
Lead poisoning isn't so bad, is it?

[ShaunPaul]

AIBU to go round to my neighbour and suggest she scrubs up her front step. She hasn't done it for three weeks now and it's bringing down the look of our back-to-back hovel?

My nan actually used to scrub her front step right up until she died in 1994

[HairsprayBabe]

Not at all ShaunPaul and as PP suggested if they continue to have grubby step there is always the arsenic option!

What an excellent plan Cigars very innovative and industrious, Queen Vic would be proud! I don't think there is anything wrong with lead, DS(3) has some tin soldiers painted with lead paint, he always has them in his mouth and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him!

[Temporaryname137]

AIBU not to want another baby? We have 14 girls already (although only 12 above ground) and I've been pregnant for more than 10 years out of the last 20 and I've quite run out of flower names, but Mr Temporaryname137 thinks that it's my duty to give him a boy.

[ollieplimsoles]

Strychnine is the way to go for teething babies, worked a treat for us!

[SilverDragonfly1]

Can't beat gin for teething or fussy babies. Cheaper than laudanum too.

Cigars, gin is excellent for guarding against poisoning of all types.

Temporary I'm sorry to hear you keep having girls (although they do sell quite well a few years down the line). Have you and MrTemp tried gin?

[HairsprayBabe]

Temporary How many rooms are you living in? if it is 2 or more then I say go for it, it is your duty to give your husband a son after all!? Surely some of your Daughters are almost marrying age now? Or you could get them into live in shop work or service to free up some space?

As for names, you could reuse the names of your deceased Daughters? That's what my great grandmother did, there were 3 Catherines before one survived past 18mnths! True story

[Dizzybintess]

AIBU to crack out the laudanum before 10am

[BratFarrarsPony]

well since my husband got a new job as a 'pureman' things have really looked up.
I do find it hard to get the smell off his jacket though.
At least we can get the children's boots back from the pawnbroker in time for church on Sunday...

[elephantoverthehill]

Have you all got gas yet? I have gas lighting. My tip for getting babies to sleep is to turn the gas on and wave them over it. Don't light it obviously as that would burn the little darlings.

[x2boys]

aibu in being upset about my children being forced to go to school in the mornings i mean nobody needs to learn to read and write and they would be better off spending 14 hrs a day in the mill rather than just 7?

[Dizzybintess]

YANBU in wondering wefa yur chidlren need an ejucation. I did 20 hors daan the match factory and it aint daan me nah arm! Cept for the boils on me jaw!

[madein1995]

AIBU to think that this education lark is stupid? Two more bodies are two more bodies to make up the rent money. DDs are 7 and 9 and frankly I think making sure we have enough money to feed them is more important than learning their bleedin' times tables. Not like they'll be useful to them now is it?

AIBU to have some concerns about giving the baby gin? He's only 3 weeks old so not teething yet but can get a bit fussy now and then and MIL swears by it.

AIBU to get pissed off with FIL? He's the only man in the house since DH died, and yet he moans about going to work because 'he's too old'. He's only 71 ffs!

AIBU to want to join the co-operative shop? They do great things for the kids, days in the countryside etc. As a woman, I'm not allowed to join, and FIL won't do it for me cos he's had a barney with the shopkeeper (that's been going on forever). Am thinking of joining the suffragettes. It's time us women got what's owed.

AIBU to be a bit wary of the new arrival to the flats? There's a woman, and she's got a few children but no man I think. She wears a fur coat but never enough money to buy food. And I always see her leaving the grounds late at night and coming back in the early hours (as I'm awake with the baby). Think she's a 'lady of the night' my old mum warned me about. And her windows are never cleaned, the filthy slattern!

[Dizzybintess]

AIBU to give one of my children over to someone who promises to look after them for a few bob so I can keep up my Laudinam habit.... there is a lady called Mrs Dyer round the corner.

[Andrewofgg]

AIBU to be pissed off about the boy the chimney sweep brought round this morning? He was far too big and pretended to get stuck. I had to waste a pennyworth of coal on a fire to scorch his feet to get him moving. The sweep admitted that he was nearly seven ffs!

[corythatwas]

My dh is getting a bit boring and frankly not really what I thought he'd be in the bedroom department; also, I made him insure his life when we got married. WIBU to get me mum's old teapot down from the shelf? After all, nothing says home like a really nice pot of tea with the white stuff in it

[elephantoverthehill]

I do so feel for you lower classes. My DB went on a guided tour of where you all live. However people must be kept in their place. Only yesterday the understairs maid asked for time off to help her mother with her poorly DS. Does she think she is employed to come and go as she pleases? There is no way the staff can start the Christmas preparations without her.

[Farmmummy]

Agree gin is terribly useful for teething babies and also for fussiness. It can be very economical if you also dose yourself to ward off any ill effects from the arsenic (which in turn also very useful for bedbugs)

[legoblox]

Aibu in using a wet nurse? The thought of doing THAT myself ... well ... pass the smelling salts!

[eggyface]

AIBU to think you just can't get the staff? Every single time my dear son Victor comes down from the University to hunt with his friends I find two or three parlourmaids later to be in a delicate condition. Some of them are quite bruised looking and unsightly at table. I've sent the lot of them to the workhouse of course but AIBU to feel angry that they simply don't understand the virtue of chastity?

[elephantoverthehill]

Does anyone know when I can come out of black mourning for a close friend and go to purple?

[Excited101]

6 months I believe elephant why not get a locket with a cameo of her on the front and some of her hair on the inside?