What did you not have growing up?

[littlemisscomper]

That 'everybody else in the world!' had? For me it was a tamagotchi. My mum was afraid of it waking me up at night because she heard you couldn't switch them off. I desperately wanted a 101 dalmatians one. I have a lump in my throat thinking about it now! It felt so lonely to be the only one in the playground without one. I even looped a Christmas cracker keyring over my finger and held it in my hand so I could pretend to myself I was like the others.

What about you guys?

My own bedroom, or just for my big sister to leave.
Clothes that weren't hand me downs, many of which were 3rd or 4th hand. Jeans that didn't have white rings around the ankles where they'd been taken up and then let down again.
Holidays that weren't trudging up a hill in Cumbria.
High factor sun cream, heck ant sun cream! My mum blamed my easily burned skin on "not moving about enough" on sunny days.
An electric guitar.
I also suffered from being bought things that were sensible, educational or "just as good" for presents.

Having said that, when technic lego became a "thing" I demanded it for my birthday. I wouldn't countenance the idea of anything else. I wanted it so bad!
Given that it was sensible and educational my parents actually bought me some! Best present ever, I loved it. My brother turned green with envy and was heard to remark "You can't have that, you're a GIRL!" before storming off.
Love my technic lego.

Another for central heating/instant heat. If mum hadn’t got the coal fire going by the time we got up the only source of heat was a paraffin heater.

Fitted carpets; we had a large square of carpet in the living room which didn’t go right to the edges of the room and we had varying sizes of squares of rush matting in other rooms; we had these in at least three houses that I remember.

A front loading automatic washing machine; the pump on our twin tub didn’t work so it had to be bailed out manually with a jug. As it was such a faff, laundry took a whole day. If you had the audacity to want clean white socks daily for school when you only had 3 pairs, you had to hand wash them.

A Girl’s World

Oh yes, we didn't have fitted carpets either for most of my childhood. My mother only got a twin tub washing machine when I was in my teens. God knows how she did the washing before that. I actually don't recall us having a fridge till then either. i remember ice on the windows in Winter without central heating.

I didn’t have a Barbie. My mum thought Sindy was much nicer. To be truthful I was not very bothered by it but when friends came over they did comment! I still have my Sindy dolls.

Ditto! I had a Sindy. My friend had a Barbie. Later on, I had a cheap knock-off Barbie. She had white hair and a leopard print fur coat - sort of 'Street Walker Barbie!

I also did not have a dog. Mum went in for a competition to win a dog (this was in the 60/70's). Luckily we did not win. She also hadn't learned her lesson! She had bought a cat without discussing it with my dad who was against having pets. Period. Of course he became 'cat man' very soon and did eventually talk to mum again (after 2 weeks!).

Heating (apart from a two bar electric fire in the front room, with only one bar working!)

Hot water...didn't even have a hot water tap!! It was a massive brass (I think!) cold water tap above the kitchen sink. I have photographs of this monstrosity 😲 We boiled pans on the stove.

No inside loo...shared an outdoor loo with 3 other families in the communal yard.

Clearly...no bathroom. Strip washed in the kitchen.

I shared a tiny bedroom with my 4 siblings...two sets of bunkbeds...youngest two top 'n' tailed one of the bottom bunks.

Only had two electric plug points in the whole house...none upstairs. Lots of dangerously overloaded plugs (they were round pins, not square).

Books 😢 'waste of bloody time reading...get outside with the rest of the kids' 😢😢😢😢 I used to sneak home library books from school and read them under the covers of my bed. Once had a book ripped up because it was 'giving me ideas' 😧

Toilet paper...shared 'facilities' meant that nobody would risk it...we had newspaper squares hung on a nail with string.

You may be forgiven for imagining I'm an old woman...I'm 48! This was in the 70s so not Victorian Drama material, sadly!

I'm now a teacher...having not been allowed to even stay in at school to take A levels, I did them at night school in my early 20s after leaving home. I went to university with two children under 4...my kids were never going to go through my experience of childhood.