Was it harder being a housewife in the olden days?

[bubbles092]

Just that really! I am actually so curious to see how hard housewives actually worked in the olden days (30s-70s?)

Now, we are so lucky we are able to afford things like getting a cleaner, going to work, having a washing machine, dishwasher, etc! Back then, I can't even imagine how hard it must've been for them to look after their children, handwashing clothes, housework, cooking dinner from scratch... no convenience food whatsoever.

Some people sit at home on their phones and social media all day and everything gets neglected. I really would love to see and live in them times! Seemed a lot more productive back then!

I think life was physically much harder.

Psychologically, maybe not. There are a lot more pressures on women nowadays. Less community. Greater parenting expectations. Career expectations. A home and body to 'maintain'.

We did have a Hoover like this though, and a carpet sweeper which was a very ‘70s orange and brown

I got married in 1961, had children in '62, '64, '66 and '68; we got a twin-tub when I was expecting the 3rd, so I was hand-washing terry nappies for some years, and as there was only 16 months between the first two I was having two lots to wash. We were very strapped for cash, and as we lived over 100 miles away from family there was no child care available even if I wanted to work which I didn't. I felt that I wanted to look after my children myself, what was the point of having them otherwise? We moved several times; my husband was a teacher and promotion was easy if you were prepared to move.
I was fortunate as all my babies fed and slept well from birth, so I didn't experience the tiredness that so many complain of.
We couldn't afford a car until my husband got a headship at a large comp, and used the train when going on holiday or to visit grandparents.

grass - YY, I think it was expensive! I remember finding a clipping at my granny's for some kind of really revolting mixture of tinned soup and dried potato. But the way it was described, it was clearly rather posh.

And Vesta curries were sophisticated. I think they came out in the 60s?

We used to love Vesta curries; do they still make them?

*We could get convenience food though, although I shopped at the local supermarket, butchers, greengrocers and bakers, all walking distance.

No car, so had to walk or take buses. No takeaways, even if we could afford them.*

Sounds exactly like my life now! (I don't live in the UK though). I agree that looking after children was easier. People trusted strangers a lot more which made life a LOT easier imo. Mums frequently left sleeping babies outside of shops, in the garden etc. My grandmother travelled with four young children on trains - if she needed to take one to the loo, she would find a young man to hold the baby! (preferably one in uniform).

A female relative in my mother's generation, never mind my grandmother's, was made to give up her sports and eventually taken out of school at 14 or 15 in order to help with the housework and her baby brother.

IIRC, in Winifred Holtby's 1936 novel South Riding, the eldest girl qualifies for grammar school but isn't allowed to go, for the same reason.

People trusted strangers a lot more which made life a LOT easier imo. Mums frequently left sleeping babies outside of shops, in the garden etc.

This one is very British, I think? I do think it is right we are more aware of the dangers, because thought horrible people are extremely rare, the consequences of what they do are so serious you do worry. But I notice that in some countries it's still more normal to do this sort of thing. My SIL is German, and I remember her insisting on leaving her baby daughter in her pram at the front of my block of flats, while she came upstairs with me for a coffee. I heard the baby crying and found my elderly neighbour outside in her nightie, having heard her first and come dashing out! I was mortified, but SIL wasn't at all, because she thought it seemed very normal.

My grandma ran the household like a business. She never let my granddad lift a finger. She would tell him that she didn't interfere with his work so he shouldn't interfere with hers. It really was how she wanted it. My mum said she had days for doing set things (Monday's were for baking , Tuesday's for laundry and floors - she would use the laundry water to scrub the floors Wednesday was windows and doors etc). They only had a fridge as she didn't believe in frozen food. My grandad handed his wages to her and she'd give him enough back for his baccy and newspaper. She didn't get a washing machine til the 80s and said you could prise her wringer from her cold dead hands.

A female relative in my mother's generation, never mind my grandmother's, was made to give up her sports and eventually taken out of school at 14 or 15 in order to help with the housework and her baby brother.

I am in my 50s and two of my friends were taken out of school to care for their numerous younger siblings. They both married very young to escape the drudgery.

at the seventies being the "olden days".

Cheddar - I am exactly like your grandma now That’s exactly how dh and I operate! And we love it!

Oh but we do have a fridge!

I don't think productive means what you think it means.

Kids did a lot more too. Handwashing clothes, cooking, looking after babies, it was often girl work, not womens work. A lot of British friends of mine, even in the 1980s and 90s when we were in primary, were taken out of school regularly at least once a week on washing day. Some even left early so they could start dinner.

Cheddar my parents are the same and they're in their 60s. However my mum worked (you don't say if your gran did) and until I was old enough to run the Hoover round and make her a brew etc she didn't get any help either. My dad worked hard but was a big fat prick to her.

I thought they'd proved that although appliances make things easier standards have changed so much that modern women spend as much if not more time cleaning the home.

Dinner, whilst not easy without gadgets was a much simpler modest affair and things like pudding were a rare treat.

Cherries as a kid in the 80s/90s I was a slave to my family. I was kept off school to childmind too. I missed out on an education as I simply didn't attend school enough. I had to start work at the age of 16 to contribute to the household. I think my mum feels guilt about it (bit late now I'm 40 and been in minimum wage jobs my whole working life )

Yes, choli, my relative also married v young, probably for the same reason... and found herself caring for her ill mother -in-law instead!

As she said, at least they'd had running water at her own parents! Not just a tap in the yard shared with other families! This was the 1950s. Those houses have been cleared now – except the row kept as a museum of social life...

I think life was harder for everyone, or at least all the working classes.

The women seem to have had higher standards to maintain and did all the domestic work themselves with no labour saving devices and no cars. The men also worked harder though, longer hours in more physically demanding jobs and without the employment protections and health and safety legislation we now enjoy.

Today, if we have a hard life we largely bring it on ourselves but "needing" to work hard enough to run cars, have holidays, all mod cons and things that only a few decades ago would have been considered the preserve of the very rich. We run around ferrying our children to any number of after school activities when setting them free in the wood would likely be just as useful

Well yes,,OP it was very shit right up until the White Goods revolution, washing by hand, no freezers etc

@JaiNotJay

grin at the seventies being the "olden days"

That's what I thought, too!
I grew up in The Olden Days cue nostalgic music...

People underestimate the work as pp have said. Nobody has mentioned the dirt though. Coal dust everywhere for example. Pollution in the air making things grimy.

I think more women worked outside the house than we acknowledge. Both my granny's did, but as they were middle-class working in Family businesses (shop & pub) it was invisible. You'd also have farming families where women did an awful lot of the work.

They did have more domestic help & multi-generational/extended family living was also a factor. A lot of middle-class families with businesses in our small town had housekeepers who did housework & childcare. That kind of help doesn't seem to exist any more except for the very well off.

I think they definitely had it harder in some ways - here in Ireland they would very likely had very large families - both my grannies had 10 kids. In other ways they wouldn't have the isolation a lot of women experience now - I think in a majority of rural families there would be parents/unmarried siblings still living in the family home. If everyone got on well, that would be a great advantage. Obviously if they didn't there was war!!

My grandma had twins in the 40s- no washing machine/ tumble dryer/ car. Formula milk was hard to come by so they kept a goat to feed the babies!
She only died last year she was 93 , she never looked back on the past with rose tinted glasses - she always said if she was young nowadays she wouldn't have a husband or kids - she would learn to drive and have a career that let her travel the world!