Are we going to have to adopt the way our grandparents etc lived?

[heartbroken22]

Give me a tip you learnt from your grandparents.

My lovely nan used to stand with her back to the coal fire, lift up her skirt and warm her bum. We have a fake chimney breast and I doubt all the fairy lights in the fake hearth will warm my bottom up!! Layers on the bed. Top sheet, blankets etc. Layers on people too. I don't want to be washing in a twin tub though x

Yes! And it’s true.

Apart from a coal fire, a mobile phone, colour telly and a tumble dryer I mostly still do live the way my grandparents lived. I was mostly raised by my great grandparents. Ok so I’m not out poaching like my great grandad did in the off season to feed us but I still get handed stuff from the beaters to make. I now have to pay a carrier since my dads dad died (he was a smith and a farrier) and just about all our village amenities are shut so we need to drive into town but life hasn’t moved on at that much of a pace. If anything my grandparents had it easier

Pass on skills to the younger generations. Teach them all to sew and cook and change a tyre and paper a room. My dad could do all that, mum some of it, they taught my sister and me, they taught my niece and nephew. (Sadly passed or too old before teaching mine) It builds not only strong useful adults but builds bonds and respect.
Keep your back covered or you’ll get cold in your kidneys.

Freeze sliced lemons for your g&t

She had her priorities right

Don't have sex with a man unless you would be prepared, if necessary, to raise a child with him.

Rubbish. We have access to abortion and so did my granny.

I still follow that lol!

Always carry a small bottle of brandy in your handbag in case someone has a shock and needs some.
Always wear a petticoat.
Eat what is one your plate and don’t waste food.
Cake is good.
Laugh lots.

Don't trust Harold Wilson.

If your granny had access to abortions before 1967 then they weren’t legally carried out by doctors in the UK.

Probably neither legal nor, more importantly, safe.

Big house in Surrey with Jilly Cooper-esque 'treasure' and gardener, second home in the south of France, flying first class, world cruises (in the days when they were something genuinely glamorous), collecting art, driving an enormous Bentley or Rolls and spending your days drinking gin, painting and playing golf? Yeah, I'd be up for that.

To be fair, granny still made most of her own clothes, reused teabags and the idea of replacing furniture, redecorating every couple of years or whacking the heating up was anathema to them. Even though they had the kind of lifestyle that is way out of reach for me, many lessons of the war died hard for them. They were hugely practical, skilled and neither of them worried about getting their hands dirty.

I hope I've inherited both their practical abilities and their appreciation of the finer things!

Absolutely agree.

Make do and mend - it's an old saying but so many don't live by this one anymore in our throw-away society. Apply it to clothes, furniture, appliances.
Eat seasonally - it's cheaper and healthier.

Who said my granny would have wanted one either before 1967 or in the UK?

My granny had staff 😁 but she would talk a lot about how lucky my mum and sisters were to have hoovers.. to their amusement

Save on dentist costs by having all teeth extracted and a set of dentures?

No thanks, I'll stick with paying for dental insurance via salary sacrifice thanks.

Keep warm in a mink hat and scarf? Not sure that will make me terribly popular......

Never wear trousers in polite company but always wear a hat and gloves. Lol!

My grandparents had a walk to work, jobs that finished at 5pm, no internet, and only 3 tv channels. Entertainment was having friends round for a games night, or doing gardening, or having sex. Or baking.

I’m rather jealous. None of this everyone in a different room playing on internet crap or emails from work arriving 24hrs a day.

But I guess you mean coal fire? I do remember they used a LOT of coal.

Most of us on here are talking about grandparents who are much older. If I’ve understood you correctly your granny would be quite young if she didn’t need access to safe, legal abortions from the start of her childbearing years - so around 1955

Yeah, they're soo lucky- except they'll be dead soon 😂

Oh! I loved that but for some reason it never tastes as good as my Gran's did.

Even if that were the case, there's a whole world outside the UK. Not that British people always remember that.....

This British person knows that just fine so you can save your ellipsis, but given this is an overwhelmingly UK site it’s not unreasonable to refer to the legal situation here re abortion. It’s only a few countries where access to legal abortion generally was available before the mid 60s - so again, not unusual to assume.