Things you thought were posh/exciting/unattainable as a child that are actually everyday items

[AlternativelyWired]

I'm just searching for scotch tape on Amazon ready for Christmas. It got me thinking how double sided sticky tape was but a dream back when I was little. Blue Peter used it all the time but it was something I'd never have. The same with play dough. I only ever had plasticine. Scotch tape was fancy too, we only ever had yellow sellotape. Ribera. I'm sure I'll think of others.

@Bleachmycloths we had our fizzy pop delivered. One bottle once a week on a Saturday. But always wanted proper fizzy, not rank cream soda or bing. Bottles were also very small.

I still would have envied you! Lol 😊

Going to a friend's house for tea and having cream on our tinned fruit! real cream!

A black and white Bush portable tv in my bedroom - I thought this was fantastic. Only problem was, the only way to get reception waws to get my little sister to stand on a chair holding the aerial up!!!!!!

We still dont have upstairs bathrooms... we do have gold bathroom fittings and door handles and an ox blood leather sofa though lol.

TBF my house is VERY nostalgic, I still have 90s wall paper, a wood panneled courner bath and hand painted plaster of paris light rosettes, detailed alcoving and even the 3D angels 'gargoyles' built into it.

My parents still have a coal fire in their living room, they have a big house with thich walls (old country cottage type) and it heats the whole house, its hotter than hell in there and you could fry an egg on the surfaces so I never get people who say old cold fires where cold and left you with icicles if anything we get that with our shitty centeral heating (although grand central heating is WAY easier than faffing with the fire and constantly cleaning it).

I also miss old wood framed windows I grew up with, I think PVC looks so common and cheap (although I remember the trend of people painting their brown wood windows white to pretend it PVC) and I use to sit by the window all the time and dont remember drafts however our PVC widow rattle, whistle and even leak in storms.

so many typos lol... wish we could edit.

awww I loved Creme Soda... we tended to get those big 2lt bottles of cheap lemonade from Netto/Iceland and we all shared drinking straight from the same bottle (no point creating more washing lol).

Colds and norovirus spread like wildfire in our house.

Once we came into more money it was indervidual cans of coke/pepsi bought in huge bulk sale crates.

Cream Soda was a treat we only got if we where visiting grandparents.

Orange juice (instead of squash)
Mayonnaise (instead of salad cream)
Butter (instead of margarine)
Vegetables that didn’t come out of a can

Admittedly the bar was low, but something had to fund my parents’ 60 a day fag habit! 🤦🏻‍♀️

@mam0918 our ‘fancy’ cousins used to have lemonade or coke. Whenever they wanted. I was SO envious! My parents had very little money, and Saturday treat was always a glass of cheap fizzy pop with oven chips. But I kind of appreciate that a whole lot more now. And poverty enforced a generally very healthy diet on us.
Even get nostalgic about cream soda! It seems to taste much nicer now 😊

My vair poshe Aunty Jean had small cake forks and grapefruit spoons. I thought it was the hight of sophistication to own them.

@mam0918
I bet your gold and ox blood leather are super posh!!
My parents still have a downstairs bathroom and only a log burner (which replaced the coal fire) for heating. It doesn't heat the house though, the room with the fire in is boiling and everywhere else is freezing.

Deodorant. My mum insisted (still does, actually) that it's only for people that never wash. Had to wait until I was 16 and could get a weekend job before I could have any (wasn't allowed to do a paper round and mum said I didn't need money because I was fed and clothed ergo 16 was the earliest I could buy/get any). No skincare or razors either (mum said soap and water plus the thick nivea cream in the blue jar was all that anyone needed but my oily teenage skin didn't agree, and that shaving my legs would make the hair grow back quicker). My parents also don't believe in sunscreen so no-one in the family ever had that despite my dad in particular burning easily. We lived in southern Italy for a while and we were in the sun a LOT. Ribena and fruit juice here too! We didn't eat out either, if my dad was feeling flush he'd buy us all a cup of tea at a cafe, just tea though no food!

Pineapple and cheese chunks on cocktail sticks stuck in half an orange covered in foil. Going out for a meal in the 1970s was always prawn cocktail, steak and black forest gateau - the height of sophistication!

A patio, and super posh was patio furniture, a matching set with a parasol that had fringes.
A doll with long hair and proper clothes, not just a badly knitted vest.
Matching glasses instead of random collection
Ribena
Anything branded
Matching duvet cover and curtains
Matching furniture set

Also hair conditioner instead of just (cheap) shampoo
Nice hair bobbles instead of elastic bands
Patent shoes (longed for these, never got them)
A trendy school bag
A properly nice coat, especially if it had a hood and (dream of dreams) fur round the hood, not just a thin anorak
Going to a proper hairdressers not just getting Janet from the next road to chop away for £2.50.

A telly and later a colour telly...elderly neighbour's had one and we'd gather there to watch The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights

Cotton buds

I was fascinated with them and even pinched one from a friend's house My mum found it and made me return it and confess. Still scarred!

Plentiful hot water. My childhood home (60s & 70s) had central heating, but not 'fully pumped' - hot water was heated by warm water rising up from the boiler, not very efficient, so in summer we just heated what we needed - a little geyser in the bathroom for sink washes, immersion heater for the weekly bath, kettles for washing up.

Yes, yes@Pinkittens , matches drinking glasses.
We only had empty jam jars that were then used for drinking. Sometimes the glass still smelled of the for a bit...Wish I still had them😲

Dressing gowns.. no one in our home owned one, we had to get dressed wearing the clothes we had on the night before as it would be too cold for pyjamas. Dressing gowns seemed really luxurious.

Remember it well - Berni Inns steak and chips especially😂
Our family's budget didn't always stretch to pud as well though.

Deep fried food. We never had a chip pan growing up (DM very health conscious) so I assumed it was a 'rich' thing. I remember going to a friend's house after school and we had pasties and chips. This was something I thought was very luxurious. I still feel decadent when I get a sausage from the chippy!

Going to a café or restaurant. We went once in our childhood each. Birthday kid had milk shake, siblings had pop. Toilet roll. Mum bought 4 weekly and after that we used newspaper. Tooth paste and shampoo. When it ran out we used salt and washing up liquid. Crisps,sweets or pop . Had sweets once a week. Crisps and pop rarely. Mum did her best but dad was a drinker. Used to love going friends houses as they had these things. Was common knowledge dad was a p head. He was generous in the pub though.

I was in hospital in August and it was a starter option when the assistant came round to take your orders for the day. Was surprised but felt a bit nostalgic 😀

Reading this thread has been quite an eye-opener for me. Some of the things mentioned (poor and posh) were way beyond my experience as my mum (though she would deny it now) was quite hard nosed, mean spirited and neglectful. I hated school holidays as we never had lunch at home. Evening meals were very small and breakfast only occurred if there happened to be the requisite items in the house. We were so hungry that we would steal food from kids lunchboxes, friends houses and shops. I dared not to complain as she would call me fat and greedy. I remember staying at my friend's house for a sleepover. Her mum made such a fuss of me. I had no idea that you should wash your face and brush your teeth before bed. I had no pyjamas or nightie with me. I think she understood as I returned home with my very own set of "outgrown" nightwear. At breakfast I was amazed to be allowed cereal AND toast. The toast! Oh my god. I ate it and was like "Wow! What is that taste? That is delicious." My friend was bemused but I was 8 and had just tried real butter for the first time.
We never had pyjamas. No endless supply of clean underwear or socks. Not once do I remember being tucked in or being read to. I remember playing out in my school summer dress on a Saturday and not living it down for years. Mum always complained that she was 'skint' but there was always money for cigs, booze and Saturday night (if for any reason she couldn't go out on a Saturday she would be livid and awful to be around ). Once I reached 'double digits' all childminding fell to me so Saturdays weren't an issue after that.
When she met and married my abusive alcoholic stepdad and added another baby to my child rearing duties I would envy my friends whose parents "forced" them to do their homework or go to bed by a certain time. That would've meant my mum looking out for someone other than herself. I've forgiven (but clearly not forgotten) her for how she treated me but I take no parenting advice from her and my kids have all the food, bed time stories and warm clothing they need.