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

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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.

Sugar cubes.

My mum sounds very much like yours. I often wonder why she bothered having kids as we were all a big inconvenience to her. I learned to cook, clean and childmind at an early age as I had no choice (she would say 'You don't keep dogs and bark yourself'). She once left us at my aunts house for 2 weeks while her and her then boyfriend went on holiday. When she returned my aunt asked her what she did in the house as the whole time I was there I automatically did all the chores and she would have to force me to sit down and rest. At home if I was ever caught sitting down I would be found a job to do. She was also extremely fearful of being overweight and pushed that on to me. The boys could eat like Kings but women HAD to eat like paupers. Only one roast potato, only one miniscule sliver of cake, never any seconds and I never ate a chocolate éclair to myself until I became an adult and left home. I still cut it into quarters and feel guilty now. Your comment about your first taste of butter touched me. Keep some Prèsident on stand by and treat yourself to some lovely toast. ❤

Trips to Wimpy or Happy Eater. (My friends seemed to go allllll the time)
The cinema (first film I ever saw at the cinema was Home Alone and that's because it was January and 50p a ticket 😂. I still thoroughly enjoyed it though)
A shower. We were firmly a 'One bath on a Sunday night' household. When I tried bathing more often I was told that we couldn't afford to have the immersion on 🙄 (like pp there was always money for Majors and Silk Cut though). I tried to explain that I wanted to feel cleaner especially when on my period (period said in hushed tones to reflect my mother's Lancashire background) and was told to stop being so over dramatic and to use a soap and flannel.

Takeaways

A shower

Vienetta or the trifle that my dad made for special occasions in the fancy bowl

Non-freezer/tinned/microwave food. I find this such a weird one as I was born in the late 80's to older parents (now in their 70's). Whereas DH was born 4 years later to young parents (in their 50's now). We weren't rich but we did ok as my parents were older so had more money behind them whereas PIL were young with small children and struggled. DH grew up on homecooked meals whereas everything I ate came out of the freezer or a tin. My parents cooking something from scratch such as Sunday dinner still is a very rare treat indeed! Even when I met DH in 2010, I was amazed that we had spaghetti bolognese or lasagne made from scratch, not out of the freezer at his house! Thank God I changed my eating habits.

My son is a grown man who's never taken sugar,but if we go to a cafe that has sugar cubes on the table he'll drop two into his coffee.

A telephone...had our first one when I was around 10 back in mid 70s..not only did we have a phone now but it was one of those new slim, angular shaped ones with the handset that sat on top of the phone! I remember picking it up and having imaginary conversations.

Gammon Hawaii (pineapple ring on top) and corrida wine (bottle shaped like a carafe with a lid you had to prize off)

Woodchip wall paper. We had it - painted white - and I thought it was so stylish. I didn't realise for years that it is generally considered lowly.

We used to have milk delivered (1 pint a day!) and at Christmas the milkman used to have "an extra list" and we had fresh orange juice and "corona pop" and we used to be able to return the bottles to the shop and get 10p back.
We thought that was marvellous

My mum also used to buy mini boxes of cereal and split the pack and wrap them up for Christmas stockings.

I had a recent hospital stay and chose orange juice as the starter option for my meal on the ward. I was surprised it was listed as a starter

If I was poorly I would be allowed a ‘Chucky egg’ which basically was a soft boiled egg chopped up and served with soldiers in a little white dish with a silver rim, which somehow felt really special and always made me feel better ❤️‍🩹
i would never let my daughters have chocolate cereals like coco pops, so when my mum had them she would spoil them with those multi variety cereal packs which they thought was a real treat!

Any cafe was an absolute treat! Went to a wimpy and though it very posh!!! Also a Turkish cafe where I ha

Oh and chocolate biscuits only d Turkish coffee for the first time. Where had it been all my life! Also had a burger in a cafe after attending a hospital with my mum. They played Slade's Gudbuy t'Jane!!

Also any chocolate biscuits were only for Christmas!

Whoops bit of a mix up there!

Being used to no-frills toiletries in our household, 6 year old me was convinced my new American school friend, with waist-length braids, must use fancy hair perfume as smelt so lovely.

Turned out it was just Revlon Flex shampoo/conditioner!

(Anyone else remember that original fragrance? Early 1980s)

@DeirdreChambers and @ImRightOnTopOfThatRose ,

I'm really sad to hear your experiences. No child should ever be treated that way.

Showers here too. I grew up 70s-80s and we didn’t even have one of those rubber shower thingies that attached to your bath taps.

My dad did install one late 80s after I went on and on about how my best friend had a shower at her house.

Thanks to my best friend’s influence we also got a … STEAM IRON! I think her mum was perplexed because I was staring as she ironed something and the creases were disappearing STRAIGHTAWAY without the use of brute force and a damp tea towel! 🤯

Holidays abroad. Never happened until I was on a German exchange trip in secondary school.

DH and I recall our DC (at about 7 years old) asking us where we were going on holiday next while we were actually on holiday in the Grand Canaries😯. How times change.

Colour television - the colour TV sets had a higher monthly payment from Radio Rentals so we had a black and white for a long time. Looking back I'm not sure why I was so excited if I went to a friend's house that had colour TV - the rest of the world was already in colour, after all.
And to get Ceefax, too (the 1980s equivalent of the internet) - that was even more expensive.
I never thought I'd be able to look at a screen (in colour!) and be able to look up news, etc, whenever I wanted to. I feel ancient when I explain that to my kids.

Turned out it was just Revlon Flex shampoo/conditioner!

(Anyone else remember that original fragrance? Early 1980s)

Yeah... it was a bit much tbh.

Eating out at somewhere like a Bernie Inn, or going to a cafe. Parents would always make sarnies for any kind of day trip.

I really wanted Lux soap, it looked truly amazing in the ads.

I hated the smell of Flex conditioner. I could smell it as soon as I read the post!

Ferrero Rocher.........I mean, the thought of an invite to the ambassadors ball!

I was also jealous of american tenage girls in films - they all had telephones in their bedrooms (ours was in the hall, so my mum could hear every word you said and hence knew what you were up to) and windows you could climb in and out of easily to meet 'unsuitable' boys without your parents noticing

My brother, on the other hand had his head turned by rubbish 1970 aftershave......I have never recovered from the sheer assault of the senses of Brut, Old Spice or Hi Karate. He of course thought that the more he stank of this shite, the more attractive women would find him

We were very early in the duvet stakes we got our first Slumberdowns” from either Heels or Habitat . The way my mum went on about them you’d think Conran served her specifically!

I think we must have been considered very posh growing up because we had fitted carpets matching furniture , central heating and foreign holidays . We had 2 cars and nice bikes , expensive toys.

Food was from Waitrose and m and s . We were allowed Ribena and Robinson Barley water occasionally but mainly had milk. I remember developing a taste for lime cordial bought for the larger

But on the other hand my mum had a stick that lived in the kitchen used frequently and my dad had a strap. I remember Shutting us in dark cupboards or banging heads together ( literally) . Mum ,being perpetually on weight watchers , refused to get me the things for cooking lessons at school because they didn’t fit her plans .

They deny all these things now but still seem to think that money can buy love.

yes and brown sugar or sugar on a stick... all still fancy in my eyes lol.

Back in the early 00s (so not that long ago... although saying that its 20 years lol) when I left home I lived in a shared house with a tv that took £1 coins to operate, once a month a man would come round to collect the money.

I remember the mad scramble for a £1 coin when it would switch off in the middle of a film lol.

I can still remember the thrill of Midnight Mass for that reason. And as a slightly younger child, being up at midnight and hearing it called ‘the witching hour’ and truly wondering if weird, wonderful magical creatures would suddenly appear. Getting up at 4am for holiday journeys was madly exciting then too. Strangely it no longer holds the same appeal.

Anyone who had a car, I thought they were so rich! We had to walk everywhere or wait hours for a bus as neither parent drove.

Also a carton of fresh orange was brought out for special occasions, my DM would pour it into a jug and water it down so that it went around the whole family, never forget buying my own large carton of apple juice I thought I was the bees knees !!