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Original poster

How many toys did children have in the 1950’s/1960?

31 replies

AuntieAunt · 22/02/2023 14:34

We live in a post war semi three bed semi.

My mum grew up in a pretty much identical house with her four siblings. Even with bunk beds it seems pretty impossible to physically fit everyone in but I’ve been wondering how on earth did my Grandparents fit all of their five kids worth of stuff in too?

Mum said with five kids any toys didn’t last long. I know they used to have a piano and a table in their front room and with upstairs filled to the brim where did the the toys go? I know that the kids were expected to play outside and the girls to help with chores but did kids really live without actual toys?

OP posts:

AuntieMarys · 22/02/2023 17:03

Very few! Never got toys outside birthdays/ Xmas.
I had a wooden dolls house my dad made me, a post office set, a Sindy and a Tiny Tears. Lots of books ...I remember getting postal orders or book tokens from distant relatives, and going to buy books.

GordonShakespearedoesChristmas · 22/02/2023 18:18

ShippingNews · 22/02/2023 14:52

I was a kid in the 60s . If memory serves me, I had a large Pedigree doll which walked and talked . A dolls pram which lived outside. Many puzzles which lived on a bookshelf. A set of little gardening tools which lived outside. In general I was expected to play outside, and if I was indoors I'd be learning how to cook with Mum, or other household tasks . By the time I was 8 I could knit, crochet, and iron . Doing those things well made me feel good. . My childhood was happy, despite having few toys !

Same here.
I had a dolls house and a Sunday horse, but didn't have masses of stuff.
We were able to be out and about more tho.

Mistymornin · 22/02/2023 20:52

I grew up in the 60s, Xmas was a toy, annual and selection stocking. For birthdays (mine is mid Dec), we always got clothes. We never exchanged presents with cousins, etc, but I had an aunt who never had kids, so for Xmas and birthdays my brother and I received 10 shillings from her and my sister £1.

But I remember getting a pram and doll for my 5th birthday.

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carbon60 · 22/02/2023 21:34

How do you fit 6 kids and 2 parents in a 3 bed house? bunk beds of course! Although as the only girl I had the box room over the hall (freezing)
We had one present at Christmas, plus a few small things. We were lucky, our uncle ran a holiday camp, every October he arrived with a box of abandoned toys (usually cars etc) and a box of sweets from the shop.

lljkk · 22/02/2023 21:34

MIL was a child in 50s. At any one time, all her possessions that could be called toys, they all could fit in what would be today a moderate size handbag.

Original poster

AuntieAunt · 23/02/2023 11:35

I’ve always wanted a big family but even with our downstairs extension having three kids would be bit of a squeeze chaos.

I was wondering how my grandparents managed and having five kids worth of stuff on a book shelf or in the shed would explain it.

I can imagine social services being called now if I had four kids in the master suite with all of their toys being able to fit in a shoe box.

Explains why my mum was such a good baker, cook, gardener, seamstress, house keeper as that’s all she had to do when she didn’t fancy playing outside.

funny how my grandparents used to spoil us grandkids with a huge sack each Xmas and toys throughout the year when their kids were raised completely differently.

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