What were the parents doing, whilst we were all rolling down silos and meeting inappropriate men?

[coxesorangepippin]

What were the parents of the 70s/80s/90s doing whilst we were all 'playing out?'

🤔

Tea can't have taken that long to make?

I do remember my mother having a lot of baths, and my dad reading books on trains

Going to the pub.

Watching this thread with interest! 🤣
My dad would be in the shed and Mum would be knitting and baking.😉

Blissfully unaware!

My buddy and I slept at the stables rather than the aunts house we were supposed to be at!

Working two and sometimes three jobs each.

Not worrying about where we were or what we were doing, because there was no way of checking and therefore no point.

Not doing endless electronic admin or fannying about resetting passwords and technology. Or ordering mundane stuff.

Not spending hours a day chatting on internet forums / browsing things to buy / researching endless shit.

It must have been LOVELY

Mine were working. My Father left for work before we were up and returned when we were in bed. My Mother also worked full time, did all the housework, shopping, cooking and as a teacher did the marking in the evenings. She also taught evening classes. We were latchkey kids and a neighbour and her daughter babysat / kept an eye on us until my sister was deemed old enough to be the responsible one.

Watching the two Ronnie's and the Rockford files

Mine both worked f/t and spent weekends doing housework and dad doing DIY. Happy days 🥰

Running off with yet another new partner.

Taking care of their new families.

I do remember my mother reading Spare Rib

Or at least pretending to

And a magazine about UFOs - The Fortean Times

She had me walk around Ilkley one time, looking at their offices

Drinking wine in the garden with the neighbours.

🤣

Making pots of tea.
Reading the newspaper or watching the news on tv.
Rolling cigarettes.
Cleaning
Going in the shed.
Cutting the grass and gardening.
Ironing
Cooking from scratch.
Chatting to the neighbour.
Reading
Visiting relatives.
Going to the shops.
Training the dog.
Mending the car.
DIY
Worrying about being nuked.
Putting bets on and doing the pools.
Washing the car.
Keeping an eye on the pressure cooker.
Watching the TV.
Sending birthday cards.

Standing in line at the bank to cash cheques. Doing the Friday big shop. Working. Not outsourcing all the cleaning, car valeting etc. Running errands. Seeing a man about a dog. Et cetera.

Mine was working and coping with my alcoholic father and her father who had dementia. Plus baking, sewing, knitting, reading.

Definitely wasn’t worrying about me! One time I was gone 2hrs when she realised. I was 5. Luckily I was at the old lady on the corners house 😃

My mother was cleaning, endless cleaning, or working. Dad was either at work or watching telly, but he didn’t consider looking after us to be any of his business anyway. Even though he was technically supposed during the four hours in the evening mum was working.

My dad was working 2 jobs to keep a roof over our heads.

My mum was suffering with MH that wouldn't be taken seriously for another 20 years.

But even my friends parents - dad would be working then pub to let of steam. Mum would be looking after house, cooking proper meal, likely caring for several elderly relatives and supporting struggling neighbours.

God this

Mine read a lot of books a watched HUGE amounts of television. We would sit down for dinner at 6, and afterwards they would watch TV from 6:30 until 1030/11 when they went to bed.

Dad was revered for working very hard (left home at 0830 and back by 530), and mum always maintained she had a full time job at 12 hours per week. She was most put out that she had to manage all the housework on top of her “full time job”, but she never did housework after 5pm or at the weekend. There was no actual parenting done, but to be fair to my mum she didn’t really know what was involved because her mum died when she was a child.

I don’t think they did anything wrong, but it was a different time 😅

Dad was working. Mum was washing up by hand, cooking from scratch, baking, going to the shops every couple of days because everything that she bought had to be fitted in the basket under the buggy, doing housework.

Working full time (both parents).
Cooking "proper family meals" 3 times a day from basic ingredients with no "mod cons".
Cleaning, usually without much in the way of products.
Washing (crap machines, crap washing powder).
Ironing
Polishing shoes (daily!!! Why????)
DIY. Shit loads of mending roofs, gutters, fences, painting, etc.
Growing food (necessity not hobby).
Chopping wood, drying wood, etc - no other source of affordable heat.
Looking after elderly neighbours, family, etc.

My dad would have been reading his way through a pile of library books or watching a sitcom. My mum was knitting fair isle jumpers or baking currant squares and coconut tartlets from her Presbyterian cookery book🤣 My sister, brother and I were meanwhile clinging onto people's garden fences as we inched our way along a bank several feet above the local river😬

They both worked too though😆😆

My mum and dad were growing veg in their council house garden, making meals, diy, housework. They were generally in the house doing stuff that needed doing while we had a whale of a time, just popping back occasionally for a big plastic beaker of vimto

Well housework was harder then with twin tub machines and virtually all cooking from scratch.
And work, making clothes, erm phone calls, sorting out lots of parties 🤣