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

My Dad read fiction, my Mum read non-fiction. She was always learning.

They both drank.

They raised 4 kids.

They worked. I don't remember my Dad having a single day off work.

But, yeah - we were out the house with so much freedom from an early age.

Knitting and sewing
More food shopping

Gardening , DIY like tiling and wallpapering abd stuff

Mine were working, and having no clue.
I lied a lot.

Great question.
I remember borderline psychotic amounts of gardening.

My mum worked but when not at work she would be reading, gardening, talking to friends on the phone, at the big supermarket doing the weekly shop, cooking.

I think it's easy to forget how much less convenience there was back then. I was born mid sixties. I remember a time before supermarkets and self-service shops. The norm was to go to a range of shops one after the other, wait in a queue and then have the person behind the counter put together your order. There were no ready meals to speak of, everything pretty much cooked from scratch. No microwaves and only the very few had a dishwasher. Tumble dryer? Nah! A spin dryer if you're really lucky and a lot of people didn't even have a washing machine. Car ownership was also extremely low compared to today. Only the more upper middle-class of mums were running their kids to school or nipping to the shops in their car. No disposable nappies. No hair conditioner - remember the nightmare of tugs? No duvets so tons more bedding to wash and beds took longer to make. Many homes didn't have central heating so drying washing was at the mercy of the weather. I could go on but the point is keeping a home and raising a family was much more work than it is today.

So what were our parents doing? Dads were at work and for mums keeping the home really was a labour intensive full-time job.

My Dad was at work, often abroad, so my Mum had 3 of us to us to look after, walk to school etc. She worked a few hours during the day, then cleaned the house, shopped (bus to town and carrying bags back), took 2 dogs out for a walk, cooked, bathed us, put us to bed, then finally had a bit of time. When Dad was home she looked after him as well. Weekends were spent washing bedsheets, changing them all, clothes, baking bread and cakes for treats, cooking a full roast and all the washing up. Also we didn't just go off and play, we had a certain area in sight and a frantic eye kept out. I guess some had more freedom than than others but for me my parents were bloody hard workers and their parents even more so. Xx

Oh, yes! I had forgotten about the massive amount of DIY. The “big shop” at the weekend. Interminable garden centre trips.

And, strangely, a lot of shopping for furniture that was never bought (although that does mean that I am now an expert on the full g-plan 70s and 80s catalogue).

To add, hand me down clothes, as a former seamstress my fantastic Mum also used to make our clothes. Xx

My mum used to go round 'to see' people... for a cup of tea, or we had 'company' round. I'd go along too and if they had older kids I'd come back with an exciting bag of cast offs!

Remember the excitement of a carrier bag of old copies of patches and blue jeans magazines someone's teen daughter didn't want!

Catalogues. They seemed to take up a lot of time. Looking, discussing, buying for a friend, paying in installments, writing out the order form, posting the order form . . .

My Mum:

Smoking
Chatting with the neighbours
Smoking and chatting with the neighbours
Smoking, chatting, getting pissed and listening to Elaine Paige records with the neighbours.

My Dad:

Smoking
Getting pissed
Watching rugby
Playing rugby

Rinse and repeat

Yes it really was, forgot about the nappies, constant washing! No CH so we used to get dressed in front of the one electric fire. To remember as well husbands at that time generally expected everything to be done and if it wasn't there would be uproar.

Things have changed but please everyone, don't ever think the older generation had it easier, they really didn't.

Easy to judge from modern viewpoint but you really have no idea if you think this. Maybe some families were lazy and irresponsible as they are today, but not most. Xx

My DF was either working or doing things with DB & ignoring me.

DM was having a ball. She'd be gone by 6am to the gym, shopping, line dancing or whatever new exercise fad came along. At home it was gardening or obsessively watching the almighty television.

All I remember is that she wasn't remotely interested in spending time with me or either of them caring where I was. I've since learned DM didn't want kids but it was expected. They're interested in me now, though, because I'm the only one around to care for them in old age & DB has checked out of that one!

My dad was driving a taxi and my mum was in AOL quiz chat rooms.

Oh God, yes! Kays, Great Universal, Freemans, Littlewoods. We had the lot. My mum used to complain about people not paying their instalments.

My dad worked many jobs (when he wasn’t cheating on my mum and disappearing for days)

My mum worked part time and had 3 kids at different ages to deal with. When we were off out getting in to danger, she’d have been drinking lots of coffee, smoking JPS and reading fiction books.

Dad was in local government, lots of evening meetings and social engagements. Mum was a housewife, she worked pretty hard tbf. They had an incredibly busy social life. Rotary, Round Table, various charities, lots of bridge parties. Lots and lots of social engagements, some of them pretty wild parties, lots of dressing up, and lots of smooching, smoking and drinking. They did something pretty much every night. Looking back they were an interesting social set.

Mum:
Cleaning
Baking
Shopping (her favourite)

Dad:
Working
Pottering around the garden and garage
Sitting on the sofa

We had a top loader washing machine, but all the bed linen was washed privately, picked up on a Monday, and brought back washed and ironed.

Mostly just dusting all the shit on the walls / shelves / dressers. All the little crystal shit and ceramic shit and plates on the wall. Takes hours that.

In my parents' cases, telling us about the annual agricultural deaths stats (Mum picked up a sheet from the local MAFF office every year) and telling us about farm safety, to the point that, despite having grown up on a farm, I've only been in a tractor about 3 times in my life. He didn't lose his temper often, but I remember him absolutely tearing a strip off the farm owner after his toddler daughter was playing at the base of a pike of grain in a barn.

Also telling us which plants in the garden were poisonous. Most things were (apart from the actual veg and fruit) - the one thing Mum refused to griw was a laburnum tree, because the seeds are too like peas. But monkshood, deadly nightshade, and everything else, we had to learn to recognise them or (not) live with the consequences.

There was a lot of smoking in between all the housework and gardening.

My mum seemed to spend much of her time stood at the open front door, staring into the distance and smoking a JPS ciggie.She fecked off when I was 13 so she was obviously plotting her escape. They both worked 9-5 locally.Spent all weekend down the pub.Did cryptic crosswords.My Dad cycled.They read books all the time and drank booze.

My parents were very bohemian and we didn't have any rules.

Father was a correspondent for the BBC and we just had a fun childhood.
Am meeting my childhood friend next week and am sure we will reminisce again about my fun house and upbringing.