Things that you can’t quite believe were the norm

[ItsNotAShopItsAStore]

What’s one of those things you think in 10/20/30 years people will go “WTF why was that acceptable?”

For me - the Jeremy Kyle show. I’m so pleased it’s off air - awful poverty porn hosted by a nasty little bully and enabled by god-complex shit stirring producers. Also who wants to watch so much shouting and arguing at 9.25am!

You're right, there were. And there were always some who had difficulty with toileting up into primary school. This is why spare sets of clothes were kept in the office. For children who were prone to accidents.

F

That mums who gave birth over 35 were called "geriatric mums"

Nailed it 👍

My sister and I had 'continental quilts' in the 70s. They were horrible nylon things that you didn't put a cover on, we just put them on top of s sheet.

Were they eiderdowns?

We used to have sheet, blanket(s), eiderdown, candlewick counterpane.

We had a teacher (early 80s) who'd go out of lessons 2 or 3 times for "supplies," or "worksheets." We all knew he was going out for a tab and eventually, a kid said, "It's all right Sir, just lean out the window, nobody minds!"

So he did!

Over 2 was not unknown. Some children ae always later to toilet train whatever you do. But before 2 was the norm.

My memory of the term “continental quilt” in the late 60s/early 70s was the name given to duvets when they’d just arrived on the scene. The eiderdown quilts we had on our beds as kids were feather/down filled with a slippery nylon outside layer and used as a topping over blankets and top sheet.

They usually slipped off the bed overnight unless they were covered and tucked in with another blanket. I don’t know how we moved in bed with the weight of all the bedding 😆

I'd agree teachers shouldn't be changing nappies.

But it can't just be special needs being the reason why a higher percentage of kids are in nappies now than before.
The percentage of special needs kids can't have changed. It might be more recognised. But the actual percentage can't have changed.

Smoking in offices was allowed into the early 90s. A chain-smoking colleague regularly used to set his wastepaper basket alight by emptying his ashtray before checking all the fag ends were properly out.

We had a rule that you could only smoke in a shared office if no-one objected though.

The other thing that was allowed was pictures of semi-naked women. When I started a new job in '91, I was the first woman who'd ever done that job in that organisation and some of men were appallingly sexist. The day before I started, the manager had to tell my colleague to take down his Sun "page 3" calendar of topless pics.

We had eiderdowns, but they didn't have nylon. Goodness knows what the covers were, but they were a sort of floral - flock wallpaper pattern and cold, but natural. They did morph into continental quilts at some point in my childhood, but the covers remained the same, it's just that the filling became rayon, or whatever.

@Katypp I think this generation of parents - probably due to affirmation on social media - have a tendency to think they are year zero and all guidelines and advice given now is the definitive advice.

This is so true! There is an arrogance among all the hysteria. The mantra 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing' is very true here. And all the 'experts', especially those who say things like 'we used to believe... but we now know...' like their version is the ultimate truth.

I read somewhere recently in relation to cultural differences, that a feature of Western Culture is that we abandon cultural practices immediately when presented with science, often without proper debate. No where is it more obvious that childrearing, a study shows something and we change how we bathe or feed our young without a backward glance. Suddenly everyone older than us is wrong or ignorant. So maybe by changing things we have reduced the chance of cot death or some allergy by 0.0002% but we may have caused more discomfort to baby, and caused a practice that is difficult or stressful to maintain, yet that side of the balance is not considered.

My husband used to go to a childminder during his primary years. His main memories are of sitting next to her watching snooker while she chain smoked, going to the corner shop to get her more cigarettes and walking her dog on his own every day. This was late 70s/early 80s.

"Circle of shame" on the front cover of heat magazine. Papping celebs unaware and circling and cellulite or rolls. Disgraceful.

On the subject of TV, 'wife swap'. Think it was in the 2000's. Worse than the Jeremy Kyle show!

I’ve found Ben Elton’s rant on YouTube
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T7-c15aumjk
I feel it justifies contempt for the tabloids.

Clubs where there is pole and lap dancing. I find it hard to get my head around that these types of places still exist in this day and age.

I thought the JK show was horrible. Feel the same about Get Me Out Of Here when they humiliate themselves for an inch of fame.

Leaving school at 15 with no qualifications because your mum needed you to go to work (this was my mum's situation). Her mum took in washing to make ends meet.

Waiting for the tv broadcast to start when you got home from school and only having three channels (in black and white) - and having to stand up to change over!

My mum worked lunchtimes in a pub, my sister and I practically grew up there in school holidays.

I liked wife swap. It brought up serious philosophical issues! The families were mostly quite normal in their own way just contrasting.

My memory of the term “continental quilt” in the late 60s/early 70s was the name given to duvets when they’d just arrived on the scene. The eiderdown quilts we had on our beds as kids were feather/down filled with a slippery nylon outside layer and used as a topping over blankets and top sheet.

Yes.

We used to say "continental quilt".

I often still say "quilt cover".

Leaving school when you are 12 because your mum dies leaving you with an 8 month old baby to look after. My great-grandmother.

🙄🙄🙄🙄

WhatWouldJeevesDo · Today 15:01

I’ve found Ben Elton’s rant on YouTube

Crikey!

Haven't RTFT but it amazes me that smoking was allowed on planes!

Our time will be looked back on as very grim times indeed.