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!

First time I flew from Australia to England was in 1989. Booked seats in the so-called non-smoking section - but it was toward the back, and there were smokers behind and on either side. Horrible. It was only around that time that smoking was banned in public service offices, too.

I have that dream too. To look back and be horrified with letting social media eat every second of people's lives, letting algorithms dictate what we need to buy and think.
Hoping this will be at soke stage a thing if the past. In the meantime I deleted my Facebook account many years ago and never made an Instagram one.
So liberating.

We were the same. My dad preferred to dive through the night. A whole row of sleeping children surrounded by cases and boxes and nothing and no one strapped down.

The ban was lifted because it didn't work. People resorted to making "moonshine" in their back gardens, or bathtubs which was highly toxic and often fatal.

That pregnant mothers gave birth without their husband and stayed in hospital for two weeks.
Babies were all taken and put in a communal nursery on the ward. You got them given to you to feed.
You were expected to rest not look after a baby!

Smoking anywhere…. and on planes too but at the back 🤣🤣

Mothers only gave birth and had their babies in nursery for about 20 to 25 years, Before the NHS nearly every woman gave birth at home. It was 10 days in NHS hospitals, or 2 weeks if you had a caesarean. With the NHS far more women gave birth in hospital. But there were still traditional ideas brought into the hospital of women lying in after giving birth. This was thought to be essential for mothers health, it was more complex than simply giving them a rest.
Basically childbirth used to lead to high rates of maternal death and serious complications. Lying in was thought to increase the health of the mother. There were myths such as if you stood up to much after birth, your uterus would fall out.

Traditionally giving birth was a female experience. Before the NHS the majority of women gave birth at home with female midwives and female relatives. This practise stretches back many centuries. So when the NHS was founded, this practise was continued in hospitals, with the only change being male Drs being present. Women often had their mother or a female friend with them, but husbands were banished. It was lobbying by feminists that allowed husbands into the delivery suite.

The move to hospitals happened when the NHS was first introduced, was because lots of women still lived in very basic housing without access to a car. Toilets were often outside, with only a chamber pot used inside. Houses could be cold and damp and often overcrowded. If something went wrong with the birth, someone had to either run to the Drs house to fetch him, or find a phone box and ring an ambulance. It all led to delays that killed mothers and babies.

Must depend on area because it was a thing in my middle school and high school in the 80’s. Naked showers with the p.e teacher with a clipboard reading names out and watching you go into the shower. Was awful, so embarrassing and always made me anxious.

If any humans survive the next century, then I do think they will look back on us all and think that we were warned for decades about climate change and the consequences but took so long to act and then acted so feebly, that we must all have been on glue.

Agree and agree.

Windmills on every b**y. hill. ruining our beautiful Scottish countryside.

Electric cars

Vaping

I don't get it. What do they do now? Wear a swimsuit? :/ I don't think we were ordered into the showers but we went in, because we needed a shower after exercise.

How did they make that work? Mine is 2 and a half and hasn't got a clue what am I doing wrong?

We sat them on potties frequently, praised them when they did a wee or gave them a chocolate button - at beginning wees in potty were mainly by accident. Watched out for signs they needed to go - restlessness/fidgeting and said it looks like you need to go to the toilet, lets go. Had them in no nappies or at most cloth nappies, so they could feel the wee.
I think by starting younger, toilet training took longer, but in some ways seems easier as we avoided the age when they can start to with hold.

If you're talking about the old style windmills, I actually think they look rather picturesque. But if you're talking about the horrible new style wind turbine things, then I'd have to agree with you.

Get changed back into school uniform and spray impluse was the thing in my 80s secondary. I bet the girls are onto something else now.
Have never used a school shower ever.

I'm wondering if the culture, in some areas, of forcing children to shower after PE harks back to people not having showers at home.
When I was really young I lived in a flat that couldn't have a shower because of the plumbing system.

At my first job, some blokes bought me a bunch of bananas I thought they were being kind. An older woman explained that the men wanted to see me eat one and she took them away.

Unbelievable.

TheyreWafflyVersatile

Memorable telly adverts, which were immediately understandable!

Birdseye Potato Waffles...

Have you seen this Douglas Adams quote ?

I think children should be given more credit than this. Schools and parents have been teaching online safety to children for years and from a very young age. They aren't blissfully unaware of stranger danger online anymore than children were in the 80s running around the street.

My daughters aren't online much, mainly because they aren't at home much due to our lives. But I have enough confidence in their education and their openess to flag any concerns to myself and my husband to feel they are pretty safe.

Loads of these we already know are shocking.

The page 3, seat belts, leaving your kid outside while you're in the pub, smoking, kitting kids. They've been done to death.

The op asked for current things that we will look back on.

I think thr constant use of mobile phones and social media. Not sure how they will be phased out though. I use my phone for every aspect of my life (apart from texting and calling) 😂😂 and I'd be lost without it.

It seems insane now, but I remember having to take detours on my way to school to avoid Builders cat calls and whistles. In my regulation school uniform 😨
My mum would tell me not to let a certain ( married father of two) neighbour know if I was ever home alone.
Which I was a lot.. 😞

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain

I had a colleague who had three children by the time he and DW were early 30s. The idea was by the time they were mid 50s DC would be grown and off their hands. Seemed like a good idea to me and still does.

You seem shocked by this. I had my two at 26 and 28. Perfectly normal to have three under 30.

I remember smoking on the train to work between Birmingham and Coventry when I was 22 in 1997

care home 2022 had dbs checks, i remember because a colleague said she had done usual teenage stuff and was a bit concerned about her record