If you grew up in the 80s/90s, what was life like for you?

[Grabacoffeeandcake]

What things do you miss? What was worse?

I miss how simple life seemed back then. I’d get up, go to school, then after school watch TV until the o'clock news came on. I loved reading, a habit I’ve lost since bloomin smartphones.

There were far less supermarkets where I lived so a fortnightly trip to the big supermarket felt quite exciting. My mum shopped locally mainly and went to the butchers, greengrocers, bakery, those shops have long gone and been replaced by a massive Select and Save.

Going to the cinema or renting a video on a Saturday night was peak weekend.

As a teenager I’d walk for miles with friends just chatting and being silly.

Sundays were always really boring, absolutely hated when the antiques roadshow came on, but we did have a lovely roast.

I can remember shops closing half day on a Wednesday, anyone remember that?

I grew up 70s/80’s and I’m glad we didn’t have social media back then.

I definitely didn’t fit in with my friends as I was a total tomboy (my influencer of the time was George out of the famous five books) I dread to think what I’d have got dragged into if TikTok was around in the 80’s.

Life was simple - my school was up the road so we all walked to school through the field. It was close enough to go home for lunch so I’d sometimes walk home and have beans on toast or Heinz tomato soup in front of the lunchtime kids programmes.

Friday night was chips and scraps from the chip van on the community hall car park, and watching Fall Guy. Saturday night the parents would go out and we’d have a babysitter along with fizzy pop and crisps from the corner shop. Sundays were roast dinner followed by a trip to my grandparents and she would bake two types of cake for afternoon tea and a catch up with the rest of the family.

We weren’t very well off so we didn’t have central heating, I used to dread winter. Ice on the inside of the windows and we’d all rush downstairs to get dressed in front of the gas fire. That was the worst bit about growing up back then!

I was a teenager in the 80s and by the time I was in sixth form I'd really found my tribe. I remember being optimistic and I was surrounded by really good friends which offset my nightmare of a mother. But I still felt less than.

Because of her refusal to work and constant spending we didn't have what others had like holidays, cars, a paid for 18th, a VCR, central heating.

I left home at 18 and it was really difficult. Again due to money.

My DS had what I had and all the material things so he's never felt like I did.

😂

More dog poo but less actual
Rubbish in streets.
The litter now makes me mad as hell!!

But to get food in those days you had to sit in a cafe or just get a sweet from the sweet shop. Or a bun from the bakery. I don't remember pre made sarnies etc. not till 90s. Certainly
No costas Greggs etc

Regarding jobs I was in Hertfordshire and yes jobs were plentyfull. Certainly by the mid 80to late 80s into the 90s.

I was offered a job in the nhs as a secretary with no experience other than a part time dental nurse assistant I decided to be a vet nurse in the end and that was pretty ok to get a job too. I only got rejected from 2 of the 5 I applied for so I could Choose I only had a levels too and not even in science so it's so different from
Today's Expectations of debt and degrees and this and that qualification.

I was trained and qualified on the job.

I really wish those days back for my kids No ridiculous hoops to jump through and just one or maybe
Two interview tops.

Just send a letter and cv and apply. Easy.

Saturday work as a teen was a case of walking Round asking if they had vacancy's. Then you just sent a letter usually. Sometimes
You might get offered the job on the spot if it's a family or smaller business. So much easier

Tech has made this part of life so my harder imo.

However I would
Say the late 70s early 80s were really hard for parents I think. Much political uselessness, jobs were lost
Particularly in areas like wales and the mining communities

I remember the riots and those areas must have really struggled.

Hence the hatred for maggie however in the south east things were starting to really boom

I probably look back at the 80's/90's with a bit of Pollyannaism but I absolutely loved my childhood/teen years.

Even Sundays were great as we would all go out for a long dog walk and often stop of for cake somewhere or go see my parent's friends who had kids our age.

I miss going to the video shop on a Saturday afternoon as kids and having a family film fest in the evening.

When I was a teen I would go into town on Saturdays with my best mate and we would spend all day there, not really spending any money as we didn't have any but happy to share sausage and chips in BHS and go listening to records in Our Price.

When I left school I went on a YTS scheme and after that never had an issue getting a job, I could literally leave a job on Friday and start a new one a week later.

And when I passed my test and got my first car (a little Mini) I could easily fill it up on £5 and trundle about for miles on a full tank.

My dd17 often says she would have loved to have grown up as a teen when I did and I can't help but agree with her. I am so very glad that I grew up in a time with no SM, that would have had a very very detrimental affect on my mental health.

Born ‘75. On the whole I loved my childhood and my teens. My parents both had professional careers so admittedly my siblings and I had quite a privileged upbringing in a big house with everything we needed, however we still had nothing like as much as the average child gets today. We cherished everything we had and we all made do with a fraction of what we have today.

New toys were for Christmas and birthdays only. New clothes were usually bought in the sales.

Holidays were to France or Cornwall. I didn’t go on an aeroplane until I was 18 and that was with my friends.

Birthday parties when we were very young were just at our friends’ houses but as we got older we’d be taken to the cinema/theatre/ice skating then back to the birthday girl’s house for a special tea of cakes, sandwiches etc. They were lovely but certainly not the extravaganzas you see these days!

We got bored often, but that fuelled our imaginations. Saturdays were spent riding bikes, hanging out in a disused bit of wasteland building dens and treehouses, and if raining making dolls’ houses out of cardboard boxes and playing with Star Wars figures etc.

We had many a discussion this Christmas about how crap Quality Streets are nowadays. I said that I, and probably many others, would be happy to buy a big tin of better quality chocolate at a higher price because I still see it as a treat. But unfortunately, rampant consumerism means that it’s hard to find decent stuff these days. Not just chocolate but clothes, white goods, furniture etc. Everything’s so throwaway and people are just greedy. Capitalist enterprise seems to be a race to the bottom. No wonder the planet’s fucked!

I loved growing up in the 80s/90s! Spent so much time playing out. Had sleepovers and sometimes even slept in a tent in the back garden. In the school holidays as teens, we would buy a day saver on the bus and just hop on and off busses wherever we fancied! Some places we'd never been to. We had to phone home from a pay phone and check in a couple of times.
We played board games as a family and visited grandparents every Saturday.
I try to give my teen the freedom to go to shops/for lunch etc in a nearby bigger town but at present none of his friends are allowed to.

If you didn't know the answer to something, or couldn't name the song stuck in your head, you just had to ask someone, go to the library or wait until you remembered! There was no instant knowledge. Although frustrating, I miss that! We had the phone in the hall, on a purpose phone table, with a shelf underneath to house the Phone Book/Yellow Pages and it had a seat attached.

I remember as a child playing with friends and she showed me stashed away in her parent's wardrobe were porn magazines. Very grim, to see that as a child.

We sometimes camped out in the garden at night! Would never allow a child of mine to do that these days.

I also remember no seatbelts in the back of the car. More children in the car than seats. A neighbour had twins and placed them in carry cots, laid across the backseat of the car. Dangerous and unsafe if you think of it now, but then, it was seen as acceptable, as a child anyway, and we never heard of children being killed or hurt in car accidents. Less people had cars, I do recall several friends' mums learning to drive later in life, in their 30's and 40' and many mums also never being able to drive.

I so wanted a Soda Steam and I think a Mr Frosty that used to make slushies! Never got them, we had to make do with the Pop van who would deliver Cherryade, Dandelion & Burdock, Cream Soda etc.

Avon was big as well, someone's mum was always an Avon Lady and held parties attended by all our mums. I remember the cliff hangers of Dallas and Dynasty, even in primary school, it must have provided more much conversion at the school gate or at work, everyone watching TV at the same time!

Going to the off licence, there were a few of them back then, especially attached to pubs, on a Friday or Saturday night to get a chocolate bar.

I was born 1994 and even then things were so much better. I really do feel sad reading these, I really miss how easy everything felt back then.

I was oblivious to world events. Lockerbie, Chernobyl, the threat of nuclear war - I was too young to recall them happening at the time.

I guess you could call it the innocence of childhood. I do remember seeing on the TV the Berlin Wall coming down and thought it would be amazing to be there, but before around then, I was oblivious to many world events/disasters.

I was early teens, at a girl’s school and so socially unconfident with an over-protective dm who wouldn’t let me out of her sight! I just thank my lucky stars that there was no Insta to get insecure about, no body dismorph and generally less pressure than there is on kids now.

Mostly shit but I don’t think mine was because it was the 80s/90s. It would be just as awful today because I was being horrifically abused at home, I do hope that today children like me are noticed earlier.
There were bits of good in between. I lived opposite Greenwich park so that was my playground along with all of my school friends who were allowed free rein, come home when it gets dark.
Lots of, building tree houses and jumping in the boating lake.. Or collecting conkers and having conker fights or sledging down the snowy hills in winter.
I did get a holiday every year via a friend’s Nan (who I suspect took pity on me) and we’d go to her caravan in Leysdown for a week of the summer holidays, I loved it.
My school was pretty good, we always seemed to be putting on a big school play like The Wizard of Oz or Joseph and his dreamcoat.
Sports days were a lot more fun and silly than they are for kids today.
I remember being really little and being obsessed with Kylie and Jason and later Take That.

Where I lived, it depended on your religion if you could get into some factories (not NI btw!). At various times, the part time jobs for children could improve, but I don't remember them being plentiful. It was for me a pretty crappy time all round. I think things improved a bit in the 90s, as the Tories brought in loads of daft schemes where you could get sent to do secretarial courses for an extra £30 a week which passed the time. No chance of much work though. I was shite at typing .