Missing the 70s, 80s and 90s and wondering if good times ever return

[Bottleneckturning]

I desperately miss the 70s/80s/90s.... my sibling was still alive, life was SO much easier, my parents were younger and had their whole lives ahead of them rather than now where they are coming to the later of their lives, all the family for Christmas etc - there were lots of us cousins all the same age - NYE with family, us cousins all playing and getting to stay up late. Mum making dinner .. Friday was fish and chips, Saturday was fry up, Sunday was roast. I had a wonderful childhood.

FF to now .. debt, responsibilities, constant demands & pressures from everyone (friends/DC/work ), life is literally non stop.

If i close my eyes I can literally hear and smell the good old times again.

Are there ever any "good old times" when you get older ?

Im 51 & married for context.

Currently watching very old 'only fools and horses' and crying at the nostalgia

It was definitely better

I absolutely hear you. I have found myself thinking a bit like this at times, but I try really hard not to lean into it. Here's why.

The human brain is programmed to remember only the good bits of the past. Its literally called "rose-tinted spectacles".

My upbringing was loving but fairly basic. I was bored most of the time. I was nerdy and ostracised at times for being clever.

My parents were in fact a bit dysfunctional. Mum worked like a slave, doing all the cooking, cleaning, housework, childcare, and working too. Dad never helped. Money was often a source of despair.

Dad was dominating, and at times very bad tempered. At times it felt like a reign of terror. I was brave and pushed back a lot against him, leading myself into endless emotionally laden conflicts.

But both my parents were alive. And in control, which has its pluses and minuses. I didn't have to worry, to take responsibility, to make difficult decisions. It was easier.

They both had a much better life when we all grew up and left, and I'm happy for that. They deserved it, they did their bit.

I enjoy my life more now. I don't have to endure the constant smell of cigarette smoke and chip fat. Or the constant noise of sport from the TV which barefoot through the whole house.

I've got my own space, my own family. Life is so much better now. We work very hard, in different ways, but it's not as pressurised as it seemed for them.

The one thing that has got worse is the poisoning of our minds through internet and social media. It strikes me that we are all being manipulated via our human biases to be dissatisfied.

My parents never had to worry about stuff like Palestine or global warming being their responsibility. They did their best. They gave to charity. But they didn't take responsibility for the world's problems like we do now.

I'm sick of being covertly manipulated by people out there, like self-interested billionaires, foreign powers such as Russia, and crypto-criminals. I see their influence all around me in people's outrage. I can hardly even speak to my politically engaged brothers now, because everything is so charged one way or another.

Simpler times. Not better. But without the "Sword of Damacles" hanging over us all.

Sounds as though you're very sad to lose your sibling..I'm sorry 🌷

I do think things were simpler in many ways, and less regulated.. if you needed to see a GP, you just went to the surgery and waited. If you had a banking query, you just went in or rang up and spoke to someone, quite often the bank manager if you wanted. You’d pop in to the insurance broker to sort out insurance, they’d do the heavy lifting on getting quotes, and if you wanted to go to the cinema or a restaurant, you’d just turn up. You could ring the branch of a store, a cinema or any business and speak to someone who worked at that place to get info, not go to some stupid centralised system where the call centre operator can’t actually give you any independent information. Even Inland Revenue would talk you through your individual issue. Ambulances were expected to, and did, show up within minutes and a normal waiting time in A&E was an hour or 2. You could drive anywhere, park anywhere, and public transport outside cities was better connected and more frequent.
Obviously there were downsides - casual racism and sexism, homophobia, much less safeguarding etc, but it was a lot easier and less frustrating to run a normal life. People had much lower expectations materially, that wasn’t always a good thing , but looking at the youngsters I know now, including my own DC, I think people were a lot less fussy, and had more time for each other.
It was unusual for 2 parents to both work full-time, certainly with primary aged DC, although that may have been because childcare was hard to come by and not subsidised.
I had family friends who were lawyers, and teachers and their working hours were way less than they are now. Law firms would close at 5, teachers would leave not long after the children. Work life balance was much better.
So although I know we all look back with rose tinted spectacles, and life is easier before you acquire responsibilities, it was less fraught than it is now.