to think that if asked to go back WWII style rationing, we'd never cope?

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

Not that it's a seriously likely thing to happen, more a reflection of how spoilt we are by the 24/7 disposable consumer-goods culture, even in relatively hard economic times. Reading up on the WWII home front experience & all the fantastic ways people (women) then coped with shortages of basics, I can't imagine being asked to present a ration book at Sainsbury in exchange for my one solitary egg for the week. They'd have to barbed-wire the shelves and post armed guards... What would happen to all those fussy kids? Would they just starve to death? And I'm not sure I could knit a sock to save my life.

AIBU to think that, unlike our grannies, too many of us are a bunch of trembly-lipped 'ruined my life by delivering the wrong sort of tomato' wussies that would cave at the first mention of 'make do and mend'? ... or are we just as tough and capable of knuckling down in a crisis?

@karencantobe I agree, we'd manage because we'd have to. But it certainly isn't the jolly hockey sticks, stiff upper lip, Vera Lynn soundtrack, pink clouded ideal that many seem to think. It was relentless and just ground people down. Every. Single. Day.

re nutrition they had radio programs on diet & health but during ww2 even though you might have a ration for - say- x amounts of eggs or cheese that doesn't mean it was available & while pp mentioned knitting - women had to unpick old jumpers & use the remnants of different jumpers to remake one. Paper was rationed so even new books for children was difficult & it doesn't take much imagination to see that other "uses" for paper - sausages were often mostly veggie & people did get malnutrition - dc born with rickets - at the end of the war people were using whale meat which apparently had a rather gross after taste. I know this is a zombie thread but its actually a contemporary thought.

@ImFreeToDoWhatIWant I have had various relatives live through the war and I have heard mixed stories. For some women the opportunity to do things outside the home was groundbreaking and did improve their life. Quentin Crisp has also written about how life was much better during the war in his experience, for gay men.
Of course it wasn't all Vera Lynn, that is just old people remembering the music they from their youth. But it was a mixed bag for a lot of people. For example one of my relatives who was evacuated much preferred the family she was sent to live with, over her own family.

If this happened now, most people would cope, although those with already poor mental health may not. One of the things trauma and difficult times teaches you is that even when things are really shit, your only choice often is to cope or sink totally. So most people cope.

I doubt though I would cope in a concentration camp. I do think mentally and physically I could not cope with that. Although some did survive.

You know lots of people are in severe food poverty right now? They have to survive.

Of course we'd cope. We're more resilient than we think. A well-organised rationing system, if needed, wouldn't be a problem. I doubt it would work on the WW2 model though, because shopping habits have changed. Changes to the approach would be needed.

A chaotic, incompetent, and punitive mess would be another matter of course. Which is what I fully expect from our current government, or our opposition if they were in power.

We’d struggle and find it quite an adjustment but we’d be ok because we have a big garden and farms nearby. My granny used to live rurally and told me about when she had evacuees and was shocked by their experience in cities. She had pigs that her father butchered, chickens etc. Her experience must have been quite different and it is probably still true that there is a difference between urban and rural poverty.

(Also, holy zombie thread batman!)

People would wash clothes less frequently, not throw away uneaten food, have lower standards for housework, and try all kinds of unusual food that would not be rationed such as pigeon. The geese that live near my house would be in danger of their lives.

Would they ration car fuel?

...I miss driving places.

Of course they would.

Petrol was definitely rationed.

you do realise that there are sadly lots of children in this country that regularly go without 3 meals a day?

I was being hopeful!

Food and clothing would be fine (I'm dab hand in the kitchen, garden, and with chickens and clothing). (- and, as much as this makes me out to be a fuddy-duddy, I'd like to point out that I'm not old!)

But my hobby/part time job requires me to travel a lot, and I would really, really miss it.

I guess I'd just have to get fitter - run to more places and cycle more.

I bet we’d all be a lot healthier.

If it was introduced tomorrow, it would be a long time until clothes became an issue. There are more than enough clothes circulating in charity shops, to clothe those who need to buy new clothes.

You clearly don't have an autistic child.

Like 98% of people, correct. You’re just picking a rare edge case and dismissing my advice because it’s not universal.

Like 98% of people, correct. You’re just picking a rare edge case and dismissing my advice because it’s not universal.

Telling people who have children with food issues that they won't starve is bad advice. Because they might.

You know lots of people are in severe food poverty right now? They have to survive.

That is different though. Not everyone is in the same boat, for one, and they aren't actually 'guaranteed' the small amount rationing gave.

I wonder if anyone has written about experiences with severely autistic children during rationing? There'd have been far less awareness, and of course no one wants to starve their children as a tactic, but the parents those days wouldn't have got very far with telling the butcher their child wouldn't eat beef, must have chicken etc.

@thecats They do what parents in many countries do and find the things there kids will eat. Because it is often about texture, or colour or being bland, or a mixture of all three.
After all what about a child who will only eat chips and cheese in Britain if they lived in a country where that food was unavailable? They would have chosen something else that met their internal food rules.

For example chicken, until very recent times chicken was far too expensive for most people to eat as anything more than a very occasional treat.

YABU. In my case anyway. I'm not trying to be smug, but I'm a good home cook, can make a meal from very little, including pastry and using up odds and ends quite cheaply.

DH went back to uni a few years ago and we really had to economize/cut down on meat etc. We also grow a fair amount of veg and fruit.

Not sure everyone would manage, but most people who can cook would be fine.

DH always says I'd have been great in the war! (Though that is lighthearted of course...)

I can cook, thank G-d. Mum made sure both my brother and I knew how to cook and it helped me a lot when I stopped eating meat. I've never been poor but I do remember being skint one time and having to be economical with food. Luckily I like pulses, rice etc.

I actually think it would be a great experiment that the whole country had to do just that for say a year.

I think it would have far more of an effect with trying to save the planet

@karencantobe - re women's experiences, I think I agree again, much would have depended on ones age I suspect. In your thirties or forties with two or three kids, especially if under eight-ish, then I think it would have been a much harder balancing act than being young, single & in your late teens & early twenties. That would have allowed you out into the workplace, socialising differently, independently, and would have been much more eye opening to the possibilities out there.

I love female history and often wish I could have met my great granny. She was one of that generation of women born just before the turn of the century who saw their elder brothers and fathers go off to the first world war, lived through a society tryng to rebuild & redefine itself, lived through the depression, and then had to send their husbands and sons off to the second war. It's humbling.

I also have quite a few original wartime cookery books, and let's just say they put the proverbial Mumsnet Chicken (tm) to shame! 4oz mince to serve four people as a main meal anyone...