To not understand how housewives of yesteryear could afford to stay home but being a SAHM is a lifestyle choice now?

[PeachyParisian]

Am I missing something really obvious? Or is it just a case of the cost of living rising and our standards of living increasing too? How could everyone manage to get by on just one wage?
I understand that work wasn't really an option for most women but traditionally families got by on one wage didn't they? When did that stop being possible for so many?

theword

I don't know though could find out in my Nan's case

I do know that my gran was in touch with the man who fathered her 3rd and 4th child so I am assuming he had a job and gave her money

She also lived with all 4 children in one room so I don't deny that money was incredibly tight. I doubt she would have considered herself to be a SAHM

In my mums case she did go to work once my brother was at school at 5

But I completely agree that my gran was not living comfortably!!!!

Choosing to stay at home and having a comfortable life in the past was much more the preserve of the more well off

Many posters are saying that DMs and DGMs always worked - who looked after the DCs?

Extended families had relatives but everyone else, did they leave the eldest child in charge? or rely on neighbours keeping an eye out.

"who looked after the DCs?"

My siblings and I had a childminder, my mum and her siblings were looked after by relatives, when necessary - her parents had a shop so were able to do a lot of the childcare themselves by working different shifts.

I remember in the 80s if seemed quite common for parents to swop shifts- so dad worked 9-5 and mum might work behind a bar, or do early/ late cleaning or weekend work. A little like the sort of jobs teenagers in education do- poorly paid but without child care costs it seemed to be worth it.

My grandmother worked (widowed) and my dad/ uncle looked after themselves after school.

It also seemed more common to use teenage baby sitters- maybe a 14 Yo friend of the family would sit with the children after school until 6pm when the adults would come home, for a fiver or something. People are far more hot on the quality of their child care now (good thing!)

"who looked after the DCs?" Lots more latch key kids in the past, expecting to hang around and entertain themselves til a parent got home, not so much angst about leaving them home alone.

As pp have said, lots of people worked evenings, early mornings, opposite shifts in factories etc.

Aunties my nan neighbour step dad looked after me the jobs mum had were never full time she didn't work for a few years after my sister was born her job changed again to early morni gs and eveni gs I watched my sister or collected her after I got in from school I was 14/15

Aunties my nan neighbour step dad looked after me the jobs mum had were never full time she didn't work for a few years after my sister was born her job changed again to early morni gs and eveni gs I watched my sister or collected her after I got in from school I was 14/15

We couldn't afford to live on one salary as we are paying off debt from student days which was why I originally went back to work. We have a reasonably low mortgage on a modest 2 bed house. Our household income (I consider vs what my parents earned) high but not over 100k. I don't work full time but because I did go back to work am fortunate enough to have been promoted to a decent level over the last 10 years or so. A quarter of our outgoings on nursery/clubs etc. We have a uk holiday, as we work i do consider this a neccessity. Old car. When nursery payments end I will consider us wealthy but have no interest in new kitchens and stuff, saving will be the main objective. I continue to work for this reason, financial security for our future. However I want to get to a point where if I/we needed to take a career break we can do this . I consider us the definition of squeezed middle (high earnings and high costs, well taxed equating to not much spare) but not moaning I know there are others that are living in real poverty/hunger. It all feels wrong really. My view is that we are being sold an absolute crock by the current government. Household inflation and previous thatcher policies have sold us down the river but it's the 'scroungers on benefits' they want us to point at but I don't see much belt tightening going on with the super rich.

Who looked after the children? In my family's case, older siblings (me! from aged 9) minded the younger school age DC. The baby was looked after by GP. We could go to our GP in an emergency but preferred to be latch key kids. We enjoyed being at home on our own. The neighbours all knew mum worked and they would have helped if we needed.

The school holidays were a problem. I think we just looked after ourselves at Easter and Christmas. For the long summer holiday,which was longer than now (8 weeks for us), the factory bosses allowed mums to work from home. Every summer our front room was taken over by mums out work. DDad put a large sheet of hardboard over our dining room table to protect it and it became DMums work bench for the summer holidays. Of course mum was still on piece work so she still had to put the hours in. No days out or walks in the park with the kids. We just went out to play as usual. I always had my younger sibs and a little cousin tagging along.