To wonder how we got having a baby years ago.

[IsItSummerYet2018]

This is totally light hearted.
But reading some people on other sites/ threads/forums saying about things for example : perfect prep machine for milk.
Saying how they couldn't live without it. When its 3am boiling up a kettle is a faff etc.
Don't get me wrong it is and time Consuming when you have a crying baby and sleep deprived.
However they haven't been around forever and everyone just got on with it before hand.

please note I'm not Having a dig it's just a general wondering

Can anyone think of anything else that we have now but didn't before... But just can't live without?

[Graphista]

Whatsgoingoneh the nhs and modern medicine are great but not perfect. Yes we don't want a healthcare system like USA but there are other systems we could learn from. Not only heartbreaking for those involved but I can't help but note that in my friends case it would also be much cheaper to do the testing for that condition than pay for the treatment, admin and mental health consequences of a stillbirth, so it doesn't even make "business sense".

Mishappening - I know what you mean I've felt out of step and dd has felt I'm far stricter than her friends parents (most of whom about 10 years younger than me) because I've raised her to have what I consider basic manners and consideration for others.

Eg you only interrupt adults talking if it's an emergency, table manners, please and thank you's even (these seem to be dying out as is "excuse me")

[Headofthehive55]

Just because the nhs hasn't introduced something e.g. Toxoplasmosis screening test it doesn't mean they are wrong not to do so. In fact other countries are reported to be dropping that screening programme due to it being ineffective.
My child was put at risk by a nipt test (blood test for genetic conditions ) I was part of a research trial and it gave a f

[Headofthehive55]

False positive

[Headofthehive55]

I think there is much more to do with children these days...but the is much more expectation that you do lots of after school activities.

[eddiemairswife]

Mine didn't do activities after school when they were primary age. A picnic in the park in the summer perhaps; apart from that we got home, they got changed, they had tea and watched TV or played with friends either at our house or theirs'. I usually started bathtime around 6.30, by which time my husband was home and preparing our evening meal.
We had no car, and lived in suburbia with plenty of children around. The children were in school all day, so needed free unorganised time to do their own thing.
Reading on here what some families do after school makes me feel tired; also all the various baby activities that are available.What is wrong with just staying at home all day?

[Motoko]

Reading on here what some families do after school makes me feel tired; also all the various baby activities that are available.What is wrong with just staying at home all day?

Yes, I do feel that some children do far too many activities. They need time to play alone or with friends, to sit and read or watch some TV, to get bored.

[purpleweasel]

Remember my elderly neighbour in the 80s showing me her Welsh baby shawl. She said her babies always slept when carried about in it

Pre-cursor to on-line shopping was mail order via catalogues!

Found out recently that what I thought was letting toddler go through the kitchen cupboards & play with the saucepans etc is actually "heuristic play". Who'd have known?

[Kokeshi123]

In some ways it balances out.

There used to be a lot less pressure to get everything perfect.

There were also more helping hands, especially since children tended to spend much of their time out of the house "minding" each other, with older kids keeping an eye on toddlers so you didn't have them underfoot when you were feeding the baby, and big sisters/10yo aunties generally on hand to take the baby for a bit.

People were less child centered and actively pushed kids to fit in with everyone else's plans. For example, you started sticking the baby on the potty from very early so that you minimized nappies and got them out of nappies altogether as early as possible--you didn't do all this "Wait till they are interested/ready" stuff.

[mirime]

When I was a child, we had no freezer, a top loading washing machine, my mum mainly used cloth nappies on my sister because disposables were expensive and huge bulky things, we had no video recorder, if your wanted to watch something you had to watch it when it was on, in fact very little tech stuff at all compared to now.

Now I have a child I could make batches of food when he was weaning and freeze them, I ended up only using disposable nappies because I was ill after the birth and couldn't manage the extra hassle and then they were just too convenient, and I could sit and watch what I wanted when I wanted, as can DS - there's no such thing as missing an episode of something now!

I don't have a tumble dryer, so the washing isn't as different as everything else, but I don't have to pull the washing machine out from under the kitchen counter and take up most of the kitchen when I need to put a wash on.

The biggest difference though is that my mum could be a SAHM and that was never an option for us, financially we just couldn't have done it.

[mirime]

@purpleweasel I love this picture - goo.gl/images/3wjkLS.

Men in the Rhondda taking their babies for a walk in Welsh shawls. Lovely!