Do you ever wonder how people didn't die of boredom in the olden days

[AthenaisdeRochechouart]

Before telly and iPads and Netflix and access to unlimited books/music via Amazon?

What did they do to stop going stark staring mad? Could you cope long term without the above?

"Read books"

From a plentiful supply at my local library, obviously.

buttybutty - I did indeed ask that. Then I clarified. But some people are so eager to post that they do not read the thread.

As liz70 demonstrates. I'm talking about a time before there were public libraries.

I was about to join the tetchy crowd, but actually I see what you mean OP, if you're thinking about what an upper-class woman might have done with her time.

I'm never ever bored (and lack of technology would make no difference to that), but if I weren't allowed to do much more than embroidery I might well be. Working class people and women running a household wouldn't have had time to be bored though.

I am rarely that bored that I watch TV for more than half an hour or so at a time. TV and Internet are my 'go to' things to do when I have nothing else to do. I work with a lot of people in their 20's and I find it so sad how much time they spend watching Netflix and box sets. Why aren't they out enjoying themselves and, y'know, living.

Havent read all the replies but my Dad in the 40s:
Going to pub
Going to ceili
Playing cards
Going to every sporting event on a bike( miles)
Chatting to his friends( he had loads who all wanted to chat at the drop of a hat)
Playing sport
Driving in a car at 20mph which took a whole day to go somewhere
Listening to radio at every opportunity
Reading the paper
Visiting every sick person/elderly for miles as he knew everyone
Going on formal dates
Visiting his massive family who were scattered everywhere
Gardening
And of couse working!
He was never bored

I know it may not seem like it, but. hundreds and hundreds of years into the future people will say the same about us. One day the Internet will be old boring and obsolete, Almost like TV is becoming.
It is fascinates me that one day historians will one day learn about how we used to live

I think we spent a lot more time socializing, both indoors and out. Bedrooms were cold and so the whole family would be more likely to be in one room. Jigsaws, cards, chesss, boardgames.
Also Library and reading, drawing, painting and designing, sewing and making things.
My parents used to at least have a go at repairing things themselves, like cars, so that took time.
Food shopping wasn't weekly but almost daily, transport ( buses in London in my case) were much less frequent/ regular than they are now, I often had to wait over half an hour for the bus going to school) so for short journey s, ( say up to half an hour 's walk, you'd choose to walk rather than hang around waiting. Fewer people had cars.
But yes, Sunday's in particular did get quite boring, no shops open, pubs shut early ( and weren't open the in afternoons anyway.! Very few cafes compared to now, and again not open on Sundays.

Is it not just that since the dawn of civilisation some people have lived lives that were constrained and boring? I agree that the social milieu that Austen inhabited must have been stultifying, but I am very glad that she had nothing to distract her.
The danger here is to make assumptions and generalisations (not you OP) about all people at a particular time. I have a wonderful book about women in eighteenth century Europe which is an amazing history of the range and scope of work done by women, particularly female merchants and entrepreneurs.

I can remember Sundays being boring, I used to sometimes watch the old film on the tv on Sunday afternoon, there was usually some black and white film from the 40/50s on like Strangers on a train or From here to eternity, you know the type of thing. Nothing was open apart from the paper shop in the morning iirc

I've tried to explain this to my children who are at the idea of no internet etc. I know pretty much every word to every song that comes on the radio, because we did that; we listened to loads of music didn't we? I read tons and all my books were from the library; going was a huge treat and took up time. I read 4-6 books a week easily. Visiting friends and actually talking to them for hours at a time. We used to go down to the woods as a family for days out, my Dad was army so he'd set up a camp for us and cook and there was a stream and we'd stay there all day long. We went swimming a lot and we always walked there and back which was a couple of hours. I was bored at times but I was a lot more exercised and fitter that's for sure.

I used to love going to block buster video and picking movies to watch for the weekend, I still miss that!

Men worked 6 days a week and women were at home looking after the house and children. Not a great deal of downtime. Kids played outside with their mates.

Great outside games we played were ‘British Bulldogs’ and ‘knocky door danger.’

I find that spending long periods of time on Netflix, social media, technology etc. Makes me quite depressed. We don’t even have a TV. I like to be doing something physical. Exercise, cooking, craft, DIY, going for a walk, gardening... even cleaning to some extent! I’d be quite suited to ‘the olden days’!

I find that consuming is not half as satisfying as creating.

So yes, I watch telly, read books, go to galleries, buy clothes.

But I also plant, grow, draw, write and imagine. Apart from the whole 'low life expectancy and plague of death' thing, I think it's sad to think that a life labouring in fields, growing food and finding enjoyment in creating, storytelling is somehow of inherently less value than one sitting on your bum playing candy crush and watching Downton Abbey.

I'm talking about a time before there were public libraries.

So, people would buy books and swap them with friends?
Those that could and had the time to read.

Literacy in women was between 30-50% for 18th Century women. Most people live in rural areas, so fairly isolated living. An 18th extract shows how time in England specifically was spent

I think it’s quite funny that the OP has told us repeatedly that her original post was not about the recent past, or the 20th century, but posters are still piling in to inform us in great detail of what they did as children in the 1980s and declare that they were never EVER bored.

Well, what people did to amuse themselves in my family in the sixties, wasn't actually that different from what they would have done 200 years earlier, so my experiences seem perfectly relevant to the question: they made music, played games, read, told stories and jokes, sewed and knitted, wrote letters to distant friends and relatives, and did various forms of DIY and woodwork.

I come from a family of hoarders so we still have some of the items created: a small carved chest with the name of an ancestress of mine from the early 1800s (probably carved by her husband to celebrate the birth of their 3rd child), a larger painted chest from the 17th century, monogrammed sheets and towels from the 19th century onwards, embroidered table cloths and runners, piles of correspondence from the 19th century, various painted and calligraphed pictures, various everyday items which have a good deal more fancy detail than their actual function would have required, an instrument used to accompany singing, and some old books. The people who created and used those would not have been bored. And a lot of them would have been home-made.

So what period are we being asked about and what social strata of woman? Eg an Elizabethan lady with a wet nurse for her babies would have a different life from said wet nurse or a farmer or a servant

Great outside games we played were ‘British Bulldogs’ and ‘knocky door danger.’ And blind man's buff, given how much it's mentioned in a lot of children's stories from ye olden days. Mary in the Secret Garden had to entertain herself by exploring, as nobody in the house was interested in her.

Women learned and played music. Here's dialogue I remember from some period drama, I've forgotten what:
Father: Lady (insert aristocratic name) is going to give you music lessons.
Adult daughter: But I don't want music lessons.
Father: You're going to take them nonetheless.
Daughter: But why?
Father: Because ladies study music, not the crossbow.

@morningtoncrescent62 I know that Hancock episode - and at the end of his long and non-achieving afternoon, he says "I've got another big day tomorrow."

‘I think it’s quite funny that the OP has told us repeatedly that her original post was not about the recent past, or the 20th century, but posters are still piling in to inform us in great detail of what they did as children in the 1980s and declare that they were never EVER bored.’

Well the op should have stated what time she means in her original post. It’s very vague and I’m not surprised people don’t know the time period she is referring to. I haven’t read the entire thread.

You may not have read the whole thread, no, but the OP clarified the time period twice, eight posts before you chimed in again to inform us that you liked getting videos from Blockbuster, and once more to tell us that the game entitled British Bulldog, which I expect that 80% of the people on this thread have read, exists.

Don’t blame the OP for not staying in her original post e.g. ‘the parameters for this question are the time period 1146 to 1878 and the subset of people who were not working 21 hours a day harvesting turnips and darning socks and were thus unable to be bored’.

Not STATING in her original post. Sp in the margin!