Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

256 replies

AthenaisdeRochechouart · 13/08/2018 19:04

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?

OP posts:
Nettletheelf · 13/08/2018 23:15

I’m reading a book set in the 14th century just now (part of ‘shabby chic’ decor in holiday house, suspect last read in 1956) and the routine of the lord’s lady, yawn!

Supervising servants and making sure that the table was laid properly and guests served in the proper order. Whilst wearing a godawful coif and wimple. The men get to do all the exciting stuff, like planning the return of Robert the Bruce, whilst she sits silently making sure that the servants bring enough ale.

Also, praying. Lots.

They may not have lived as long as us, but I bet it felt like it!

llangennith · 13/08/2018 23:17

They talked to each other.

Nettletheelf · 13/08/2018 23:19

I would stab myself with my own darning needle (I’m projecting myself back to 1805 here, I haven’t really got one) if I had to spend all day talking!

AdaColeman · 13/08/2018 23:22

We didn't have a TV until I was about 14, but I don't remember being bored.

Things I used to do in the evenings were knitting, (sewing was mostly done in daylight) playing chess or card games, reading books and newspapers and I got National Geographic every month, listening to the radio, listening to music, school homework of course, household chores like the dishes or ironing, writing letters to relatives and pen friends, and lots of chatting with parents.

Although today's technology seemingly links people together and makes contact easy, in some ways it makes people more isolated, the teenagers playing games rather than take part in family events for example, or couples out for a meal checking their phones continually.

MinaPaws · 13/08/2018 23:23

I was thinking the opposite the other day - thinking how way too much leisure time so many people have these days and how bored we all are to be filling it with trash like online games. I was imagining how fulfilling life must have been when you grew your own veg, raised your own pigs and lambs, sewed your own clothes, made your own cheese, bread, jam, soap and candles, built up a big fire to sing and tell stories round, improvised plays and carved dolls for the kids. It was probably hellish and tough but it sounds good to me.

HemanOrSheRa · 13/08/2018 23:27

Just today I was thinking about how badly we wrecked our house when we were kids. Board games and reading only go so far. We used to play with incense, candles and matches! Plus science experiments... in the bathroom. Hehe Morris. I was thinking about this recently too. When we were kids we went to the local abandoned waste land, where we were all forbidden to go, obviously, smoked nicked fags and read porn mags that we'd found in the bushes. After we'd wrecked the house Grin.

We also rode our bikes. Played marbles and hop scotch, roller skated with those crappy lace up skate things. It was ACE!

Katedotness1963 · 13/08/2018 23:28

HollowTalk

I'm sure they never considered paying to have electricity put into a tied cottage.

PrivateParkin · 13/08/2018 23:31

I was thinking about this kid of thing the other day OP.
I'm really good at juggling Grin (what a great life skill!) , and it's all thanks to having no internet/only 3 TV channels as a kid. Well when I say juggling I mean "two balls" Grin if anyone else grew up in Liverpool in the 80s?! I was showing my DS the other day, and he just kept asking how I'd learnt it, and I just said it's basically because I spent so much time playing out and that's what we used to play. (I was always in the library as well, or re-reading my Enid Blytons). If we'd had internet, I'm sure I'd have no juggling skills and have read a lot less, no doubt about it. Now I just spend so much time online, or watching downloaded films/programmes/listening to podcasts etc. I think it's an interesting question OP.

Cuppaorwine · 13/08/2018 23:33

God childhood in the 70s was ace as long as you all stuck together and knew the local weirdos now called paedophiles.

Seriously anyone as s kid in the 70s knew and smelt danger.

Rope swings, swimming in lakes, teachers driving you in their cars to events, all day cricket and netball in school no national curriculum no sats no ofsted and better results, Happier kids, maybe Wink

Skittlesandbeer · 13/08/2018 23:33

I have more trouble trying to figure out how people can ever say they’re bored nowadays.

The only person I know who can legitimately say that to me is my 97yo grandmother. Once mobility problems kick in, life does get more boring.

Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow · 13/08/2018 23:34

I think the reverse OP

My ancestors were shepherds. There were apparently violins hung on the walls of many cottages for impromptu get togethers. There was more community life. Smaller villages the norm. Even my mum who grew up with no TV collected stamps, embroidered, read voraciously, enjoyed classical music, dancing and remembers their constantly being a neighbour in fir cups of tea about anything from the issues in the local mining community to communism!

I don’t think people are more happy now TBH

myusernameisbob · 13/08/2018 23:34

So glad Jane Austen didn’t have access to Netflix.

Cuppaorwine · 13/08/2018 23:35

I can juggle too!! 3 balls my dad taught me! It’s honestly my only skill one handed!

liverbird10 · 13/08/2018 23:40

What an ignorant question. Confused

SleightOfMind · 13/08/2018 23:40

We’re going camping in a rainforest next week. I haven’t fully explained to DH and DS1 that there’ll be no WiFi.

I’m hoping the adjustment period is closer to 48 hrs than 72

PrivateParkin · 13/08/2018 23:42

Sorry OP I've now read the whole thread and seen the type of olden days you meant Blush Still, I enjoyed reminiscing about my youth!!

Cuppa I've never managed 3 for more than a few seconds - am well impressed!

Gwenhwyfar · 13/08/2018 23:42

"In this country, Sunday morning would have been spent at church. So only really Sunday afternoon off."

There was a morning service, then Sunday School, including for adults, then an afternoon service and also sometimes long walks to get there so quite a lot of Sunday was taken up with going back and forth to church.
As others have said the rest of the week was work and chores. People did also use to visit others in the evenings and make their own entertainment.

Catspyjamazzzz · 13/08/2018 23:43

I think people went to church because they were bored, something to do and people to see and an excuse not to do anything for an hour.

CSIblonde · 13/08/2018 23:47

If you were wealthy: books, sewing, music, hunting, fishing, church, visiting or staying with friends, parties. Poor: manual work, chores, church,cheap taverns/booze.

BackforGood · 14/08/2018 00:11

So, OP,, can you tell us how long ago you are talking ? Then we can be more helpful with the answers.

Mookatron · 14/08/2018 00:14

People of my class were mainly just scrubbing, I think.

BlueberryPud · 14/08/2018 00:46

They were infinitely more accomplished than we are today

There was so MUCH to do, if you wanted to. At that time, nobody could envision a life played out solely on a screen.

I'm only going back to the 60s, but we were never bored!
Of course we had a radio, but no TV. My much older brothers taught me how to play draughts and Chess and Pontoon and Brag (we gambled with matchsticks) And we played 'Patience' and 'Clock Patience' They read to me.They took it in turns to read 'War of the Worlds' It scared the shit out of me but I loved listening as much as they enjoyed reading it to me.
When we walked in the door, home from school, or work, there was no telly, or mobile phones, or social media to attend to, so we actually talked to each other. As unbelievable as it might sound, none of this was boring. There was usually a radio comedy on come the evening, which we might turn on. My older brothers would probably go out and meet up with their mates. My Mam and Dad might walk down to the pub if it was a warm night, and I'd play with all the other kids whose parents had done the same.
If it was winter, I'd maybe go for tea with Mum's mate up the street, or they would come to our house. Or maybe I'd just play imagination games with Mam. And then when my brothers got home they would enliven my life with reading comics and stories with me. And teaching me how to play Chess etc. . .
And books. . . . every Monday and Thursday me and Mam would walk down to the Library to get our books. I've recently visited the Library I went to as a child 40 years ago, and the entire Childrens' Library that then existed is now a row of grey plastic desks inhabited only by a sad row of computers. And the adult Library is much depleted. I remember it as a place of peace and quiet and thoughtfulness, where silence was respected. Now there are kids running round with sticky lollies and having 'meltdowns' And rolling around on the floor having tantrums. In my era, this was not the norm.
The children were not scared into silence or ill treated, or threatened with violence. It's just innate in a well brought up child that they behave in a civil manner. It's not that hard.
There was so MUCH to do, if you wanted to. At that time, nobody could envision a life played out solely on a screen. Life was just what happened, right in front of you. You went to a hen night, or a party, or anything, and you could just relax and enjoy it.
Now, any social gathering is only as good as the pictures on Facebook.

It makes me feel very glad that I'm in the exact right age group to know how it is to live until adulthood without even a telly let alone a smartphone. And now I have a smartphone, Netflix, Amazon Prime,
and all manner of apps on my phone that I will never in a million years be arsed to use.

And I've managed to adapt! And learn how to use it all. Oh YES!!
I am an older person who is tech savvy.
But I'm doing that with well established experience of normal human interaction. I don't think that's being nurtured in our children.

For example. I will not have mobile phones at my dinner table.
Unless one of the party has a child in a special care unit.

It's a rule in my house. If you are going to sit down and eat the dinner I just spent 2 hours cooking for you, then you leave your phone where you cannot hear it.

HerRoyalNotness · 14/08/2018 00:49

God my grandma had 13 kids and was a farmers wife. No time for being bored with all that carry on.

BlueberryPud · 14/08/2018 02:41

God my grandma had 13 kids and was a farmers wife. No time for being bored with all that carry on

She may not have had an easy time of it, and bloody hell! 13 kids!

Still. I'd choose that over the isolation that results from being glued to a smart screen and 'social media'
Experiencing real life is a dying art. Really very sad. I'm grateful that my children are in their very late twenties and have experienced both not having a TV, and having TV piped in 24 hours.

Fortunately, they find TV boring in comparison to other social opportunities. Go out and do something. And leave your phone at home.

Gottokondo · 14/08/2018 04:40

I have copies of letters that family members wrote in 1880's- 1930's. It wasn't all cute flapper dresses and fun for them. They were poor with a very little farm that didn't make much money. They talk about being poor, or if they had a gift of money how they spent it, and it wasn't on fun stuff. They talk about one of them feeling poorly and wanting to eat more protein but they couldn't afford to feed them an egg a day so they kept feeling poorly. They also warn the recipients about behaviour, being good and talk about the bible and hell.