To think that many older people look at the past through rose tinted glasses

[Mammylamb]

I’m on a lot of local chat groups on Facebook, many of which are really interesting.

But every week or so, there will be a post lamenting the good old days when supposedly everything was great and people were just better, men were men, kids were well behaved and women looked after the home(although they had less money)

Every time I see these posts I just get intensely irritated; kids and young people today are not worse behaved than in the past (many young folk seem to have better manners than older people). And the old days were not perfect, child abuse and domestic violence were rife. Men were legally able to rape their wife.

Aibu to get irritated by this

The weather in 76 and 77 was outstanding to be fair to the 70s. A decade which otherwise needs to be forgotten .

No the 1990s was better than the 60s because we had central heating and showers.

Central heating makes a bell of a difference in the UK. And double glazing.

Duvets are great too.

Yes I remember lots of photos of eggs being cooked on pavements in 76.
Showers though were only on the TV.

hell not bell

It was 75 to a lesser extent and 76 that were the great summers according to the internet. Memory does play tricks.

I agree it's annoying😕
(Mind you I am privately nostalgic for the 1970s- I realise this is completely irrational😳🙈)

I am an oldie, mid 70 in age. I don't live in the past as such, by I love lots of my memories from the past. lots of great memories, but also some not so great..

I love writing, so some while ago,I started to document everything I can remember, from about 1944 onwards. I have already filled 11 A4 notebooks.(prefer to write by hand )

If you watch Call The Midwife on tv, I think that gives a good interpretation of life in the era they portray, as I remember it well, despite not living in London, I am originally from Cheshire.

Lots of things were a bit grim in the oldie days, but then lots of things were better. But mainly.because people didn't have too much years ago,they now really appreciate things that are better and more comfortable in life.

Everyone has a right to their personal interpretation of the past. And of the present, for that matter. Who are you to judge whose views are "rose-tinted" or otherwise?

70s Christmases were the best because I was a pre teen!

If I am honest, I find it is young adults who are more likely to think the past was rose tinted.

Karen this is a theme I am hearing.

I don’t think it’s rose tinted spectacles so much as the joy of being young. My parents were in their 20s during the war and looked back on it with nostalgia. The late 60s/early 70s were my golden years. Young, in love, broke and happy.

And they don't believe me when I tell them the reality, usually because their mum and dad tell such lovely stories of how easy their life was in the past.
Newsflash, parents are rarely honest with their own children about their lives. And your parents do not necessarily represent even the average experience back then.
There also seems to be a total lack of understanding of how jobs staus and pay change over time. So I have also heard my dad earned £x in 1960 (a salary that if you look it up was way above average), but was only an ordinary office worker. They don't understand at one time being an office worker at all had status and higher pay, for jobs that have far less pay and status now. Because most lower paid jobs were manual jobs.

My granny raved about the 1920s hair bobbing. 70s hair appalled her.

My MIL was a teenager during the war and found it hugely exciting. Although I suspect from what she has hinted that it was the US servicemen she found most exciting.

Oh so ok you’re agreeing that it wasn’t as easy back in the day. So many people think it’s so so hard now, good for you so thinking that’s not so

Older people find the current stories of stabbings and terrorism and cyber attacks scary so they reminisce, conveniently forgetting we had terrorism in the 70s too, and people used to freeze because they couldn’t afford to heat their homes.

Getting annoyed with the won’t help, they are just scared.

Everything in fashion had gone down since the flapper era, apparently.

The social side they knew was miles better of course. My great gran had gone from working in a factory age 11 to old age in the1970s and always said she had lived through a wonderful age of change. She was brim full of optimism and love for young people despite having a list of life events that could read as multiple traumas.

Yes we had terrorism back then. A distant relative was killed in the Guildford bomb. I remember having to get out of train stations fast because of bomb scares.

And domestic violence was pretty common and accepted more back in the 70s. And of course it was legal to rape your wife, even if you had separated but were not divorced.

Oh yes the GIs!

I agree that no good comes of labelling what others choose to talk about as rose tinted. It is no good seeking offence where none may be intended.

Nearly 60 and you can keep the Passat. It was shit and everything was so hard.

Wish I had been born 40 years later

I got married in 1982 and we have pretty much had a lucky life with DCs who are now grown up and doing very well. I wish we had enjoyed their educational opportunities, we both left left school at 16.

The summers in our teenage years in the 1970s were fantastic. The music we enjoyed was brilliant. As young teenagers we had all the early 70s bands to enjoy.

My DH joined the army in 1977 and I started nursing training the same year. He spent time in Northern Ireland as a young soldier and it was hard for him. I worked in a Belfast hospital as a nurse at the same time. They were difficult times, but our lives together were good in later years.

There is stuff from years ago that was better, certainly it wasn't doom and gloom before the mobile telephone and pc! Yes there were bad things, but there are bad things today like needing two incomes for a modest home when one was sufficient then.

I remember a lot if racism, shocking poverty - a mobile lorry with showers coming to primary school because so many kids were dirty,

^^