It’s 5.30 on the Sunday nights of our childhoods. AIBU to ask you what you are doing?

[StudentProblems]

It is 5.30 on any Sunday night of your childhood. For me it’s approximately 1997. I am having my hair nit combed in the front room, having been told off for not eating all my roast pork. Dad is messing around with the fire because it won’t draw properly. It’s all a bit tense.

What are you doing?

It's the 1980's, I'm sat in front of the electric fire after my Sunday bath. I'm eating cheese on toast and watching Bullseye. If it's not too cold, my dad will take me to the outdoor in my nightie and dressing gown. I get to pick a chocolate bar, we get my mum some cheese McCoys and my dad will treat himself to a nice beer.

@Bluewavescrashing

It's 1992. I'm settling down at home to watch The Borrowers on BBC1. Mum made a roast for lunch and we went to Granny's house in the afternoon for tea and cake. I played with my cousins whilst the grownups talked about boring stuff-mortgages and politics. I was allowed a small glass of coke with my cake. We made dens and played spies. Great times.

Yours sounds lovely!

Learning my spellings for the week while my mum ironed and dad watched some boring Sunday tv. Antiques roadshow springs to mind.

We always went to church at 6pm so I was probably doing some last minute homework ,after we got home from church at around 6.40 ,we would all watch Howard's way,singing Detective etc before bed and That's life with Esther Rantzen!

Early 80's at boarding school. We're all huddled around the radio listening to the top 40! The charts were so important back then.

My sister and I would be having boiled eggs for tea (hard boiled for me, soft boiled for her), with toast, a satsuma and a slice of batternberg cake. We’d be watching one of the BBC adaptations like the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or Five Children and It. My dad would be polishing his shoes for the week, on sheets of newspaper in the kitchen. We’d probably get our hair washed in the bath and blow dried in the living room.

1960s for me. Toasted cheese for tea after the weekly bath (same water for all five kids). We'd watch TV then bed for 7.30.

Eating homemade popcorn apples and cheese. Watching The World About Us on our wooden black and white tv.
If January then probably the parrafin heaters might go on upstairs in our bedrooms just before we go to bed but they were only for when it was v cold - ice inside the windows.

We'd be having a big roast dinner - Mum always said a good meal would get us through the week. Mum & Dad would wash up together - she's since told me this was the only time they got to have a conversation in peace! Then us 4 siblings would have a bubbly bath together, play 'pubs' serving each other beers using the bath rack as our bar, hair wash and then biscuits before bed. Mum would call my grandma for a catch up, on the phone on the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Great memories.

Listening to the charts with a cassette in my mum and dad's swanky stereo, finger on the pause button, ready to press really hard to record my favourite song

Eating my Sunday Sweets

Looking forward to my Heinz tomato soup for tea, which would be followed by a bath and hairwash. Being reminded to dry in between my toes. Then story, prayers and bed. It was lovely.

1980s

Would have gone swimming in the morning so no need for a bath. would have been trying to persuade my parents to let me stay up and watch Dallas or Dynasty.

Late70's
Sat in front of the gas fire in the lounge having tea off the tea trolley, sandwiches, crisps and jelly and carnation milk.
We're watching Ski Sunday or Sale of the Century, my dad keeps getting up to change channels.
After tea I'll walk to the phone box with my mum to phone nan as we do each week, then it's bath and hair wash night.

80s for me. Dad would have spent all day doing some extreme DIY, and would just have had a bath and smell of imperial leather talc. Tea from a trolley - sandwiches, crisps, trifle. Something like The Two Ronnies on TV. Trying to record my favourite songs on cassette from the Charts on Radio 1. Much older brothers getting ready to go out to the pub. Or maybe visiting one of my many great aunts and uncles in ‘the villages’.

We’d have had Sunday lunch at my Nan’s then stayed there until tea time where we’d have had crab paste sandwiches followed by a Lyon’s Victoria sponge and a pot of tea all wheeled in on the hostess trolley.

Once home we’d have a bath, sharing with one of my brothers.

My mum would then lift down the huge mirror from the wall and balance it on a dining chair in front of me while she dried my hair.

I’d then put on my Care Bear nightie which had been warmed on the fire and snuggle up to watch Howard’s Way followed by Bread.

Oh about 1980-84

I'm 7. Watching tv in my dressing gown, sat in front of the fire. I've had my tea and a bath and my cats are stretched out on the rug next to me. My parents are watching tv with me, they are sat on the sofa.

Just finishing afternoon tea (parents have spent the afternoon in the vegetable garden, sister and I have been creating a gymnastics display or magic show in the sitting room). I'm watching Dad put a layer of butter on his bread that's thicker than the bread itself, and I'm eating a rock hard almost sugarless slab that Mum calls a flapjack. We've got to get a move on because 6pm is Evensong at church and we're in the choir (2 services every Sunday). I'm dreading the inedible soup-made-of-bits-of-Sunday-roast for supper.

Bath and hair wash ready for school. Might have been a power cut so candles alight and just sitting in front of the fire.
If not cockles and whelks and the two Ronnies

Early 70's
Sunday night 'tea' which was put on a trolley
Red salmon sandwiches, celery in a glass with water - Dad had the heart separately- cucumber in vinegar in a bowl, tomatoes perhaps if home grown, crisps in a bowl. Other than cake, there maybe a trifle- home made of course
Then dad would go to the 'out door' and buy the ONLY SWEETS I had all week - 10p mix up. He would have Old Jamaica chocolate, mum had fruit and nut chocolate.
Then we would watch the Sunday serial - Onedin line, poldark - whatever it was

Have had my tea. Once the dishes are done, and dried by whichever child’s turn it happens to be, it will be bath night. My hair takes forever to dry sitting in front of the fire.

I’ll already have done my homework and be watching my parents’ choice of TV later. Not sure what was on Sundays, Songs of Praise then something more interesting. (1960s).

Tuning my transistor radio to Radio Luxembourg to get the new Top 20

@colouringindoors

Listening to the charts with a cassette in my mum and dad's swanky stereo, finger on the pause button, ready to press really hard to record my favourite song

Eating my Sunday Sweets

Looking forward to my Heinz tomato soup for tea, which would be followed by a bath and hairwash. Being reminded to dry in between my toes. Then story, prayers and bed. It was lovely.

This reminded me that my dad used to sing to me after my bath: “In between your fingers, in between your toes, in between your fingers, and don’t forget your nose!”

We’d have been to my Grans for Sunday roast lunch and then on to my Grandma”s for tea, which would usually be a tin of red salmon with salad, and trifle. We’d read the comic strips in the Sunday paper and then play with a pack of cards- the only thing to keep us 3 kids amused, desperate to get back to record the Top 40 on the radio.

I'm in the bath. When I get out I will be watching Antiques Roadshow (ew) and having some pudding and going to bed. I love school, so I can't wait to get up and see my friends in the morning. Sunday nights are the best.

Early 2000's.
Bath and hairwash, panicking about homework that should have been done Friday night.
Already dreading Heartbeat coming on, as soon as that's over means it's bedtime. That music still makes me feel sick!