It's the 80s and I'm a teenager - is my mother being unreasonable?

[PresidentJoey]

She's just gone mental about the phone bill Apparently I'm not allowed to speak to my best friend on the phone for an hour after school!?? I'm sick of her controlling me!!

Our phone number was only four digits (in 1970s when I was a teenager) and we memorised all our friends numbers. It got more difficult when the exchanges changed and we went to six digits.

Later in the 1980s I had a friend who worked at directory enquiries. She knew most of the area codes too which was really useful.

6pm? You know your father has a BUSINESS to run? You can't have your friends calling you at all hours.

Anyway, got to go, it's Thursday and Fame is on at 8.

Anyway, got to go, it's Thursday and Fame is on at 8.

That's why my dad put a lock on ours! 3 girls - what's a man to do :)

@Watchingyou2sleezes

If you didn't go through the phone book looking for "amusing" names to phone uo and talk shite to. You weren't an older child in the 80s

I remember taking great delight in phoning Mr Belcher and Mr Crapper

Good grief, this thread is full of stuff I'd forgotten I knew... 'Shader and Toners' Dewberry/White Musk, Just Seventeen, Ra-Ra skirts ffs...
God. It was an awful time to be a teen....

When my Great Grandmother first got a phone she'd laugh non stop and ask stupid questions - 'where are you?' 'what's the weather like there?' She lived in the neighbouring village! She'd shout too. The whole idea of telephones totally amused her. Bless.

No calls before 6 unless its life or death!! After 6 mum comes in after 10 mins and tells you to wind it up - then walk 25 mins + to go and see your friend. God I was fit then!!!

Teen from the 90s here! You wait till internet dial-up lands and your mum picks up the phone just to disconnect you.

@opinionminion

You need a phone card and a suitable phone box

In the 80's we didn't have phone cards. It was just a pile of 2p's

@Wilkolampshade

Good grief, this thread is full of stuff I'd forgotten I knew... 'Shader and Toners' Dewberry/White Musk, Just Seventeen, Ra-Ra skirts ffs... God. It was an awful time to be a teen....

No way!

Was the best time to be a teen!

@Wilkolampshade

Good grief, this thread is full of stuff I'd forgotten I knew... 'Shader and Toners' Dewberry/White Musk, Just Seventeen, Ra-Ra skirts ffs... God. It was an awful time to be a teen....

It was brilliant. No social media so you could make your mistakes and not be castigated by total strangers and have them follow you round forever.

We've just had new phones installed. Because we're posh we now have two phones in one house! If I pick up the phone my big DSis isn't using, I can listen in on her conversations. I have to be really careful not to giggle and get rumbled.

Can't believe your DM didn't actually kill you and you lived to tell the tale.
Obviously she owned your every move until you'd paid the Bill with the money from your Woolworths Saturday job.

@Wilkolampshade

Good grief, this thread is full of stuff I'd forgotten I knew... 'Shader and Toners' Dewberry/White Musk, Just Seventeen, Ra-Ra skirts ffs... God. It was an awful time to be a teen....

No, it wasn't. It was a brilliant time to be a teen. The world was our proverbial oyster. We could do stupid things and there would be no record of them. It was fabulous.

@PresidentJoey

She's just gone mental about the phone bill Apparently I'm not allowed to speak to my best friend on the phone for an hour after school!?? I'm sick of her controlling me!!

Yes, my dad locked the upstairs phone and if I was talking to my df he would say Wood has to go and slam the phone down on them😀

Completely agree Martini, ds doesn't believe me when I say we had so much more freedom in the 1980 when, it wasn't necessary to conform in order to get by.

Not like now when people are expected to be a bunch of mediocre beige people with a few well-paid untalented, but 'connected' people telling us what palettes are acceptable for our bi-annually changing "pops of colour".

My parents put a lock on the phone. They didn't however lock the upstairs one, just hid the handset - not very successfully because I knew where it was so all I had to do was plug it in, then return it before they came home

@TheHateIsNotGood

Completely agree Martini, ds doesn't believe me when I say we had so much more freedom in the 1980 when, it wasn't necessary to conform in order to get by.

Not like now when people are expected to be a bunch of mediocre beige people with a few well-paid untalented, but 'connected' people telling us what palettes are acceptable for our bi-annually changing "pops of colour".

So right.

Plus we could have short hair, long hair, pink hair, mullets - whatever. We could be fat or thin, have big tits or small tits, big bum or small bum, or anything in between. There wasn't this identikit look which everyone was supposed to aspire to. There were always bitchy girls who could make something of anyone's perceived weaknesses (I was on the receiving end of this myself for such crimes as having my hair in bunches in the last year of Junior School ) - but you went home and watched Top of the Pops and that was that. Tomorrow was another day.

@Wilkolampshade

Good grief, this thread is full of stuff I'd forgotten I knew... 'Shader and Toners' Dewberry/White Musk, Just Seventeen, Ra-Ra skirts ffs... God. It was an awful time to be a teen....

Nooooooo. It was AMAZING. You could wear what you wanted, style your hair how you liked, wear whatever make up you liked. Males and Females. It was ace.

PS. You missed pedal pushers off the list 🙂

Just Seventeen was a great nag and Ra Ra skirts were dead easy to wear being both short and fun but not particularly sexualised.

I did think the 80’s was a bit about over thinking stuff and quite divisive. Much preferred the music of the 70’s and 90’s.

@VienneseWhirligig

My parents put a lock on the phone. They didn't however lock the upstairs one, just hid the handset - not very successfully because I knew where it was so all I had to do was plug it in, then return it before they came home

I don't remember my parents putting a lock on the phone? 🤔

My dad used to come in to the lounge just as we had got down to the final top ten on Top of the Pops and turn over the channel( by pressing a button on the front of the big square tv). Telling us that as he paid the bill then he get to choose what to watch.

@Lightisnotwhite

Just Seventeen was a great nag and Ra Ra skirts were dead easy to wear being both short and fun but not particularly sexualised.

I did think the 80’s was a bit about over thinking stuff and quite divisive. Much preferred the music of the 70’s and 90’s.

I love my Ra Ra skirt, royal blue with black spots.

Happy days

@Wilkolampshade

Good grief, this thread is full of stuff I'd forgotten I knew... 'Shader and Toners' Dewberry/White Musk, Just Seventeen, Ra-Ra skirts ffs... God. It was an awful time to be a teen....

Shaders and Toners were shit! I once tried Sun In and my mum went ape...