What did our mums used to do?

[CantFindTheBeat]

I'm 55

I spend so much of my down time titting around on MN.

I have a great job. Great friends.
But i waste so much time on social media and probably trying to distract myself from reality when I should be doing something productive.

I remember my mum cooking, reading and working but never wasting time.

What do you remember? MN and the like are surely pleasure and curse in equal measure?

I think this is how I feel, @BrandyandGinger - guilty and procrastinating!

Listen to radio 4. It was on all the time when I was growing up. She’d have it on whilst doing stuff in the kitchen and pottering about doing chores and then listen to it whilst having a coffee. She wasn’t much of a tele watcher unless doing the ironing of an evening. She’s in her 80s now and still prefers the radio.

My mum regularly cooked complex dishes from scratch. 'Complex' basically meaning dishes that did not take 20mims prep and then however long cooking with minimal supervision.

She had 20-25 smart cotton shirts to iron and fold every week. No easy-care, drip-dry synthetics. No wonder she taught me to iron shirts as soon as I was old enough.

And nappies were, of course, all terry squares and muslins and plastic pants. Only the youngest of my siblings had disposables.

We had washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher, stand mixer with all the attachments, food processor. As many aids as possible to help.

My mum also ran a successful business from home and was a keen dressmaker and artist.

My mum was a dynamo!

I don't think having mobile phones and Mumsnet would have changed her. Some people just have to be busy.

I'm 32. My mum used to play the playstation or Sega whilst chain smoking 🤦🏻‍♀️

💕💕💕

She sounds like a wonderful woman, @confessionsofacoffeeaddict

sitting in the kitchen drinking tea and talking with her friend for hours every day

My mother worked part time, ran the finances in the family, went to mass daily and kept house. She ironed EVERYTHING. I iron nothing. She went for a daily three mile walk (sometimes to mass). And always cooked from scratch. She read, and she got her masters in her 50s. She didn't watch much TV. My parents entertained a lot. She was a member if several commitees and a huge art fan and my parents spent much time going to shows snd supporting young artists. My life is very pedestrian in comparison.

My Mum worked various part time and then full time jobs as I grew up. She knitted, made our clothes, shopped, baked everything , cleaned the house etc. I would say basically keeping a good home on not much money. This was 60s and 70s. I know that she and my dad used to go to the cinema as I would stay at my Gran's on a Saturday night. I really don't remember her sitting down doing nothing.

Sewing
cooking
tupperware parties
Kays catalogue
sleeping with next door neighbour

My mum used to cook, wash, clean & do the school run during the day & then as soon as my dad came home she was off out to work on the twilight shift at a local tool manufacturers. When we got a bit older she got a job in an office so she would deliver my brother to school & then go off to work 9.00am - 1.30pm, do the shopping on her way home, pick my brother up from school, get tea ready for when my dad got home & do everything else in between, washing, ironing & cleaning. She would normally sit down by 7.00pm.

My Mum read a newspaper every day, which is a good chunk of time doing something I don't do.
She did also do ironing sometimes - again, something I don't do - and we all wore formal shirts to school from when we were little (which my dc didn't do) and my Dad wore a shirt and tie to work every day (and at weekends, tbf) which my dh never does.
Then we had potatoes with most meals - which need peeling - whereas I am much more likely to reach for the pasta or rice.
She did go to bed earlier than me.
She would write letters to people sometimes.
She would chat on the phone to her Mum, and to her sister, which I never do.

Drinking alcohol, religion, hallucinations and DV were my DMs usual activities.

Mine was a SAHM. She did everything in the house. My dad worked and did the garden. I remember my mum reading a lot and if I spoke to her, she would place her finger on the sentence she was on, and look up in annoyance. She spent a lot of time walking the dog.

that would be too expensive these days with energy costs have you seen how much electricity the iron uses!
I remember my mum reading the newspaper, take a break and woman magazine or watching TV. To be honest she did much more housework and was much more house proud than me and she worked part time. I don't actually remember her having much downtime to be honest. We didn't do much together though other than I'd go shopping with her which I found boring as a child.

Well that's certainly engaging, @FernsAndFlowers. Was it a shock when it came out?

Lots of cleaning,cooking,ironing,washing. Whole afternoons of watching telly ,mostly soaps and telenovelas(I learned Spanish that way ) .

Some reading and cross-stitch at times.

My mum worked, came home, cooked and cleaned. After tea her and dad (and me when younger) would go for long walks (often 5/6 miles in the evening).
When they got home Dad would watch TV and mum would knit or read. She was always always busy. I would love one more day of her like that - she's 82 now and doesn't do much at all following lockdown.

everything took longer, fabric needed more attention (mending) layering of winter wear, drying mitts and socks.
walking to the shops or public transport that ran only a few times a day.
more tasks that required time, bills, writing checks, posting the payments.
generally no dishwasher or driers.
higher expectation of cleanliness and complete meals
homes and the finishings equally needed more care, waxing and buffing floors, polishing woodwork, carpets....

I dont remember her ever wasting time. I know that she cleaned almost to the point of obsession but I think it was more about not being lazy rather than a fear of dirt. "What will the neighbours think?!" She is a classic Boomer who was born working class but became default middle class and was desperately trying to fit in with all the other MC mums on our street, who she later found out were doing the same. They would have had a far easier time of it if they had all just sacked it off rather than worrying about being judged by each other! My father worked shifts so she struggled to find a job that could accomodate my sister and I until we were about 12 ish. Also he ran the local Sea Cadets (she would often say that he spent more time with other peoples kids than his own, and looking back she was right) and also organised the local regatta. He was barely at home and when he was, he was asleep.

Now my father (retired on medical grounds) does all the housework and cooking by his choice and she spends her day reading the papers, watching TV and napping. She says she has earned it and tbh I agree!

My mother who is now 86 had a professional occupation . She worked part time and was always there when we got home from school . The rest of her time was spent cooking , shopping and taking us to our hobbies like sports and girl guides etc . We had a local lady who came in for a few hours every day to do some cleaning etc but my mum was totally hands on with childcare ( 5 children) . I don’t recall her sitting down reading magazines etc

Watch TV. Read books and Woman’s Weekly. Bake. Knit. Do crosswords.

Mine sat in an armchair watching tv, eating chocolate and smoking.

She got diabetes and lung cancer and died in her 50s, unsurprising really.

My mum was as lovely as could be. Mum worked in a transport cafe, my dad worked for the local authority as a bin man. Dad was lovely too but when I was 20 in 1981 he was diagnosed with 'pre senile dementia'. Long story short - my dad Eric was admitted to a mental hospital. He somehow escaped and was found a couple of miles away in a school staff room. It was covered by local tv. I have never recovered from it.

My mum died when I was 13 and she was 56. I only remember her cooking and cleaning, shopping, she used to make wine from bruised fruit she begged off the market traders at closing time. All her cooking was amazing and she had a collection of antique cookery books she used to pour over, which I still have. At some point she must have been painting and writing because after she died I found her work was all over the house, including songs she's sent in to the Beatles and had the replies from the publishers etc., but anyway, everything just took more time, we had no car and in the school holidays she'd take me for outings on the bus. Dad was a heavy drinker so he was more or less out of the picture.

She worked part time at my school, did gardening, never saw her read but we had so many books in the house so maybe she did and I never noticed. Every Thursday night she'd go to bingo which I think was her only "space" to escape. I'm 60 now and think of her every day - I reckon she'd be aghast at my life, all that leisure and opportunity and I use it on Mumsnet!

My grandma would read, crochet, watch all the soaps every day, garden and grow all their fruit and veg, chat on the phone, and smoke, smoke, smoke.

My mum worked full time but after work would go to the gym, go shopping, play in a bowling league, and paint. She didn’t cook dinner or do much cleaning.