My childhood summers versus my DD’s

[Waitingforseptembernow]

I was born late 70’s, young childhood in the 80’s, teenager in the 90’s
During summer, us kids were left to our own devices, I can’t remember my mum taking us to the park/playground much (very occasionally on a Sunday with my dad)
She never set up activities, did crafts, only baking at Christmas when I helped her make mince pies. Dinner was only made from scratch on a Sunday maybe-roast, lasagna…during the week it was Findus crispy pancakes, chips & beans, salads in summer. My mum didn’t work, I remember she cleaned more than I do (I have a cleaner as hate cleaning and want to spend my time with Dd)
This is not a slagging off my mum post as she is lovely, just a comparison in the effort maybe in parenting then versus now, does anyone feel the same?
I arrange play dates for Dd, we go to the playgrounds, beach, parks, picnics, I do crafts, baking, days out, I’m not complaining, it’s my choice and I enjoy it (I’m very tired though!) just wondering why it’s so different now to then? Did mum’s generally not think or want to do all these things?
I want to be an 80’s mum!

I was born early 60s. We were expected to entertain ourselves most of the time. Very very few organised activities though dad played with us sometimes. Even organised my own play dates (I’m going to play with Claire up the road). Spent most of my time reading, creating fantasy worlds with my dolls, turning up stones looking for ants nests in the garden (they fascinated me), building dams in the stream that ran through our garden.

What's interesting is the focus on mums and the massive expectation that they would keep house and entertain the kids. I think the shift towards thinking that both parents should do this is the biggest change over the generations. My mum worked throughout my childhood (as did my dad) and like some previous posters my summers were a patchwork of visiting various family members - my mum's cousins would take us some days, my dad's family would take us along to their holiday clubs (aunt worked in a library) and we attended a lot of holiday clubs which we loved. Some were a real adventure in the woods. We always went away on a family holiday for the middle 2 weeks of the summer in order to break it all up. My dad very much helped entertained us and cooked for us throughout childhood. And other male family members also helped out - my grandad spent days with us taking us to different parks.

My kids now don't have such a wide group of family members which is sad but they do have a similar childhood (which less playing out in the streets!)