To think the past is being misrepresented on here?

[ChilliLips]

Not all the time obviously but didn’t want a waffly title.

I feel like lately I’m seeing a lot of posts describing a past I don’t recognise. Apparently schools used to be relaxed, have no rules, fewer demands. Whereas I’m sure I remember uniform inspections, SATS, end of year tests, mocks, weekly spelling tests at primary, Saturday detentions, and don’t forget the worst punishment of all - the CHAIR!

I have also seen a few posts saying conditions now are much worse resulting in poorer mental/physical health, hence a spike in disability. But again - can this be true? The world wars wounded, no antenatal tests, jobs like coal mining, loads of smoking/drinking, polio and measles… I’m sure there were a lot of people disabled with conditions they wouldn’t have now.

And finally that everyone was wealthy and lived in massive houses. Nobody I know who grew up in the 50s/60s have tales of luxury, I’ve heard all sorts of horrors including ice on the inside of windows, smog in the air, kids sleeping 4 to a room.

Particularly interested in answers from those alive then! I’m mid 30s.

Although Uni was free for us whereas now it costs a fortune, the maintenance isn’t enough to cover the high rents these days and students pay 9% interest on the loan

I went to uni when it was free, plus a living grant that enabled you to live as a (very poor) student. I will eternally be grateful for that.

On the flip side, certain specialties were (unofficially) completely off limits to females. There was no ‘no women’ policy but also no chance whatsoever of any woman getting a training spot in certain specialties, and there was absolutely zero you could about it. I know of women my age who retrained in other specialties later once the environment changed but they had remained single or no kids and had the time and $$ behind them to do it. I didn’t as had kids so didn’t have time/resources to do it, but had landed pretty well in something, but would not have been my first choice initially.

Born in 1953. UK in the grip of post war austerity.i remember a friend getting a tv, with a tiny screen, about 6 inches square, and inviting neighbours round to watch it. No central heating. Dad would get up first to light a coal fire. No double glazing so, yes there was ice on the inside of the windows, frozen condensation. The tile surround of the fireplace got hot, and I loved putting my feet on it to warm them. It was good to see improvements. Mum used to do all the washing on a Monday. The earliest I remember was a top loading washing machine with a mangle attached and a separate spin dryer. We didn't have a fridge, a pantry, so shopping was a daily nevessity. We dud have a vacuum cleaner, but no fitted carpet so the carpet could be taken up and hung over the washing line a beaten every now and again. Coal fire, so lots of coal dust. Things did impove as new equipment came in. I remember when freezers started ti become available and stand alone freezer shops, selling frizen food and freezers started to open. I left school in 1972, after A levels. Only a small % went to University, so I left home and moved 100 miles to London for work. Lived in a hostel with 4 in a room, all strangers, then moved to a flat with shared rooms as we couldn't afford to have separate rooms.i can't remember if we couldn't afford heating, or we preferred to spend our money in the pub, but we thought it was warm if you couldn't see your breath when you got up. Inflation in the 70s hit over 20% and unemployment over 3 million. DH and I managed to buy a tiny flat as first home. But it was an hours commute from our jobs, couldn't afford anything nearer. Couldn't afford a car, so commuted by bus. No furniture, so spent £5 on a second hand cooker, and another fiver on a second hand sofa bed. Just after we moved in we got an unexpected bill for £60, which was a fortune, so we both got part time jobs in the local pub to pay it. That was hard, but we got to know a few locals from that so it helped us settle in. We got married just as we bought the flat, no money so our honeymoon was a week in a flat above the clubhouse on a Caravan park in Westward Ho! It is still there, called Broddicks. It was shite, August and rained. But very memorable as on the Tuesday Elvis died, and the caravan park was full of aging Ted's reading their papers in tears. This was well before karaoke was a thing, but for the rest of the week the entertainment was cancelled and replaced by tearful old people (old to us, they were probably in their 30s and 40s) getting up and singing their fav Elvis numbers it was bizarre. I think shortly after we married mortgage rates hit 17% There were few fixed rates then, and most mortgages were only available from building societies. There used to be a monthly meeting of the societies to determine mortgage rates, and we used to dread the news that the rate was going up again. It used to take effect immediately. As others have said, there were lots of benefits, fewer bills for starters, no mobile phone contracts, no streaming bills, no subscriptions that you can't get out of. Houses were cheaper, but we bought a new build after our flat, no central heating, the kitchen was just a formula worktop held up by a metal pole, the garden was a bit of top soil spread over the ground with just wire fences separating ours from the neighbours. So a lot more basic than today's. There is no way we could have contemplated buying a property on just one wage. It took both our full time wages to pay the bills with not a lot left over.

The past is always seen with rose-tinted glasses.
Those yobs harping for the 'good old days' never seem able to define which era they want to return to... pre-nhs/antibiotics?, when men and women were disenfranchised? When we hard lords and serfs? When we had no sanitation? No real means of transport? Working in service because of one's station in life? No free education?...

One thing I'm absolutely 100% certain about is that the music in the 70's, 80's and 90's - pre- Simon Cowell era - was amazing. Music now is completely trashed. Hence why there are radio stations named after those decades, because the music was so great.

Home buying was MUCH easier in the 80s - 00s but has become progressively harder because of the growth in population, home grown and immigration. Basic supply and demand.

You ignored wage stagnation & changes to lending after the 08 crash plus QE which inflated assets

I'm 60. Growing up we had no car - we walked everywhere - miles every day in all weather. We had no phone until I was 17, no central heating ( ice inside windows at home and at uni halls, where men and women also queued to use the mixed sex shower cubicles - no en-suites.)

Mental illness was untreated and neuro diversity or SEN just name called by pupils, teachers and parents: thicko, weirdo, lazy, clumsy etc.

Sexism was appalling. My mum wasn't 'allowed' a job by my dad, as it would emasculate him, even though we were always in debt and she cried herself to ssleep. Bosses pawing you was just a fact of life.

These days luxuries are way cheaper and basic essentials arealmost out of reach. I think the rocketing cost of housing is immoral and should have been controlled in 1980s.

I think this thread has highlighted one of the major differences. For those who grew up in a slum, 4 to a room, ice on the windows, no food etc the majority won't be living like that now & they will have grown up and been able to get a secure job & housing. Whereas now if you grow up in poverty it's harder to escape & your chances to own a home depend on whether your parents did. It's becoming more important than income.

"in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, home ownership rates for 30 year olds with parental property wealth were – at 40 per cent – twice that of young people whose parent did not own a home."
"This gap has since grown so that recent home ownership rates for 30 year olds with parental property wealth are – at 25 per cent – almost three times that of those without parental property wealth."
"As well as greater home ownership, young people with high levels of parental wealth are 74 per cent more likely to have a degree than those without parental wealth, and typically earn over £500 more per month . Both of these factors increase your chances of home ownership."

we took a bus back from primary school, not with parents, just children
there was the cane for the boys

@loadalaundry The changes to borrowing rules post-08 simply involved going back to the rules that had existed in the 70s and early 80s. They weren't new. Maximum 3x man's income, maybe 1.5x woman's income. No exceptions.

The difference for us was education. We went to university and things turned around in our generation. I didn't come from anything resembling wealth. Quite the opposite.

@Meadowfinch I was responding to the post that it only got harder in the 00s because of population growth. That isn't true.

Changes to deposit sizes, interest only, lack of MIRAS. That had an impact

@farmlife2 but education doesn't seem to be having that impact today.

I think it can but I think you need to be more careful about what area you choose to study if you want it to lead to a well paying career.

well the information I posted was showing that parental wealth & if they own a home determines life incomes more than job these days but there will always be exceptions. My point was that is a big change.

I'm 51 I went to a very strict convent primary school itcwas highly academic so I remember, homework and tests it was also in a very middle class affluent area and it was like being in a little bubble starting secondary school albeit a Catholic one was a big culture shock we didn't have SATS but I remember Richmond tests ?
Both my parents worked for the Gas Board ,so did OK compared to a lot a families in the 80,s a lot better than I ,m doing, tbh
And we had yearly holidays abroad.

I think it's a bit of a change too that people really want to own a house. All the generations before me have been renters. My parents eventually bought the house we lived in when I was a young teenager, but rented up till that point. There will be no inheritance from them, which is fine as it's not important to me. Maybe parental owning of a home increases the expectation or drive to own a home too?

I think the days are also gone where almost everyone stayed in one home for most of their life, or certainly all their children's lives. People are more mobile in the global economy, which also leaves a bigger chunk not wanting to own a home that ties them down.

Born late 70s - had such a happy childhood that I wouldn't swap for the world. We owned our house but lived across from a small estate with loads of families. We played out in the road and our front gardens til dark - football, British bulldog on bikes. I think our initials are still carved in the tree that was our 40:40 base. I'd be with friends from 8am til 8pm.

Eating out was a massive treat. I remember going to Pizza Hut when I passed my 11+ (which I didn't know I was taking til the day and hadn't prepped for). This was a big thing.

Sundays were for family - church, pub, roast dinner and then homework. The only shops open were garden centres.

My mum was a SAHM. She went back to work when I started secondary school. I loved having her at home when I came home from school. She could always come on school trips and our house was calm and organised. And yes you could buy a house in the south east on one middle manager's salary.

Christmas and birthdays were very special as that was the only time you got stuff. Going to the paper shop with 10p to buy a mix was also very exciting.

I guess I was lucky in that we weren't on our bones, my parents were healthy and functional, but I honestly don't think I am romanticising it. I hate the instant, comnercialism of today, social media pressures. Really feel for our youth.

I think it's a bit of a change too that people really want to own a house. All the generations before me have been renters

I think that's obvious why though. Less social housing plus the fact rent today is often the same or more as a mortgage but it's insecure. Why wouldn't you rather pay your own mortgage off? I think people just want security & home ownership is a way of achieving that.

home ownership has reduced amongst the young so I presume you mean anecdotally that generations before you were renters?

I think the days are also gone where almost everyone stayed in one home for most of their life, or certainly all their children's lives.

I'm not sure what period you are comparing too but younger people today take less moves because they get on later & the costs of moving eg stamp duty.

Before 2008, homeowners moved, on average, 3.6 times, after buying their first property
In recent years, the slower pace of buying and selling suggests they will move, on average, 1.8 times over their lifetimes

Of course renters probably have to move frequently

People do move more for work these days than they used to. Those who have an expectation of this tend to rent rather than be tied to a house.

When I say generations before me, I'm talking about my family.

Yes, that was one thing that got to me when we couldn't buy a house even though we could afford the mortgage. The rent is the same as the repayments would be, so it seemed unfair that we couldn't buy, given we had a track record of being reliable payers. I guess the banks want the deposit margin for their security?

I know plenty of people who rent because they like that any repairs aren't their responsibility and they like that they can move whenever they want. I myself prefer to own because it means that I can't be told to move at the landlord's whim.

This nostalgia for a supposedly "family friendly" era is one of the things I find hardest about Mumsnet at the moment. People banging on about when it was easy to buy a home for tuppence ha'penny, no one needed to work two jobs, children were playing out all the time, gamboling in streams and scrumping apples as mum baked wholesome dinners and dad went out to do honest work to put food on the table. It's like being in a Hovis ad all the time: a massive cringe-filled distortion of reality.

I was at primary school in the 70s and I had a fairly normal and relatively affluent childhood but there were things that went on in those days (as documented extensively here) which would make people's hair stand on end now.

It's really expensive to buy a house these days, yes. And at the moment costs are high for things. That doesn't mean it's the worst era ever to grow up in. Anyone with the most glancing knowledge of history would understand that for all its challenges this is one of the safest and most prosperous eras to live through. Children's life expectancy is longer than ever. The risk of dying in childbirth from an infectious disease is lower than at any point in history. Women have protections under the law from exploitation and abuse which they didn't have until the early 1970s. And people who moan about women having to work would do well to remember that until the 1970s in Ireland married women were actually prohibited from working. The 70s were grim economically and there was a civil war in Northern Ireland. The 80s were better economically but our disposable income was far far lower than today. People who went on foreign holidays were considered wealthy.

Notwithstanding the cost of living crisis people are better off these days on most measures than they ever have been. I wish people would remember this before launching off into yet another "it was all better in the 80s" screed. It really wasn't.

@Thepeopleversuswork I thought living standards were declining?

We never recovered from the 08 crash & the shit has now hit the fan.

When I left home ,to do my teacher training degree in 1984 ,the mortgage interest rate was 12%. My father's salary meant that they had to give me a set amount( which was a real struggle for them) They had my 2 teenage brothers still living at home. It was a very hard time for them and I could only look in absolute envy at fellow students who had flats with heating and washing machines. Our flat was so cold the water in the toilet bowl would freeze. We had strip washes , where you expose the tiny bit of yourself you need to wash but keep everything else covered. Once a week we'd go into the biggest hall of residence and have a bath. Couldn't afford to fill the bath in the flat. The cooker worked if you put 50p in the meter. Lovely flat in the summer. Awful from October to April.