To sit and think my poor grandmother! What would she think?!

[DurableMatts]

It’s 10:30 and so far today my house has been hoovered/mopped by the robot hoover, the clothes are washed and drying…and I have only had to pop the clothes in and press a few buttons. The house is warm and I’ve done nothing for that as it’s on a thermostat.

I am wfh so I get to earn and I still dropped my dc to school.

My poor granny had 10 dc! She had no washing machine so washed everything by hand! She walked the youngest to school and then came home to clean the house, washed the clothes, hung them out if weather permitted, had to light fires to keep the house warm. And she didn’t earn a bloody penny!

she would be in awe at things today 😢 (and yes I’m well aware that a lot of people still have to do a lot of these things these days…I was just thinking about her is all and it got me)

My stepson had pneumonia as a baby and a boy at my school aged 6 got it. Luckily both were ok

I always think this at my time of the month....I have really heavy periods, and every time I use modern sanitary pads...Occasionally tampons I feel so grateful to be a western women in the modern world.

Such an interesting thread. Yes, I often think about these things. I'm part of the first generation of my family to grow up in a house with an inside loo and I was born in the 90s, something which my Gen Z assistant at work finds insane.

I often think of my great grandmother like this too.

My Grandmother is the youngest of 17. Only 11 made adulthood, 7 girls 4 boys. Of the 6 she lost the eldest died at age 7. In addition to her 17, she also raised 3 of her own childrens illegitimate children, from 2 daughters, who my grandmother refers to as siblings rather than neice and nephews. They also had 2 evacuee's during the war.

Not only did she bury 6 children she kept the house, raised the kids, and grew flowers to sell and kept chickens and a few pigs on a small allotment, to sell the eggs and meat, all of which was her responsibility, to supplement income whilst her husband worked, in the colliery.

Poor soul died before 60, she must have been worn out. My grandmother who is 92, often says, I wish my mother was here to see the washing machines and fridge freezers.

Sometime, I think I have such a cheek to moan about how much I have to do and complain that I am tired.

She washed by hand, cooked from scratch, carried buckets of coal for the fire, cleaned with basic products and cleaning tools, made and mended most of the children's clothes, kept the garden, grew her own foods and raised animals. My grandmother says at meal times, she was always the last to start eating and the first to finish.

I most definitely do have a cheek to complain. I wish I could go back and meet her, spend a day in the life of. She died 72 years ago and my grandmother misses her to this day.

What a woman Kitty 'Catherine' was.

We had an outside loo only and no bathroom until I was 9. It was sheer joy to visit my grandparents and to go to the loo indoors in the warm even though they only had Izal loo roll and we had soft loo roll outside at home! And a bath in a bathroom and not in front of the living room fire. And then eventually those shower things you stuck on the taps and prayed one wouldn't burst off half way through.

At age 9 we moved to a council house on an estate with all mod cons. And now I own my own house and have a bathroom upstairs and down!

I am only 60.

Tampons were first marketed by a female businesswoman. Not something many men were personally interested or invested in, but a woman started the first company back in the 40s.

I was saying to my husband this morning about the wonders of modern medicine. I use estriol cream for vaginal atrophy due to lack of estrogen after menopause. My symptoms were utterly awful. Imagine having to struggle through that plus not having all the mod cons to make life so much easier

We had the first fridge in our avenue, I suddenly had a lot of new 'friends' as my mother made Vimto lollies!

I also grew up without mod cons (inside bathroom though) and I frequently say I would wrestle anyone who tried to take away my automatic washing machine!

I don't think that that attitude was restricted to any particular area, I've heard of a number of new widows who were able to improve their lives once their husbands died. One had a new kitchen in the 90s, replacing the original '30s one, after her husband died and the solicitor told her to spend some money or there would be a lot of inheritance tax to pay when she died, she had had no idea how much money they had!

same story here only I am a bit older. There is a downstairs toilet and two bathrooms with toilets in my current house. By coincidence a few years after we moved in here some 30 years ago, a work colleague of my late husband's also moved onto the same estate. When he learned that we lived there too, he said THREE TOILETS!!!
My grandmother got slum clearance rehoused before we did and yes I remember the joy of going round there to bath once a week.

They were very close, my grandad lived to be 85. Maybe it was partly due to my dad being an only child that they were so close? When you only have a very small family it feels important to spend as much time together as possible? (I don’t know how it works in big families!)
Maybe it was just good fortune.
My dad is 82 now, there is still only a handful of us in my family.

I recognise that "different worlds" feeling.

I thought NZ is hot all year round like Australia?

🤣 I thought this when I was 21 and (DH, then boyfriend) took me to meet his family, in September. My suitcase filled with shorts and t-shirts did not cut it in Chch. Why I never asked, I'll never know...I was just so sure it would be warm and sunny 😎

Australia is not hot all year round either!!

I lived a very similar life, though 10 years older than you. Looking back it was a very hard life, but at the time we were contented, and appreciated what we had as we were not aware of how much better off some were!

I don't remember being unhappy precisely but definitely an uncomfortable life.

I was born 1957. When we moved into a brand new house in 61/62 it had no central heating and open fires in the living and dining rooms. I remember ice on the inside of the windows. I used to count the bags of coal into the bunker for my mom. Eventually central heating was installed but not for some years and it was also a few years before we had carpets

I remember the sofa being pulled up right in front of the fire and also drying my hair in front of it as hair dryers were not the norm and not that good. Immersion heater for hot water - very expensive to run

I loved the sofa being pulled up to the fire on winter nights.

Our living room was very small and sometimes got so hot from the open fire that we had to throw the living room door open to let some 'lovely cool air' in. Not something I have ever felt the need to do with central heating tbh - so expensive to run now that I can't bear the doors being left open.

Really? But it doesn't get cold like England though right?

I often think this when I have my slow cooker on, my dishwasher going, my washing machine on plus my tumble dryer. Oh and like you say the heating and boiling hot water! Plus a food delivery and the Amazon man!

Im old and have really great delightful fond memories of my grandmother. We spent a lot of time together. She was born in 1921 so not Victorian herself but being brought by her grandmother, who most certainly was, obviously influenced my grandmother and it went into my childhood. I have great memories of the washing by hand on a Monday, drying on the line, pressing on Wednesday. Daily walks out for food from local shops, no supermarkets. Making and cooking in the afternoon, pastry from hand. I can remember having rags on my hair, a tin bath in front of the fire.

I now do all these things with my young granddaughter, apart from the washing , tin bath and pressing bit lol…but she has a very traditional experience with me…we clean the house, we peg out washing, we walk to our local shops, we cook and bake and some of it is so alien to her, particularly the pegging out washing originally.

i mean in a way thank goodness we’ve evolved but in some cases, how sad too in regard to local shops etc.

Parts of Australia have winters that can go to 0degrees yes

With regard to the local shops thing, lovely if you don't have to do it daily! My mother used to walk to the local market, about 15 minutes there and the same back, every day except sunday (shops closed) because where we lived there were no busses locally. On friday or saturday, she walked around 15 minutes in the opposite direction to go to the local "big shops" where there was more choice and things like a department store and shoe shops. She had to shop daily because there were no fridges and we didn't have a cold larder. We had milk delivered. When we were rehoused to a new build council house, it was lovely to have a proper kitchen larder with a stone slab and a grid to allow airflow and then we got a gas fridge. I think we got some kind of council grant to help with the move so that paid for the fridge but I was around 12 at the time and don't really remember. Oh and my mother used to shop for her mother too because she could no longer walk that far.

I guess I was more meaning that my grandmother, who didn’t drive either and had to shop daily too because of no cold store, knew all her local shopkeepers by name and they knew her. I guess I was just saying that I’m experiencing that too with my granddaughter. I’m lucky I live in London with everything on my doorstep so it is different to someone who doesn’t have those amenities on their doorstep…but my granddaughter is experiencing the “lady on the corner “ of my road talks to her every time she’s out, most of the local shops now recognise my granddaughter/know her name/talk about “our shopping” , her favourite bread/donut/whatever that day with her. I was more meaning it’s a lost art these days really.