To think the younger MN generation would be shocked at things we did decades ago...

[Allonthesametrain]

It was such a different time, before the days of hand gel, smartphones, ordering online, house cctv, awareness etc.

This is from a background of a good home with values, DF worked hard, DM did everything for us 3 DC and also worked early before we got up and during school hours when we of that age.

Things we would do...

All 3 have a bath together every night when young, also go into after bath DF or DM.

Most clothes were hand me downs/passed on from friends and neighbours and anything new was for a special occasion.

If we wanted anything special we had to wait until Christmas or birthdays and were delighted and grateful

Lucky to have a house phone, it was in the hall way so no privacy and a shout how long are you going to be on there if you rang out

Bedrooms were sparse, we put colour on our walls with posters we got from magazines

Fun time meeting your friends, on foot or bikes, roller boots, usually at the school you've been at all day because it was known and had no big fences around it.

We collected tapes, later CDs, which we listened to over again and had to rewind, also recorded from friends on a double deck

Recorded our favourite songs from the radio, had to pause before next one to not include the DJ's blitherings

Young teens, oldest looking member of group bought a couple of 2L cheapest cider, we all drank from

Pubs, rarely enough loo roll, we never thought to bring our own, wipe by hand or drip dry

Need a wee, you went anywhere

You walked to meet your friends then walked/staggered back, split up on way to walk on your own as girls

You didn't dare argue with a teacher, even when it was unfair as a good student

If you went to university it was a shared bathroom and kitchen between 12, one tine fridge, old pans. Then when you moved out to house share the furniture was from the 1940s, mattresses had springs sticking out, slugs were a normal practice to put outside.

You qualify, get your own first flat, most basic furnished, the slug relatives are there, you still have to go to the laundrette as no washing machine. Single glazing, you put your own film up to help.

This was if lucky, friends from less privileged areas and backgrounds were left to roam, hungry, sniffed glue, caused chaos, were always dirty, same clothes every day. When 'naughty' they were beaten by their parents and disrespected, often hit by teachers.

Things have progressed so much but there are still many living this life within their homes.

So, with the observation of MN posts about things like should I be upset about DC not being offered his favourite food at lunch time just seems so trivial compared to the reality of us as older parents.

Are younger parents picking arguments about what could be deemed as insignificant just because they can now on SM?

Yeah, I know, I will seem as a dinosaur, but Im not. Basic values need to come from home, which we as gen X experienced growing up. When you're a young child and all you know is instant gratification from screens then this is their norm, then going forward their DC. Not saying all parents do this, of course not, but sadly many do.

My point? Oh yes, growing up in harsher times, which wasn't ideal at all but it was what it was and now we appreciate the positives of now, but without knowing what it was like before is it difficult to appreciate and not succumb to a lazier way of parenting?

All I did was sleep when we first got central heating. The joy of it being on before bed and before I got up. I can remember girls used to sleep in their school uniform to avoid having to put it on in the cold.

My dc are late teens early 20s. Three in the bath together bought them loads of fun and me some down time. No harm done. And lots of hand me downs too.

I have a distinct memory of loads of kids having greasy hair.
I can remember when Brookside first came out and I was banned from watching it.
So watched it in my mate’s.
There were two lads called Ducksie and Gizmo who looked like they’d been dropped in chip fat.
Not like my beloved Damon Grant with his lovely shiny flicked fringe.

You take for granted these little things. You sometimes come across them when talking to people who grew up abroad or in very different circumstances. But as a general rule having a shared cultural background matters. Conversations in the workplace about silly things like the Soap Storyline or a movie franchise can be real socio-economic bridges. They enable a huge amount of small talk.

I would argue it gave my cousins more time to study and be academic, but those cultural references were massive and continue to be significant in terms of relating to others and shared common cultural history and social connections.

It impacted on them hugely. We noticed it more than my Aunt and Uncle who were rather oblivious to the impact tbh.

I think one thing that would surprise many younger people was how shops almost all closed by 6pm, except on maybe one evening a week. If you ran out of milk, you could not go out to get any at 9pm.

Dad sending us to the shop for his fags, no questions asked. Said fags were smoked indoors or in the car with us 4 kids in the back with no seatbelts. Even if we were going on our yearly holiday to Ireland to see grandparents so driving from London to Swansea for the ferry.

There would be much that younger people would find difficult to comprehend comparative to today.
No central heating. No internet. Three then four channels on the TV. No TV remote. Almost everything was different. From food eaten, shopping, education, working life. Travel. And the population was so much less. Far more space, fewer buildings.
It is a shame as I don’t think people who did not experience the past find it easy to understand what it was like.
The one thing that I do find disconcerting with the younger generation is the immediacy of things. It has evolved that if something happened yesterday there is no interest. A lack of curiosity about yesterday. That wasn’t the case with past generations. But it seems to be so now. Which is alarming.

So you find yourself in a stall and realise belatedly after a wee there is no loo roll. And you no one in the stall next door wants to 'spare a square'

Options-
Cardboard of the used loo roll
Shake it
Hand wipe then hand wash
Other?

I don't think the pub loo roll situation is era specific. I always try to have a packet of tissues in my bag, and it's not because I have a particularly snotty nose!

A lot of this is very age dependent though. I’m not young & we had central heating, remotes etc.

Well yes, of course. I am talking about the 70’s. And as the years edged onward more people did have central heating etc. …

Is that right? My dad always fitted child seats and seatbelts to our cars, and even my grandparents cars had child seats / seatbelts belts in. And that was in the 70s. By the 80s we were old enough to wear adults seat belts, or at least that what we had to use. Sure, they weren’t rear facing isofix mounted child seats, but I distinctly remember the 4 point britax seatbelts that were in all of our cars. It was the same for most of my friends as well as I recall. But at the same time it was not unusual for someone or more than one to travel in the boot of an estate car if there were more children than seats!! I suspect, like many things, it was a function of class and economics as much as generation.

I was born in 1990 and we shared baths (until we got older), often njst on a Sunday, and had hand me down clothes! We didn't have a lot of money though.

I’m Gen X and recognise it. I grew up in a poor household though. Ex mining village in Scotland. 4 people in a 2 bed council house

We had a Trimphone! It was the very height of modernity.

Our neighbours had a parrot, and he used to mimic the ring of the Trimphone so well that my mum would often stop what she was doing and go to answer the phone only to find it was the parrot...

I was born in '55. Wednesday was half-day closing, so you couldn't get anything after 1.00om, or 5.30 or 6 on weekdays. And the only shop open on Sundays was the newsagent, which back then only sold papers, cigarettes and sweets.

Pubs closed in the afternoons, too, if you wanted to drink all day, you had to do it at home.

@Allonthesametrain "need a wee, you went anywhere". Love this. Reminds me of a David Bowie concert I went to at Milton Keynes Bowl. There's a long queue of women and girls forming a line down a muddy field next to a line of stinky portacabins that are the toilets. They're waiting forever. Behind this is a dense wood. You can probably guess where I went to the toilet.

I was born in 59. Family was reasonably affluent. Still we definitely had some hand me downs. I learned how to darn tights. I shared bath water so somehow being youngest I always had third turn.

At Christmas and birthdays we were told it was a good idea to save money given by relatives so if our Tressy ( cheap version of Sindy) needed a new look we had to make the outfit.

For sure there was a Jimmy Saville hiding in every park and Childline did not tell us what to do! I think current times have much to be thankful for.

That sounds poor to me. We certainly weren’t well off. We shared a bath when small, but certainly not hand me down bath water from parents or clothes, apart a few items between siblings.

I was born in 66 and I recognise a lot of what OP said, however we had the best parents and my dad absolutely adored my mother and would do anything to make life easier and better for her. He was definitely a man before his time he would hoover polish put the washing in look after us while Mum went out all of those things that most men didn’t do. He also spent a lot of time playing with us. He taught us how to play all the different games.

I was born in 71. We had a tin bath that was filled on a Sunday night and yeah we shared it. No home phone either and outside loo.

Didn't think anything of it

Life was quite miserable back then. Freezing cold every winter, weren’t allowed to do Technical drawing, woodwork or metal work at school. Not encouraged to go to university. Misogyny at home, school and in the workplace. No existent maternity rights.
I like to leave the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s where they belong.

Early 70s. Parents smoking in cars, heavy drinking every week down the pub, no wearing of seatbelts as the law wasn’t brought in till later. No car seats for babies/kids. Smoking on public transport, basically everywhere including offices. Sexual abuse against kids being the kids’ fault (asking for it - girls who were pretty) or liars to get adults in trouble. Going out for nights out and your parents apparently not the least bit worried. Being seen and not heard, no complaining as whatever we were going through couldn’t be that bad, we’re only kids. We were definitely the neglected generation, parents feeling they were the hard done by as they were hard working parents.

I'm way younger than you and I shared baths!!!

I can remember getting in my friend's much older sister's car in the early 90s. It had no seatbelts. We had 10 in the car and we would get in through the window because one of the doors didn't work.