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?

I was born in '86 but still remember times before tech overload. I remember my brother and I sharing baths as young children but not much after the age of 5. We used to play out in the street after school and on weekends. I had one or two hand-me-downs but a lot of my clothes were home-made. Had a home phone, dial up internet post 2000, got my first mobile at 14, it only did calls and texts. Rented videos from the local shop and raged if the previous customer hadn't rewound it. At uni bedrooms were singles but we had two bathrooms and one kitchen between 8 of us, no oven just a fridge, hob and microwave. Most but not everyone had their own computer.

I was a kid in the 50s and born in the classic flat fronted terrace with a railway out back. Our toilet was at the bottom of the yard. When it snowed in winter my father had to dig a path. We used ripped up sheets of the Liverpool Echo as loo paper. We washed at the kitchen sink most days. When my father went out to the pub we had a bath in the tin bath that hung on the back yard wall.

We had a coal fire in one downstairs room around which we all huddled in winter. My parents were not on the phone until the mid 70s. Before that it was the public phone box. If you were out you phoned the NDN and left a message that you would be late back. Our first TV (which we got for the coronation in 1953) has a 12 inch screen. There was only one channel then. When we got ITV you had to get up to change channels.

In winter we really did wake up to ice inside the single glazed windows. It made pretty patterns. We slept in wynciette pajamas and thick socks. There were no duvets then. We put overcoats on top of the blankets when it was really cold. As kids we were chased out to play to get us away from under our parent's feet. We were told "come back for your tea/when it gets dark. That was my parents idea of safeguarding. When I talked back or did something wrong I got a walloping. Sometimes with my father's hand and sometimes with his belt.

Showers? No one I knew had a shower!!

My next post was to be part 2 of the real horror that went on, was just trying to gauge reaction about the 'normal' stuff. I know, I really do. Xxx

I didn't read it as OP saying she was deprived, more that today's children are overindulged, with a bit of reminiscing and remarking how much has changed. I don't think there needs to be a point, does there?

From this I presume you were more privileged.

Thank you and so true. This was me at university, one pair of boots with holes in the soles walking home in snow. I did buy another pair and a big men's second hand coat from a charity shop and felt the difference in warmth immediately.

Yeah, no seat belts, leaded petrol, dummy dipped in condensed milk to shut us up or whisky if we were teething.

Chernobyl blowing up so no milk for us young kids (was that the whole UK or just certain parts?).

Teachers walloping kids for their sadistic pleasure.

Rolf Harris, Jimmy Saville

Kids not allowed to have character, everything was cheeky, showing off, greedy etc.

Racism & sexism part of life and totally unchallenged

Definitely not rose tinted times.

Did this in the 80s and 90s, same, usually with a friend but also alone.

I was born in 1990 and, bar the hitting at school, most of that applies to me.What's your definition of older?

I don't think the things listed in the OP are at all shocking. Some of them have applied to my Gen Z/Y children over the years too. I think life is much harder and so much more complicated for their generation with the general deterioration of society, the economy, the massive corporations ruling everything, destructive social media, etc. Let's see what happens with AI now plus the terrible geopolitical situation. Things could get far worse than having no loo roll!

Had one bathroom between four of us. My clothes were hand me downs. Went to school on a bus from age 7, walked to the pick up point alone.

Born in 77 and I think it was just a much less pressured time for young people. My dad was a plumber so we had central heating. In fact my house growing up was warmer than mine now which is always freezing as it costs so much to heat. I remember when he installed a shower (over the bath). We had the rubber shower hose and head until then. I was about 8. I was allowed to play out from around 6. My son is 6 - I wouldn’t let him go to the park alone!

Luxury

Same memories from my parents and GPs when they were here. The toilet was down in the yard, potty bowls under the beds, which I also had staying over.

I was speaking about my time, did have an inside bathroom, but relatives didn't so yes we did we did use chamber pots at night. Xx

In the school holidays my mum would kick me out after breakfast and at tea time, there would be a chorus of mums screaming for their kids to come home for tea and you were always able to correctly identify your own mum amongst them.

I don't ever remember going out for a meal, unless to a family members as a kid. Nearest thing was on a Friday it was fish and chip night. Adults got fish and chips and being in Yorkshire, the kids got a fishcake and some of mum and dads chips. It was a rite of passage that when you hit your mid teens you were allowed fish too.

The school playground was made out of dense tarmac or concrete and the metal roundabout whizzed around as fast as we could manage, jet propelling us out onto the tarmac with a thud. The scrapes on your knees were massive and you just pulled your white socks up and clambered back on the roundabout. There was none of the bouncy rubber stuff to land on.

An the 5 second rule for food that landed on the floor was more like a 5 hr rule, you picked it up, sniffed it, blew off any dirt and chomped away.

There were no seatbelts in cars, I can remember my dad speeding down a motor way and me leaning on the door and it opening. My brother grabbed the back of my dungarees and clung on for day life until my Dad could pull in and lecture me.

And at school we didn't have proper toilet roll, it was Izal tracing paper type stuff. It didn't wipe your bum, it slid down it.

We had the early form of recycling. My grandad had an outhouse with an outside loo, he used to tear up his newspapers and keep them on string to be used as toilet roll and you ended up with ink all over your bum. Or the old newspapers went to the fish and chip shop and they dished your fish and chips up on them! Urgh and I think now about all the men who used to read their newspaper when they were sat on the loo.

If you bought a large bottle of pop/beer or whatever, when you took the empties back to the shop, you got twopence for returning it.

Milk was delivered on the doorstep and the clean empty bottles were left on the door step to be collected cleaned and used again.

Oh and we had a party line on our phone, only way we could have one. We knew way too much about our neighbours business.

Big old TV in front room, you had to wait 5 minutes for it to warm up and start, it was as big as a current dishwasher, me and my brother were the remote control. Brother had a portable TV in his room (we were posh) as a teenager and every time it got windy outside you hade to keep moving the aerial on top of the TV to get reception.

Mum used hairspray that smelt like fly killer and set her hair like concrete. It smelt like flykiller because it was. Any fly that happened in the direction of my mums hair would be stuck in the sticky goo that was hairspray. Her hair was set solid for the week and never budged.

Sanitary towels came with a sanitary belt to keep them in place. If you didn't get it right the towel bobbled out of the waistband of your skirt like a bunnys tail.

aaah them were the days!

Oh yes, so thankful of that! Xx

My DH were reminiscing the other day as our DGD was 15. When we were her ages we were drinking in pubs and smoking! Seems bonkers now

In the 50's my husbands Aunty lived in a council house with an outside loo. The council wanted to demolish it and move her to a house with a bathroom and she refused point blank to go because having a toilet int he house was unsanitary!

I was a child in the 2000s and can relate to the majority of that list...

Aw thank you! It was just meant to be a reality check at how we used to live, purely factual and not romanticising. How things have changed so let's stop moaning about trivial things. Xx

I often shared a bath with my sister in the 70s. Either that or my mother would get in after me.
My grandparents rented their black & white telly, can’t remember if it was from Rediffusion or Radio Rentals.
And house phones were rented from whatever BT used to be called. The name escapes me!
We had a twin tub washer/spinner and the oven had a grill up at eye level. And we had a proper old fashioned chip pan.
We had to get up to change the tv channel.
We thought nothing of going off with our mates for hours, just wandering. And we had a 2 hour youth club in a Sunday afternoon.
My mother always told me how much she hated having to wash terry towelling nappies!

Im so very happy that I grew up before the advent of home computers and all this technology kids have now. I was nearly 30 when I got my first mobile and there was no social media to crush our spirits. I wouldn’t swap with the kids of today.

I was born in ‘74 - most of the OP resonates with me growing up rurally in the UK. My childminder was the only person on her street with a phone, and she installed a coin op pay phone cos all her neighbours would ask to borrow it.
Some winters the pipes froze to the house, so all our water came in 5 gallon drums that we filled in the school yard - baths were definitely shared when all your hot water had to be boiled in a saucepan!

I was born a few years before you.The children definitely shared a bath, not the adults.

I know, not their fault. My DC also have the luxury of 3 ply toilet paper, everything modern living provides. We do talk about our own pasts, which they find funny but get it. Also even more so from GPs, listening to stories from WW2 and how they lived after. Hopefully these will be passed down through generations but it will naturally become diluted, tales from the past.