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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To Wonder What AIBU would have looked like in 1951?

94 replies

MrsMontague · 12/02/2010 10:40

I have recently bought an issue of Woman & Beauty from 1951 from a vintage site. I love things like that, I pretty much live in the past...it fascinates me!

Anyway, reading through it, some of the things are obviously a far cry from how we live to day, some very amusing in a 'cant-believe-it' way.

For example...

BE A PRETTY HOUSEWIFE
One of the prettiest aspects of being a full-time housewife is that your hours are your own, you are three times luckier than the average career wife. You, as the little keeper of the hearth, should be the prettiest girl of all. No matter how crowded your days, you have a certain freedom and privacy for doing beauty things with housework. For instance, your husband need never see you through a layer of facecream, not when you've had all day to wear it in his absence!

The article then goes on to describe how to manage a beauty regime along with the housework. There are even little diagrams demonstrating how to exercise whilst changing the bed sheets!

So what would AIBU have looked like in 1951 I wonder? Obviously if they'd have had any such thing as the internet!

'AIBU to have let DH see me in my face cream?'

OP posts:
Booyhoo · 12/02/2010 10:45

AIBU to not put me rollers in tonight?

they ache at night and tbh with all the dancing i do while making the bed, the curls just fall straight out.

snigger · 12/02/2010 10:46

Am I being unreasonable in peeling and blanching the vegetables for dinner at lunch in order to clear time for a quick Ewbank immediately before DH gets home? I know it's a sloppy approach to food preparation, but this way I can freshen up and get his whisky sour ready and waiting, rather than the poor man have to lounge around till I'm ready.

It won't affect the quality of the meal, will it?

agedknees · 12/02/2010 10:47

AIBU not to have my dhs tea on the table when he comes in from work.

Love this thread.

chandellina · 12/02/2010 10:49

AIBU to sleep with the postman out of sheer mindnumbing boredom?

kreecherlivesupstairs · 12/02/2010 10:50

AIBU for not having the children bathed and ready for bed by the time my husband gets home.
The demand of being the little keeper of the hearth has put a strain on my time keeping and boiling water for bathing our delightful children had to go on the back burner. As it were.

Portofino · 12/02/2010 10:51

AIBU to think the Govt is having a fecking laugh?:

Food Rationing
Rations for 1 Week for 1 Person

1oz cheese (Roughly about 2 inch by 1 inch by half inch cube, barely enough to fill 1 sandwich)
2oz tea (Equivalent to about 20 teabags today)
2oz jam spread
4oz bacon or ham
8oz sugar
1 shilling's worth of meat
8oz fats of which only 2oz could be butter

What the hell do they expect me to cook with this?

snigger · 12/02/2010 10:55

Am I being unreasonable to think Portofino is indelicate and unlaydeelike in her language, and is causing me to produce premature frown-lines, which will force DH to sleep with his career woman secretary?

Portofino · 12/02/2010 10:56

I do apologise! I'm a bit common myself.

BritneysChaps · 12/02/2010 10:56

hahaa thats priceless!

LaurieFairyCake · 12/02/2010 10:57

1959 - Am I being unreasonable to plant pampas grass in the front garden - I have heard from America that it may be fun?

WhoIsAsking · 12/02/2010 10:58

AIBU to have 2 valium for breakfast this morning instead of one?

thesteelfairy · 12/02/2010 10:59

I am 8 months pregnant and have a terrible hacking cough.

AIBU to wonder if the 20 cigs a day I am smoking are making me feel worse? I know they are supposed to be good for you but I actually feel quite rough after I have had one. What do you all think?

SerenityNowakaBleh · 12/02/2010 11:00

Portofino!

Language. Go wash your mouth out.

Anyway, with such small portions you will literally sat as "the little woman". Don't want you getting fat. Husbands never appreciate it.

SerenityNowakaBleh · 12/02/2010 11:00

stay, not sat

SerenityNowakaBleh · 12/02/2010 11:01

AIBU to make my darling husband a vodka martini rather than gin for when he gets home from the office. I hear they're all the rage now.

psychomum5 · 12/02/2010 11:02

AIBU not to warm my DHs slippers by the fire anymore?

I have burnt three holes in them now, and my sewing skills are being a bit stretched to disguise them now

ShinyAndNew · 12/02/2010 11:02

AIBU to offer the butcher 'favours' in return for a nice leg of lamb? Mil is coming for dinner and there is nothing in the house.

emancipation · 12/02/2010 11:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LadyOfTheFlowers · 12/02/2010 11:04

OOh I love those magazines too. I have some 'Good Housekeeping' baking books from that era. The adverts in them are wonderful.

You should spend 10 minutes before your husband gets in applying lipstick and making sure you look nice, you don't want him to stray! lol

snigger · 12/02/2010 11:04

AIBU to rather wish Chester the GI could manage a fleeting visit? DH doesn't really wear a set of wynceyette pyjamas, iykwim.

MrsMontague · 12/02/2010 11:19

LadyOfTheFlowers I have a couple of good housekeeping baking books too! I love the way things are worded in them, 'Finish the cakes with a fancy pattern' etc.

The magazine is fab, I could never the kind of superwoman you were seemingly expected to be back then!

Loving some of these posts!

OP posts:
Portofino · 12/02/2010 11:28

AIBU to think that you can't ever have enough biscuits?

Portofino · 12/02/2010 11:30

And AIBU to buy a Fret Saw for 5yo ds's birthday? They look jolly good fun!

MamaVoo · 12/02/2010 11:44

AIBU to wear slacks in this cold weather just to pop out quickly to the cornershop? DH thinks it isn't respectable and says I will be mistaken for a boy. I would be mortified if the shopkeeper addressed me as 'sonny'. Do you think tying a ribbon in my hair would help?

SolidGoldBrass · 12/02/2010 12:02

AIBU to want to read that new book by Mrs Betty Friedan? My DH has said that too much reading will make me unwell and neurotic, as women's minds are not capable of absorbing too much information and much better suited to scrubbing floors and baking.

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