To Wonder What AIBU would have looked like in 1951?

[MrsMontague]

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?'

Am I Being Unreasonable to be sexually frustrated? I mean: isn't that my Hez-bend's role?

On this theme, a friend of mine runs this website, which I love

www.gypsycreams.org

AIBU to insist we should have a tweeny? We only have a cook, parlourmaid, chauffeur, Nurse and Mrs Jones who comes in to Do The Heavy and I really don't see how we can manage otherwise. DH says that now all the DCs are at boarding school it's an unnecessary luxury and showing off but I know he'd be the first to complain if the antimacassers weren't goffered daily.

AIBU unreasonable for judging my neighbour - she buys her steamed puddings in a tin!

AIBU to sew my DS a bathing suit out of an old gabardine mac, instead of knitting him a brand new woollen one? He says all his friends will laugh at him, but 'waste not, want not'

hmm, people were smaller hen, not just thinner - my mums wedding dress was too small for my ribcage (even denuded of lard).

there is a nice shop in brighton that does fifties-style dresses proportioned for the modern woman - so far i have resisted due to the 21st Century nature of the price tag...

Am I being unreasonable to not manage to look like this every time I go to the shops? My best gloves have a mark on them - what will people say? (And obviously I can't wear my second best gloves in public, LOL!)

ponymum where are these children walking in such an orderly fashion bu their mother accross the zebra crossing? I want them! Whoever has them and wants to swap them for mine, I promise to give you a good deal!

AIBU to miss the war? I used to have a job as a mechanic and some independence. I made all the decicions for four years! I was good at my job. The other day when out motoring for fun the Daimler broke down and DH made me sit in the car for an hour while he tried to mend it, thank goodness the RAC man rode past on his bike. I could have fixed it in a trice but its not my place.

Rhuidean

hewasmytwin YABU if a silken hand proves too distasteful I pop on one of my Marigolds to get the job done.

AIBU to refuse to allow my fiance to "touch me" in a rude place? It is so important to keep oneself nice before marriage.

Am I being unreasonable to LOL? I know it is unladylike, but my DH is so awfully flattered to be amusing enough to make me "forget" my manners? He was quite crestfallen when I only tittered at a joke of his yesterday.

AIBU to not iron my terry nappies?

My MIL says I am.

I iron everything else - bedding, underwear, handkerchiefs etc but seeing as the nappies are never seen and just get crapped in soiled, I don't get the point

AIBU to think that baby wasn't premature but that the wedding was planned awfully quickly with hindsight.

AIBU to go back to bed when DH leaves for work and then eat breakfast cereal for lunch?
I'm shocked at myself actually. Next I'll only be dusting EVERY OTHER DAY

AIBU to teach DD (15) to smoke and buy her cigarettes before she starts work?

DD now left school and starts work in a local drapers after easter.
I think we should buy her first pack of cigs so she can practice smoking beforehand and not look gauche in front of the other girls.

DH thinks she can wait until we get her first pay packet.

That's another thing - I think we should give her a small allowance out of her weekly pay to buy stockings etc. DH thinks we should keep it all and make her ask whenever she wants something

AIBU or is he?

Hilarious! I remember reading the 1950's Good Wives guide...
Was literally crying with laughter...took a while to compose meself after that one.

Don't think they had much in the way of household appliances in those days...so it would have taken all day to get the housework done, do the shopping, take care of the kids and pretty yourself up for your husband!

I think it IS quite a luxury for a woman to not have to work these days...and be able to stay at home all day. I'd get quite bored of that tho after a while.

......but then I guess there are pro's and cons of both.

Women not having to work may miss the adult company of being in a job, the routine, feeling of being part of the workforce and contributing financially...

AIBU not not wear corsets when gardening?

DH says I am

I'm going to print this thread and show it to my mum, who was 21 in 1951.
Interesting that many of these housewives would have been through the war and seen women managing without men, and in fact doing many 'male' jobs.
I think she's going to get a laugh out of it.