If this had happened 40-50 years ago...

[Swissrollypoly]

Do you think things would be different? Do you think we’d just have to get on with things as we wouldn’t have the means to work from home or communicate via Zoom or Microsoft teams etc.
Social media didn’t exist, so there wouldn’t be as much panic and scaremongering.
I just wonder how different it would all be, had it happened in another time period.

It takes five minutes unless you’re doing a full face...

That is still adds up to over a day wasted every year on something that gives me no tangible benefit.

That still...

^^^ Wrong thread!

I suppose it is possible that 50 years ago people had more resilience and the attitiude to MH was very poor.

@ivykaty44

The poster I agreed with cited less travel and fewer women at work.

I work regularly with historians as part of my job, which is to make history and science content, all of which is evidence based.

So I know that it’s perfectly accurate to say that in the 70s/80s people travelled less and that mothers of young children worked less, and when they did work it was it support roles. It would have been easier to have mothers of young children stay home had this happened in the 70s or 80s.

While some people on this board are imagining 40 years ago to be post war, others are also imagining that society in the 70s/80s was similar to now because we see in colour. It wasn’t.

People can have different views that are all evidence based. That’s why academics and politicians disagree with each other.

Your thinking is too linear, a big topic like this doesn’t have a few simple explanations.

There were tables which did show the rate of working mothers in the 1970s and in most cases this was over 60% both full and part time. Whilst history is of opinion and views there are still facts

As for travel that has changed but was common for people to have a 2 week holiday abroad rather than smaller mini breaks abroad.

I don’t have to imagine the 1970s & 80s I was working and living through this time, taking holidays abroad along with many others as it was normal every day. People got bargain breaks on the likes of cefax

www.employment-studies.co.uk/report-summaries/report-summary-women-labour-market-two-decades-change-and-continuity

Here is the facts on woman working that was used earlier in this thread

If this had happened 40-50 years ago, we would have had fewer very old people. Nonetheless, a lot more people would have been infected, hospitals would have been overwhelmed, and there would have been a significant.number of deaths. Of course, there would also have been a recession/depression as the many stayed at home through choice.

The latest Imperial College IFR estimate is about 1.25%. This is for a country like ours, with many old, but also a functioning medical system, so let’s go with 70% of the country infected over 18 months and about a million deaths give or take, many of them unpleasant.

However, we would have got through it, picked ourselves up and got on with it, albeit having to look after quite a few long term sufferers in rehabilitation hospitals.

Personally, I am pleased we have become able to save more lives and not see people dying unaided at home. However, I know many would think the million lives a price worth paying. I guess it depends on personal ethics.

If this had happened 40 years ago Thatcher would have been in charge😬

Indeed she would ArseInTheCoOpWindow and as a scientist she would likely have been superb.

I'm not sure they did. I think society was much less understanding about mental health issues. You only have to look at suicide being a crime and the fact that those with mental illnesses and disabilities were locked in institutions. It's the reason talking about mental health has been taboo until relatively recently.

I disagree. I do think people with actual mental disabilities weren’t treated as well as they are now. But normal mental illness was accepted and expected. Everyone knew about the baby blues (post natal depression) and rallied round. We knew that being a woman was a bit shit and that men were frequently broken by hard work or lack of work.. The only difference was the cure was just getting on with life.
I’m not sure that today’s “ acceptable mental health” seems to offer no tangible benefit other than being expected to talk about your anxiety at every opportunity.

My gran had electric shock therapy in the 80’s and 90’s because she was mentally unwell. However she had gone through Partition, lost two of her three children to malnutrition and was then married to an alcoholic who left her when she came over to live in the U.K with my mum.She never moaned about her life though and my mum loved and looked after her until she died in her 80’s. I can’t see her being any happier having gone through all that now a days.

@LunaNorth

lucky to have a bar of soap around

Yeah, our pet diplodocus kept eating it.

Jesus.

Both my mum and MIL were teachers in the 50s and 60s. Equal pay as well for teachers.

I think more women worked than some here think. And not just for "pin money".

I've done some family history research and most of my 19thC female ancestors worked and their older daughters looked after the other children.

@RosesAndHellebores slightly OT but hand-washing related. Badedas is available in Boot’s but I’ve only seen Bronnley soap in Fortnum’s latterly and it was £16 for four tiny travel soaps! I remember is being a thing at Christmas.

The only difference was the cure was just getting on with life.

Hmm. Looking at things like the Magdalene laundries, acceptance of general domestic violence and cover ups of sex abuse, I think it’s more likely that many things including mental illness were simply swept under the carpet. That isn’t a sign of tolerance or caring.

To the poster that said their grandma was in an isolation hospital in the 1940s, I had scarlet fever in the 1980s and I was quite poorly, but I wasn’t poorly enough to be disappointed that I wasn’t going to be isolated and off school for ages as I had read in books as there was an effective treatment by then (antibiotics). There was a massive scare about the whooping cough vaccine (brain damage) and as a result I didn’t have this vaccine although I had all of the other ones (including one I had a mild skin reaction to - not the vaccine, but the stuff in which it was suspended). So anti-vaccine propaganda did spread despite no social media, although safety checks and authorisations were not as rigorous in those days, I suspect.

Heartlantern2:

People didn’t travel and mix like we do now though, that’s the big difference.

Most families only had one car too and rarely went out to eat as a meal out was a treat-not Saturday nights dinner.
IME, many families still didn't have cars or go abroad on holidays.

@Nanny0gg:

Do you think it was the Dark Ages?

I first went abroad in 1959. And every year thereafter. Meals out were a regular occurrence, either cheap and cheerful (Golden Egg, local cafes on a Saturday) or for a nice Sunday lunch.

I lived at home and got my first car in 1973
You may have gone abroad that early, gone out for meals and bought your first car then but it was not something virtually every family in the UK did.

@Calmandmeasured1

Heartlantern2:

People didn’t travel and mix like we do now though, that’s the big difference.

Most families only had one car too and rarely went out to eat as a meal out was a treat-not Saturday nights dinner.
IME, many families still didn't have cars or go abroad on holidays.

@Nanny0gg:

Do you think it was the Dark Ages?

I first went abroad in 1959. And every year thereafter. Meals out were a regular occurrence, either cheap and cheerful (Golden Egg, local cafes on a Saturday) or for a nice Sunday lunch.

I lived at home and got my first car in 1973
You may have gone abroad that early, gone out for meals and bought your first car then but it was not something virtually every family in the UK did.

But the implications were (from people who weren't 'there') that it never happened.

I was there, it did and it wasn't rare. Not as common as today, but I didn't say it was.

What are awkward in recent times are things like blood tests which have to be booked weeks in advance and in particular child and adolescent mh although I would venture that isnlargely about cultural and organisation resources as it is about lack of funds.

No, the appalling state of the CAMHS service is virtually all to do with lack of funds.

I lived at home and got my first car in 1973
You may have gone abroad that early, gone out for meals and bought your first car then but it was not something virtually every family in the UK did.

It's not something that virtually every family in the UK does now. It doesn't meant that it doesn't happen, does it?

But it was less of a thing. Just because one person experiences something, you can’t extrapolate that to being the case for the entire population.

I had a school friend who went to Florida in 1976. Well, you would have thought she was a celebrity when she returned to school. Kids crowding round and desperate for news on what it was like. This girl was rather pompous and I remember her breezing, “I’ve been trying to shake off the American accent I’ve picked up...” She was there for two weeks!

@IrmaFayLear

But it was less of a thing. Just because one person experiences something, you can’t extrapolate that to being the case for the entire population.

I had a school friend who went to Florida in 1976. Well, you would have thought she was a celebrity when she returned to school. Kids crowding round and desperate for news on what it was like. This girl was rather pompous and I remember her breezing, “I’ve been trying to shake off the American accent I’ve picked up...” She was there for two weeks!

But there have been so many ridiculous comments on here (no soap!!) and my 'one person' experience has been backed up by others who were also around at the time. I wasn't unique, I knew lots of people in the same position.

So it's a valid point.

There were tables which did show the rate of working mothers in the 1970s and in most cases this was over 60% both full and part time. Whilst history is of opinion and views there are still facts

Mothers of secondary school children may have worked but it was far less common for primary school age children as there were few childcare options. My mother was a teacher as that was pretty much the only thing that could be done when we were at primary school.

@belladonna12 - the table gave the children ages and the percentage of the mothers that worked for primary school aged children, there is more than one link to the table on the thread

[quote ivykaty44]@belladonna12 - the table gave the children ages and the percentage of the mothers that worked for primary school aged children, there is more than one link to the table on the thread[/quote]
I haven't seen a link showing that women of primary school age children were as likely to be working in the 70s as they are today. There wasn't much if any after-school care as there is today.