what was life like for mums in the 1940's?

[robinredbreast]

im sick of hearing things that sem to stem from the 50's such as
leave babies to cry
get the dh tea ready when he gets in etc

but in the 1940 women where involved in the WI etc some even doing things like driving tanks etc

i would love to hearsom of there advice and how they did things and what life was like for them

I don't think you would find many mums driving tanks in the 40's robinredbreast. My Gran worked in the army until she married she was then excused as all women were. I can ask her for you if you like.

They drove lorries, but not tanks I don't think. And as funkymum says, those were not mums! (Mums did work in the war but in eg factories)

My mum was in the ATS in the war, married in 1945 and had her kids around 1950, and afaik she did exactly what you said in your OP (ie leave them to cry, have hubby's tea on the table etc).

not just during the war but after it - I know my grandma went back to work as a secretary leaving my mum with family as needed teh cash and that was in the later 40s.

my nan had tons of children and lived in west london during the war, she didn't have time for the WI lol. everyone mucked in together, the elder children cared for the younger etc.

my grandma was a chemist and ran her own pharmacy shop whilst having 3 kids (2 of which were twins). but that was quite rare back then.

well, from what i have heard of my grnadmothers lives, i think shehad it easy. even though shehad no washing machine etc, and she did have to get her dh hi steac.
what she didnt have to do was 99% of the crap i have to do. and she had family and friends and neighbours all around her. all helping out all the time.

Did you see that programme on Channel 4 a few years ago called '1940s House'? It was very interesting and I think it's still on C4's website.

My mum's father died in 1943 so my Grandmother had to go back to work full-time (she was a secretary iirc). Her parents moved in with her to help look after my mum (who was 3 at the time).

It wasn't an easy life - rationing, hiding under the kitchen table when bombs were being dropped etc.

From what I have heard, extended family and friends all mucked in together, and kids were expected to amuse themselves much of the time.

My dad talks very fondly about his childhood, playing cricket and football in the street etc.

IMO, they didn't have the same angst and worry that we have about the future. Working class mums like my gran knew their kids would get a job when they left school, and I'm sure my feisty gran never agonised over whether my seven year old dad knew his six times table! The thought is ludicrous!

However, she had real things to worry about, such as child mortality. She lost two of her kids to illnesses that would be treatable today.

I sometimes wonder whether we invent things to worry about in the absence of real problems...

I don't really think they had it easy. My Grandma and Grandad got married on his embarkation leave, had a few days honeymoon in Lytham St Annes and then he went to India for 2 1/2 years. And I know a lot of their generation ended up delaying children because of the war.

I remember when I was pg with my DS, my other Grandma telling me about what a marvellous invention gas and air was. How she had no pain relief with my Uncle born in 1944, but G&A with my Dad who was born in July 1948 - significant because it was the month the NHS came into being.

I don't really think they had it easy. My Grandma and Grandad got married on his embarkation leave, had a few days honeymoon in Lytham St Annes and then he went to India for 2 1/2 years. And I know a lot of their generation ended up delaying children because of the war.

I remember when I was pg with my DS, my other Grandma telling me about what a marvellous invention gas and air was. How she had no pain relief with my Uncle born in 1944, but G&A with my Dad who was born in July 1948 - significant because it was the month the NHS came into being.

no jabs, no dishwasher, no NHS, no washing machine, dryer or central heating..... shudders

i don't know how they did it, bless them.

i found out after she died that my great, great aunt worked a crane at the docks in wartime- i wish i'd known when she was alive, and i could have asked her about it. Since there was no IVF either, she spent most of her life a childless widow.

My great Gran also had to wrap up her kids and put them under tables and the stairs when air raid sirens went off...i can't imagine that fear for my kids- awful.

sorry about double post - my internet connection is really slow for some reason.

RE- child mortility, I think theirs was actually the first generation where they had a reasonable expectation of not losing children. But my Grandma had lost a sister (c. 1920) due to a twisted bowel and when another family member had the same condition she was very concerned but it was treated almost routinely. Also they started to have fewer children.

Pukka, it would have taken your grandmother most of the day to do the shopping (very long queues due to rationing and food shortages), washing and drying laundry, cooking, cleaning.

Most people didn't have fridges, freezers, hoovers, washing machines, fitted bathrooms, hot water on demand, cars etc

Actually these posts about hiding under the kitchen table etc are not the case for my family because they lived in a village and also the children were born in the late 40s. But my Dad says he can remember going to school with older children who were refugees from Sheffield and had been adopted when their parents had died.

My mum's younger brother was born in the 1940's (during the war) he was premature and only weighed a few pounds, the doctors advised my Grandmother to cuddle him and enjoy him for the few days that she would have him as he was unlikely to survive . My grandmother was determined that he would survive, he wouldn't breastfeed so she fed him a mixture of evaporated milk and brandy and 60 odd years later he is still here!

bozza, did you ever hear about the bombs dropped on Chatburn?

It was a one-off but they wouldn't have known that - how scary!

That's a really interesting account, actually - esp about them running into the house across the road and under her stairs for air raid drill

my dad was born in 1930 and was an only child, if anything i think the war maybe made his mum very over-protective but obviously can understand why. in the late 40s when he was doing national service, she used to wait at the gates with food parcels for him.

Lovely story Princessosyth! Sensible doctor to say that instead of 'he won't survive so don't get too attached to him....'

My dad was terrified by the VE day fireworks because he thought they were bombs.

My mum, OTOH, was born during a raid.

My MIL remembers the day war was declared. She was playing in the street with her friends and when she went indoors she found her mother was crying. She went outside again and said to her friends 'My mother's crying. Is your mother crying?' and they all said, 'Yes, mine is too.'

Give me the stresses of modern-life anyday. I think they were focussed on survival while we have the luxury of chasing some ever-mutating idea of perfection.

Fascinating wendy. I wonder why Chatburn did not have it's own school though? Although my parents were not brought up in the area that they now live IYSWIM.

my mum was born in 1935 and remembers the rationing and air raids. She said young children were sent to the shops, they walked miles, helped with housework (no hoovers and washing machines). Her mum would walk 3 miles with 3 small kids and think nothing of it. Poeple today agnose if they have to walk across a car park! Everything was made from scratch too for food.

my dad was born 1944 2 months prem in an air raid - not water and no electricity. He contracted polio as a toddler - was one of the few that survived - he still has one leg slightly shorter than the other. My grandmother took in 5 evacuees on top of her own two kids (they had a house in cornwall, but they originally lived in london). It was tough, life revolved around surviving but the true essence of childhood was there that we sometimes seem to lose. My gran's life revolved around feeding and caring for her family, my dad's memories all involve being a traditional boy, playing away from the house for hours at a time, the simplicity of having only a few toys etc. And there was a real sense of community which we just don't have. But it's telling that many of my Gran's stories of that time are filled with fear - fear her boy would die of polio or end up in an iron lung. Fear that her daughter was going to die from scarlet fever. I think sometimes we don't realise just how fortunate we are in that respect - knowing how panicky I get when DS is ill with fevers etc, it's nothing to what used to be commonplace.

Mercy my grandmother lived in pakistan, and what is now india in the 40's. it was a rough time in 47, when the partition happened.
she didnt do the shopping as the meat man, and the veg man came and brought their wares to the end of the street, where she either got it herself, or sent a kid to get it.
milk was delivered. it was used to make butter and ghee its.
soap and stuff like that her dh bought
clothes were handwashed and handmade, so that was tough
she didnt take the kids to school, they went themselves
she didnt do playdates. the kids were in and out of each others houses.
kids just seemed to do a lot more then than they do now.