if you could....

In the 70s/80s, I had a second (or third) hand twin-tub washing machine ........................ but LOVED that machine. Three times a week it got dragged out and I would spend almost a full day doing washing, hanging it out and then airing off on the 'maiden' and around the fire-guard .

I think an automatic washer would have had to be top of my list PLUS a tumble dryer for those days when nappies couldn't go on the line - two of my children were born 13mths apart, so had at least 12 nappies each day for over a year [cry]

Aside from the washing machine I think the freezer made the greatest difference to how I did things, the joy of putting everything ready in the freezer before Christmas or any big family do. For much more modern its got to be the phone with camera, how useful it would have been when the AC were teenagers and being able to have a quick conversation or text would have meant less stress all round.

nothing! life is far too complicated, most devices have inbuilt self destruct after a short while, they make us slaves to them having to work/save harder to maintain them, they end up as needs not wants! I do believe this but having said that, washing machines-although the twin tubs lasted for ever and were so easy to fix. phones ,colour tvs, and the internet
have their uses!

Definitely a washing machine. I washed by hand for many years as my husband didn't believe in washing machines!

Lycra! Fleece! Microwave!
And a society that accepts we have souls too

Henetha and you're still with him!!!

an automatic (had twintub) and dishwasher. Yes I know thats two.

My iPhone! and internet! I can find great deals, easily be contactable even away from home and watch tv and listen to the radio besides WhatsApp, messenger and face book all of which keep me in touch with distant family and friends and upload pictures!

We had a camera spasmodically ( maybe borrowed!?)...got some very nice photos though. My mother had only school photos of us ( sometimes) one of my elder sister and two bros at a big store in London standing beside Muffin the Mule!? I would have been gone with mum as s new-born. She had one of my eldest brother (school) one of him taken with football team in an oversized goalie jumper! One of my youngest brother crawling around our front garden. But the earliest one of me is about 4 years old and that in conjunction with the two bros. Yes....definitely wish my mum had had a good camera and we had more family photos. I now over compensate by taking loads of grandkids on my phone the sending them ofvto FreePrints (great service). But of course the few photos we have are more valued I think because they are scarce .

We laugh now about washing my husbands army fatigues in the bath. We’d both jump up and down on them, oh the joys of youth. Then there was the joy of a separate washing machine and spindryer. In the 80’s we bought our first automatic washing machine and I can still see me sitting on the floor in awe and with great happiness watching it. It also soothed my very colicky baby. So I’d forgo an automatic washing machine in those early days for those memories. (Wouldn’t want to repeat it now though) on balance I’d say an iPad I could take photos of the children, talk to my family while we were in Germany and my husband was away for somtimes months on end. The evenings and weekends could be very lonely. FaceTime would have been fantastic,my husband and my family wouldn’t have missed out on the children’s growing up. This thread makes you realise how much life has changed and all the advances we’ve made. It’s bought many happy memories to the fore thanks.

Without a doubt the latest Apple IPad.. Our tv was a second hand fourteen inch black and white we bought for ten u.k pounds from a family who were emigrating. DH worked long hours my parents and in laws some distance away. Now we have entertainment and access to the rest of the world with what we hold in our hands.

Washing machine, yeah. Nappies. Husband's HANKIES!

But even more the internet. To find out all the things I look up. My mother, before she died, wanted to know things like 'How and why did we get Hong Kong?' (Being a teacher all her life) and I never knew how to find out..... too late now.
Now I can look up almost anything.

I would have to say a washing machine, I didn't get one until my first child was a year old, all washing had to be done by hand. I would have loved some heating in the house too so that the washing would dry.

A tumble drier going back when I was small I would have loved my parents to have a camera I have no baby photos .

A modern day husband. My husband did nothing to help with our two girls, all left to me and feel they lost out on on so much. See my two SIL interact with their children and its lovely - they share the care 50/50 and its lovely to see the bond that the GC have with them.

Lullydully So the ruining of the environment is not an issue?

Online grocery shopping. This was before the days of 24 hour shopping, so I couldn't go after my husband got home from work. I used to dread having to do the weekly shop with three of them in tow.

To be able to "shop" online without interruption, without "mummy I need a wee", without having to referee arguments and having things surreptitiously added to the trolley, with a nice cup of tea to hand, would have been bliss.

Although I do remember when our local Sainsbury was first opened. My daughter was at school by that time, so I went along to Sainsbury with the two boys and was THRILLED to find a trolley with two child seats in it. No longer a need for chameleon eyes!

A mobile phone and social media would have helped me to keep in touch with family when we lived in Africa in the 80s. It would have stopped me feeling so homesick

Yes a washing machine here too, and swimming nappies would have loved them.

I agree with red1. I am lucky enough to have had many of these when I had my first baby (though I forgot to put a film in my camera when she was born, so a digital one would have been better!), but as a technological dinosaur I think social media is a mixed blessing and I am uncomfortable with the idea of being contactable anywhere at all times. Even with granddaughter due in five weeks I'm not going on Facebook!

Just a simple washing machine and spin dryer, oh, and a solar panel for the electricity to cut the bills

A tumble drier , would have been a godsend .
I hated drippy steamy washing hanging everywhere , especially on rainy northern days when you rarely saw the sun . Odd as I loved hand washing and the smell of freshly ironed clothes.

Oh yes, a mobile phone, as similar to M0nica and farview, DH was often sent to far-off and sometimes dangerous remote foreign countries for weeks at a time with no way of contacting him except through British HQ. Could have been in touch every day if we'd each had a mobile then.

I would also choose a mobile phone with camera for the reasons others have given. We married in 1965 and didn’t have a home phone until the mid 1970s. Both sets of parents lived about 30 miles away in different directions from us and neither of them had home phones either. My father was diagnosed with cancer soon after we married and died early in 1966. It was a horrible time and my brother had to contact me at work to keep me informed which was very upsetting. My FIL died suddenly in 1968 and the police had to knock on our door to tell us and also on the doors of his two sisters, something they can never forget. It would have made such a difference for us all if we had mobile phones then and we both have very few pictures of our parents as they didn’t have cameras either.

Back in the day we had slides made. Boxes of them. A few years ago we bought a simple, cheap transformer to convert them into digital format. Oh my!! Amazing. And my sisters loved discovering the old pics.