Born in the 40s,50s and 60s

I still remember, vividly, that board rubber hurtling across the classroom. Yikes!

I was born in a village in 1954 and can honestly say if I could go back and re-live my childhood again,I would.
They were the happiest days of my life.
I had such lovely parents. Dad worked at the ironstone pits and mum was a stay at home mum after I was born. Wonderful friends who were brought up the same as me.
Obviously it was harder for parents with no mod cons as we have today but as a a child I have such lovely memories and had freedom of the country side.
Maybe I was lucky but no way would I want to be a child born today.

I was born in 1950 in a run down inner London borough, so yes I did see the poverty and hardship of those times. But I also enjoyed the freedom that kids had back then, and the close community spirit where neighbours watched out for each other and freely offered help if it was needed. I happily remember so many things listed in the OP.

When our boys were born in the late 70s we tried to give them the same freedoms and personal responsibility we had known. We let them play out and go wherever they wanted with the obvious warnings regarding strangers etc. I know they got up to a lot of mischief and went places they shouldn't have, but I had done the same. They learned to make decisions, assess risks, cope with criticism, broken friendships, rejection, and take responsibility for their actions. We didn't molly-coddle them or ferry them everywhere. They grew up into well balanced, caring, and responsible adults and parents.

I do sometimes wonder why so many young people today have 'mental health issues'. I realise there could be lots of reasons, but could it also be that too many decisions and choices in their lives are are made by parents, teachers, even the government. How do they learn to cope with disappointment, failure, rejection, arguments, aggression or adversity in their lives if they're always protected from it? And before anyone says 'It's a different world now with greater risks', Yes it is, but maybe we need to remove the dangers, not the kids from the risky/unpleasant situations.

Anyway back to the OP, as far as I'm concerned the 50s/60s were mostly good times. I for one am glad I grew up in that era.

I’m sorry, OP, but I heartily dislike this kind of romanticism applied to the past. I have vivid memories of my mum completely freaking out about my safety because of the Moors Murders. I did have freedom to come and go in the school holidays, but my mum had no idea where I was, as I usually called on a friend and went wandering with them. Being ‘clipped round the ear’ risks a head injury for the recipient or a hand injury for the clipper! My mum was a great cook, but I didn’t appreciate it until I was cooking for a family myself.

I also hate this kind of sentimental nostalgia, and I know that my mum and nan - parents of kids who grew up from the 30s to the 70s - thought life was much better for my children. They’d no doubt be astounded at my grandchildren’s lives, but would have a far more balanced view, than that pile of one-sided tosh.

" I do sometimes wonder why so many young people today have 'mental health issues'."

Mental health issues have been present since immemorial times - they are nothing new

The awareness we have now about MH is much bigger than decades ago - this is why they are more socially visible and identified

Example - ptsd.

I was born in 1945. I never had cornflakes until visiting friends at 13. The 1st time I had margarine was when taking a test “ can you tell it from butter?” ( Then part of an advert on advertising posted on billboards )
I won a case of margarine ! Promptly distributed to friends who used it!
Food was tasty and varied. Fresh vegetables grown in the garden, plus dishes you don’t see today. Like bacon pudding and steak and kidney pudding. Both boiled in cotton cloth from a pillowcase which was more darns than anything else. Then boiled fish in a parsley sauce. When parsley was available from the fishmongers, the only place to sell it in those days. Oh and curries. Made using curry powder from the Co-op, as no where else sold it. Not even the Home and Colonial, where Hugh sacks of produce sat around lodged against the counters waiting for a shop assistant to measure them out into small packages.
Cabbages were cooked with a lump of of soda so they kept their colour. Which meant all the vitamins went into the cabbage water. The reason kids were given it to drink. An oxo cube was always offered as a cabbage water mix, to older boys, not girls. My very first notice of sexism!!!!!!!

I was born in the mid 50s, and was a twin ( so never alone) and later had younger siblings .We lived in a small town and played out ( in the street or on waste land) after school and in school holidays- because both parents were busy - dad out at work and mum ( who worked part time) either out at work or inside washing/ cleaning/ cooking. There were usually friends to play with. As we got older ( 7+) we went cycling. We knew who to go to for help- which neighbours were home- and when to get home. We also knew not to bother family friends or neighbours unless we really needed help, and not to make too much noise! Playing out stopped at 11-with homework, and younger siblings to watch,- I don’t really remember homework before secondary school!
I also remember being scared at times -and getting smacked and not knowing what I had done wrong! Of being afraid to go home after finding ink on my school dress - knowing there was no money to replace the dress and how upset my mother would be!
Yes we grew vegetables- and made soup from bones-and sometimes had fresh eggs from a neighbour’s chickens. But what I remember most is how cold my feet and hands got tending the veg patch in winter. I still hate gardening to this day! I also remember often feeling hungry.

I was born in 1959, and child of the 60s. I did have the freedom of being able to go off on my own for hours on end, and having a door key because my mum worked long hours!
I remember bread and dripping on Sunday evening for tea. I was constantly hit with a ruler on my hands for not knowing my multiplication tables. Still don't know them now, but my calculator does. I wouldn't wish my childhood on anyone!

I was born in 1955 in a slum area of the North West. I remember some good things from my childhood but also remember seeing the ambulance taking women away after backstreet abortions kids with calipers because of polio. People being taken to sanitoriums for months with TB, kids getting seriously ill from measles underfed children with no shoes...lots of bad things I wouldn't want to go back there.

Gad, Maudi! Nothing like a bit of positivity to bring out the wet blankets. My husband had a childhood like that (born 1945), mine was more circumspect, but I remember a lot of the same things. We both remember sad things such as the ones referred to (we both had alcoholic dads), but we remember so much good and turned out happy and productive, and, best of all, not bitter. Some kids are very sophisticated now, and somewhat jaded, too. I think it's better for a lot of kids to have something to look forward to.

I am not one given to living in the past but agree somethings have changed for no good reason and beyond recognition. But so long as I remain in reasonable health and surround myself with those I know care about me I wont fret about the future, it can change in a heartbeat. But I will invest in the best future I can for me and mine whatever that takes. My grandchildrens lives are very different to mine at their age as was mine to my grandparents. I think they call it progress. But as long as I have breath in my body I will work hard at helping them be the best that they can be with values that reflect how wonderful they now are. Healthy lifestyles too and be valued members of this everchanging world.

Looks like one of those twee folksy sayings from FB.

I was born in London in 1943. I remember many of the things mentioned by Maudi. We had no sweets - plus lots of other food stuffs- all rationed but we never thought about what we didn’t have - I was probably lucky but we only enjoyed what we did have. My parents grew vegetables and fruit- they kept a few hens and my father kept bees. We did make strange wheeled vehicles which we raced down the road, we walked to school- about 2 miles, we played in the road, we met all sorts of friends and played in each others houses and gardens. We made up games and we had freedom to roam. My own children had a similar freedom - they roamed
about with friends - unlike me, they had sweets - fast food was available but we very rarely went to MacDonalds or similar- bit pricey with all of them -and there was the usual whinge about other friends having more soda stream flavours than we did - too bad.?? Maybe we were all just lucky - but I’m not smug about it - neither, I think, was Maudi- it was just like that - perhaps we should all stop posting?

The food issue is very important. We have so many obese children due to processed food and McDonald's etc etc.

When I was a child none of us were overweight.

But I'm not sure how we will be able to change that.

Bits of it were idyllic but a hell of a lot was awful. Wouldn't wish it on my children. Day to day I think they are safer and less open to bullying and sexual exploitation as they talk to us as we never felt we could speak to our parents. In my cohort, I was the only one to go to uni, albeit a few years late, we girls all left school at 15! Many of us were married by 20. Our parents really thought we'd all be fried in a nuclear war, worrying times and now we fear our kids may not survive climate disintegration. Doubt there ever was a single era of good times but at least, until recently, life expectancy has been increasing and there's painless dentistry.

Personally I didn't have the freedom bring discussed here, perhaps other urban kids didn't? I remember TB, polio, calipers, iron lungs; friends I made later talked about city kids playing on bomb sites and in disused factories in 50s.
Working class women have always worked, whether they were properly remunerated might be a different matter. Obviously there was no Equal Pay Act, nor equality elsewhere for non-whites or gays. Not a lot of effective contraception, so some huge families by modern standards. I had friends living in pre-fabs as late as the mid-60s (some were fine, others were damp, but then I remember renting a couple of very damp houses in 70s). In fact it was the era of the straight, white, middle-class male, like all the previous eras.

Brilliant, Maudie.
So so true, all of it. I was born in 1945, so can relate.

I was born in 1950. I was a sensitive girl and mum tried to protect me. Brother 5 years older bullied me all the time. Lovely brother 15 years older went in army. I was always looking for a friend. Dad died when I was 9, mum was always ill. I had quite a sad life as a child.

Looking down the list I can say that my own children (youngest is 30) enjoyed freedom, failure, success and responsibility and learned to deal with it all. They just didn’t have the trauma that I went through as a child before I got to the same outcome.

I was born in the 50’s and had a good childhood, we didn’t waste money we always had enough to eat, our takeaways were fish & chips every fri night! Yes we had freedom but had boundaries too! Used to climb trees & make mud pies, never had to lock our doors, neighbour used to come round regularly to borrow sugar etc, we raised our children in the 70.s & 80’s. There certainly wasn’t waste in our house. We had hand me downs, bath once week which sounds quite disgusting now, coal fires, my first home had toilet outside back door no bathroom, had to go to parents for bath, we knew no different so at the time I’d say we were happy, used a hotpoint hoovermatic twin tub to wash our clothes and had copper with tongs loved the smell of fairy snow wafting round the house, lived in a time where drs used to come out telling you to feed a cold starve a fever, there was good and not so good times

Quote: '.......city kids playing on bomb sites and in disused factories in 50s.'

Chardy Yep we did that. We had a favourite bomb site because it had an underground 'cave', probably the cellar of the original building. It was our den. One day we went there and it was all gone. There was just a giant crater. An unexploded bomb somewhere below ground had gone off during the night. We all stood and stared thinking it could have happened while we were playing there, and then we shrugged our shoulders and went to another site to play! I was probably about 7 or 8 then.

Audi10 I think we had similar childhoods - the coal fires, baths once a week, fish & chips every Friday, shopping on Saturdays because Mum worked full time, climbing trees (I was better at it than many of the boys), scrumping apples and building camp fires, hitching a lift on the back of a milk float or rag-n-bone man's cart. Our neighbourhood 'Bobby' knew most the kids by name so you couldn't get away with much, and he wasn't averse to giving you a clip round the ear if you were cheeky, but we all respected his authority. My Mum never had a washing machine (kitchen was too small) so one day a week I was sent to the laundrette with the heavy washing in an old pram (clothes were hand washed), it was one task I loathed, it was boring.

I suppose I grew up fairly streetwise and aware of everyday dangers; able to cross roads safely from a very young age; travel on buses (and later the underground) without getting lost. From the age of 10 I'd get a Red Rover ticket in the school holidays and travel all over London occasionally with a friend but usually on my own. If I needed directions I'd just ask the nearest adult or a flat foot (beat policeman) - now they're something you don't see much these days!

When we talk to our children and grandchildren about our childhoods they're fascinated and sometimes amazed that we survived at all! The GC have asked why they couldn't have the freedom and fun that we had, though some of them do. All we can say is that their parents bring them up the best way they see fit for the times we live in.

I wouldn't dream of sharing this rose-tinted and sneery view of the past, though I was born in 1945. I particularly dislike the implication that mothers work only to "keep up with the Joneses" when actually it's usually to keep up with the mortgage. And what about women who have higher education and qualifications and want to pursue a career? Should we not have children? It's a real Daily Mail piece of writing.

Well said, GG

It's yet another attempt to divide the generations.

....era before lawyers and government regulated lives.

I knew someone who would go on about the old days before 'elf & safety' 'ambulance-chaser lawyers' etc until she tripped over a hidden step in a small shop and broke her wrist - guess who she contacted, a no-win no-fee solicitor and was awarded about £30,000.