5 better, 5 worse from when you were a child

Worse in the 60s:
Lack of central heating
Poor career opportunities for women and girls
Page 3!!!!!
Black and white tv
Clothing fabrics (Bri-nylon, Crimplene, etc…!)

Better in the 60s:
Children playing outside
Grammar schools
Steam trains
No freakish beauty treatments
Better nutrition, less obesity from fast food, just the local chippy! 😎

Wish I'd thought of this thread!
Worse: *Living by IT rules rather than commonsense & human judgement
*Vast range of choice over what to cook for tea
*Nagging guilt about the planet whenever you splurge on anything
*family ties seem to be "optional" & "conditional" now whereas they were one thing you could depend on when I was young
* no LOL comedy on TV anymore

Better:
* relative lack of stigma now for unmarried mothers, decision not to have children, same sex relationships
*available medical care overall
*less people killed on roads
*as a deaf person, the wonderful tech that allows me to be part of the hearing world & enjoy music, when I would be "stone-deaf" with the hearing aids of 1961 when I was born
* we have maybe realised that all progress isn't good progress and have become a bit more discriminating about what we're aiming for??

To add to previous post, I keep thinking of more and more things that used to be better.
Department stores! In the fifties and sixties they were very luxurious and real treasure houses, exciting places to visit.
Now, they are either closed or very shabby.

Better:
1. Being able to call in a doctor
2. Sending a lot of personal letters as postage was so cheap
3. Air travel was pleasant with no security checks beyond your ticket
4. Better discipline in schools - admittedly a threat of corporal punishment helped enforce it
5. social mobility due to grants for university education

Worse then:
1. Cars very prone to breakdown and wouldn’t start in cold weather
2. Houses very cold in winter
3. Hotels much more basic - private bathrooms only in very luxurious places like the Ritz
4. Fewer labour saving devices like automatic washing machines
5. Discrimination against women generally - in some jobs you had to resign on marriage

Just an aside -my last filling which had to be updated was put in in the mid 1950s .I told the dentist it was an antique filling and he should treasure it! Now they are white and look like your teeth, much nicer than those mercury things.

Better

lots of buses
walk-in doctor surgery
education and class behaviour
post office savings encouragement
good community

worse
fog and smog
thick dense indoor air from smokers
dentist hence mouths full of metal
no quick resource for information
no use by dates on fresh food eg cream

Definitely too many tattoos on girls, and too many pouty botoxed lips, and those drawn on eyebrows. Just be natural - far more attractive!

Better
Discipline in schools
People talked to each other, greater freedom of speech
A much lower population
Quality of most products
You knew your neighbours

Worse
Not so easy to travel
Lack of central heating
Cookers you had to light with a match
Lack of proper news (unless local)
All bathing in the same water

Some posts like this really get on my nerves. In the past children were free to play where they wanted and be safe …. Brady and Hindley put a stop to that. Music was better . Was it? Are we referring to The Beatles.? We’ve come a long way since the Fab Four. Medicine ? When I was a child, polio’, TB, measles, scarlet fever, and much more were part of life, not newsworthy . Giant strides have been made to eradicate diseases that ruined lives. Our existence now is so much more comfortable and effortless and for those who take advantage of the opportunities affording to them, life is sweet . However, ; and I haven’t read all contributions to this thread so forgive me if I’m repeating ) television is far inferior to what it used to be. The Wednesday Play, Family at War, Elizabeth R, as opposed to Love Island, Eastenders , I’m a Celeb. And politicians !!! Neil Oliver describes our present gang as sock puppets or a waste of skin. If you compare them - and there is no comparison really, to Churchill, Bevin, Braddock, Castle, Benn- you’ll agree that Mr. Oliver is right.

Am too young to know about the 50’s as I was born in the 60’s so my list is really 70’s.
Better:
Knowing all the neighbours and kids in the street
Not worrying about global warming
Good educational standards
Good clean NHS hospitals and seeing your GP easily
NHS dentistry

Worse: the opposites of all on the Better list.

Better
Doctors visited sick children at home and nurses learned on the job
Playing outside with friends all day primary age
Flats and bedsits plentiful to rent
Lots of job vacancies
Houses for sale much less in price relative to salary then
Worse
Shops landlords barred certain ethnic groups often with a notice on shop doors
Disabled access to places virtually unheard of
Many medical treatments not yet been invented
Women mostly expected to stay at home and be a good housewife
Smog killed many people

It rather depends when "the past" was! We have chosen 1950s and this is our list.

Better then
1/ Park keepers
2/Public transport (pre-Beeching)
3/ NHS not overloaded
4/ Recorded music (78s anyone?)
5/Affordable housing

Worse then:
1/ Smoking everywhere
2/ Choice of food in shops and restaurants
3/ No internet or smartphones
4/ Lack of respect for children - corporal punishment and rude questions
5/Racism, Sexism, homophobia etc.

Another better:
A lightweight continental quilt/duvet on the bed that doesn't weigh us down but keeps us warm.

I forgot to add:

Better: warm clothing

Worse: number of obese people

Better

Family life and mums at home for their kids (not sent to clubs)
No distracting mobile phones
Lovely school and teaching
Nicer accessible holidays
Air con

Worse

Attitudes towards non-white people
Attitudes towards gay people
Poor dental care
Worse health care than currently (seems impossible)
Deaths/horrible injuries in the wars (one RAF pilot uncle was shot down, other came home shell shocked, grandmother never recovered)

Better:
Friendly neighbours
Playing outside
Mums stayed home
Fresh food cooked from scratch.
Families/relatives lived close by
Worse:
Lack of vaccines for serious illnesses
The terrible smogs/fogs
Homes were cold with ice on inside of windows
Dentistry
Health and safety

And smoking in public. So glad that went.

Better then:

1. Freedom for children to play outside
2. Lower crime
3. More sense of community
4. Less traffic. I could safely cycle to secondary school. There were hardly any cars along the route, apart from on one road I had to cross
5. Less plastic

Worse then:

1. Dentistry
2. Medical treatment
3. Racism and anti-gay prejudice were more socially acceptable
4. Cold houses. I remember the frost on the inside of windows
5. Food. Actually this is mixed. There was more freshly cooked food and fewer UPFs, but on the other hand fruit and veg are sold fresher now, there is much more variety of ingredients and meals, and coffee in cafés is better. Food hygiene is probably better now

I also agree with points made by PPs. Especially about hard toilet paper!

Better:
Less traffic
More wildlife of all kinds, including the vital insects which are endangered now
Lower population so less pressure on nature and less danger of pandemics due to transferred viruses
Fewer plastic toys
Less ultra-processed food

Worse:
More inequality for women, including both the attitude to those pregnant out of wedlock and not being able to get a mortgage in your own name, just for a start
Smog
Having to wear skirts or dresses most of the time ( I live in trousers now)
No fluoride toothpaste so more tooth decay
Hard toilet paper

Better -More sense of community and as most mums stayed at home there was always someone around for a child in difficulty.
Freedom. Wandering around the fields and woods with friends.
Very few cars. Nobody owned a car in my close so safe to play.
Smaller meals with home grown veg. You rarely saw an overweight child.
Just more peaceful. No TV, phone or technology to spoil the tranquility.

Worse. Women mostly having menial jobs and as there was little childcare many stayed at home.
Awful food at school.
Teachers allowed to demean pupils.
Treats were few and far between. We had a small bag of sweets on a Friday.
No heating except in one room where a fire was lit. The bedroom windows had icicles on the inside!

Better years ago:
Childhood freedom - I would not have missed that for the world
More pride - people dressed smartly when they went out and kept their homes cleaner than today on the whole. Hospital staff were immaculately dressed and hospitals so clean you could have eaten off the floor.
A slower pace of life - women at home knowing their neighbours and few people where I lived ever locked their doors
A smaller population with more room to move and quieter roads
Pubs with pianos and singsongs

Worse years ago:
Dentistry - remember those drills and the pain!
Gossiping - everyone used to gossip about everyone else
Food - some was just awful especially cheap meat full of gristle
Lack of communication (no mobiles or hardly any house phones) meant people often did not talk to one another for long periods.
Televisions - black and white which had to warm up
Home interiors - lino, coconut matting, no central heating, and in my first childhood home there was no bathroom and no real kitchen - only a scullery.

Worse: Capital punishment, I was very young when the last hanging took place, but the thought of state sanctioned murder makes me shudder.

Appalling judgemental attitudes towards pregnancy before marriage and the heartbreaking forced adoptions that often followed. How many of those women suffered.

Relating to school days, the way children were punished at school or not listened to, or not allowed to have an opinion. I hated school milk, there was no get out, it was foisted upon us all, similarly hated some of the vile dinners, rice pudding, lumps in it the size of planets. Forced to eat until you gagged, and still had to keep going. Something I vowed I'd never do my children. On the other hand the teaching of basic arithmetic was far more thorough, boring it might have been but I think it's fair to say most of us can multiply by say 5 for example without grabbing a phone to work it out, something I've witnessed being served recently plus similar examples of how subsequent generations appear to grapple with mental arithmetic and I was far from gifted in that respect, but we spent ages on the different concepts.

Lack of central heating, it was f f freezing in the rooms that didn't have a fire.

Intolerance around differences pertaing to race and sexuality.

Better:

Freedom to rome around as a child, no helicopter parenting.

No such thing as a keyboard warrior, those who hide behind their anonymity to threaten others.

Bland food consigned to the past the fact that we've embraced international cuisines from around the world. Much better coffee.

No reality stars then a modicum of talent was required unlike reality stars of today.

Information and the ability to self educate far easier these days. There were limits to the best of encyclopedias

Better:
Close community, everybody knew each other
Healthy, home cooked food
Playing outside without safety worries
Simpler life not dominated by media
Education

Worse
Transport and road systems
No central heating
Easy to lose touch with people
People dying or disabled by preventable diseases which are now curable
Low expectations for girls careers

Housing- mostly affordable on one wage and perhaps one part time wage, or council housing.

Jobs seemed plentiful.

Lots of local produce.

Meadows and unspoilt countryside.

School milk

But worse-

Racist and homophobic 'banter' acceptable.(delighted in by many)

'Shame' felt by many people who had mental health problems

Corporal punishment.

Vile ready made freezer food.

Lack of children's helplines/ safe spaces.

Mamissimo- my Mum was a ‘coffee snob’ and used to get blue mountain coffee and go to a place in Bromley that sold proper coffee- late 1950s! I know what you mean, though- nasty fake coffee still around ( chicory) then.