Do you still follow old routines your parents did years ago ??

I have set routines for business otherwise my customers would never get their orders!

So far as housework is concerned my mother had the same routines as many of you - washing on monday, ironing on tuesday and so on.

Housework has always had quite a low priority with me and involved a lot of procastination in the past. I dont have a routine for that, I just employ a cleaner who has their own routines.

I am retired so I now do jobs when I want to or feel like doing them. I shop online when I need something. My 90 year old friend has to do her washing on a certain day, clean on a certain day and change her bed on a certain day. If I suggest going out on Wednesday she says no as she is going to Morrisons for her weekly shop. If I suggest going out on a Tuesday, she has to take her library books back.

I cannot understand it. I once asked her why she has certain days to do things and she told me that if she does not stick to her system she will get stressed.

When I was working I did have regular routines but now, I do things when I want to or feel like doing them.

My Mum made Scotch pancakes the shape of chickens & made blancmange in a rabbit mould,both these things I have done for my children & grandchildren.

My mum made jelly and blancmange in a rabbit shaped mould too! I don’t think I still have it, it was in her kitchen when she died. I think it was green. I didn’t do it - terrible mother! But by way of defence, I did at least make jelly and blancmange (from packets).

My Mum also had set days for doing things when we were children, eg, Monday was wash day as it used to take most of the day (no automatic washing machines for us back then, but a wash tub with a spinning tub alongside it - hard physical work).
Tuesday would be ironing day, not sure what Wednesday was, but no doubt something like window cleaning. Thursday was dusting & vacuuming throughout the house, Friday was “town” day to go to the market for fish, fruit & veg and possibly material if Mum was making some clothes for us. Saturday was baking day and Sunday was prepping and cooking Sunday lunch (dinner) for 2 pm, and later prepping tea. She allowed herself a little rest to read, too.
In between times were daily visits to the shops for bread, supermarket essentials, pay the papers bill or other bills, etc, (Not milk, we had that delivered).
It makes me feel exhausted just relating to you what she did 😲😁.
I don’t have set days for most things, but do tend to change the bedding on a Thursday. Washing gets done as and when there’s a load (the beauty of the automatic washer). I think that’s the thing nowadays, certain tasks don’t take all day to complete like they used to do, so we can be more flexible as to when we do them, owning a car means trips to the supermarket can be whenever we need to go. Mum never had a car, so daily trips to the shops were necessary due to the need to carry the shopping by hand, not being able to load it all into the boot of a car in one trip.

We have a children's rhyme about this: It-Tnejn nibdew bil-ħasla,
It- Tlieta ftit mgħodija
L- Erbgha nsaqqu l-pjanti
Il-Ħamis naraw iz-zija
Il-Ġimgħa nsaqqu l-qsari
Is-Sibt nikinsu d-dar
Il-Ħadd nohorgu dawra,
U ngħidu ż-żmien kif tar!
...

Monday we begin with the laundry,
Tuesday we do the ironing
On Wednesday we water the plants
On Thursday we visit my aunt
Friday we water the plants
On Saturday we sweep the house
Sunday we go for a walk,
And wonder about how time flies!

These days I do things on an ad hoc basis.

No, my mother did everything by routine and I hated it. I haven't purposely avoided routines just never really kept to one (seems like a whole other pressure) - if something needs doing I do it. Same with dinner time, my parents had food at 1pm whether anyone was there or not!!! I can't eat like that - prefer to find out when everyone is hungry and then we eat.

A clue in your name
Tanjamaltejer , but before I read it - I was really intrigued by your language .

If it sounds like Arabic , but is written in Latin script so it has to be Maltese , right ?

No I don't follow my lovely Mum's routines. Mainly because my ex husband worked different shifts every week. He also worked away for varying amounts of time, the longest being 6 months. I worked different shifts when I did nursing in Hospitals and Care Homes. My life at home was never routine after I got married.

K

My Mum and Dad both worked shifts, (Police and Nursing) so there were absolutely no set routines in our house.
They made sure that one of them was always at home with me, and in school holidays I went to my Grandparents who lived about 10 minutes walk away!
I even married a shift worker, and although I didn't work shifts per se, I did work what would be classed as unsociable hours, some late evenings, occasional weekends, including Sundays during the school summer holidays, so our life had no routine until we retired, and now we don't need routine, so we don't bother!

Fairycakes

I was only talking about this to my husband yesterday. I told him that when my mum was young, all the neighbours followed the same routines. There was a day for washing windows, a day for scrubbing doorsteps (and woe betide any that left theirs looking mucky 😆) days for laundry and shopping. My mum sounded nostalgic talking about it. I think routines are a positive thing. I try to follow a routine at home - not quite the same as in my mum's day. I don't scrub the doorstep - not yet, anyway 😆 but I follow a system of cleaning (Flylady) which is fun and gives a feeling of community. I wonder if it gave the housewives of old a feeling of community when they all did the same chores on the same day.

Yes, l remember how important it was to her to scrub the door step.. but it was our back door step that led into the kitchen. Mom would then cover it in some type of polish called ' red cardinal'
l also remember that mom and dad never , ever , locked the door or the back garden gate or french windows then led into the garden, until they went to bed. They were always left unlocked !!
She never locked the doors or windowseven when she went shopping !! amazing!!!
As we kids were always in and out of the house we never had to have a key for if she was out we just knew the door would be un locked.
When neighbours came in for the 11 oclock cuppa they would just open the back door (the kitchen door) shout 'are you there' and if they got no answer they would go to the back garden gate, where mom would be pegging out the washings on Mondays,
l cant believe how much of that life has ingrained in me, as when l moved to this bungalow rhe first thing l did was have l french windows put in just like what we had at home. l didnt give it aqny thought aqs it was for practical reasons as this bungalow had not back door to the garden, so l said l wanted french windows put in from the bedroom so that l can see all the garden. And the first year here l bought all the cottage flowers we had back then to put in my own garden ie lupins, shasta daisys, mock orange plant, foxgloves, snow on mountain, ladies mantle, london pride, holly tree and so many more. l even sow every year all the annuls they had ie love in a mist, nasturums, night scented stocks, geraniums,
l even bought an apple tree the first yt we moved in, like we had at home, but mine is a dwarf one as my garden is a fraction of the size of what we had growing up.
l'm still on the look out for a dwarf lilac and purple michalmass daisys we had...
The only thing l cant buy are all the roses she had every where, as l dont know the names of the old varietes Some one suggested l look through a ' Austin Roses' catalog and l might just remember them from the pictures, which l would know them as iv never gotten them.
My childhood must have been so special that iv been trying to recreate it all since moving .

My mother in law had a very set routine. Thinking back it was really wonderful, their way of caring. My mother was the opposite. More like the Muppet chef in the kitchen: throwing a lettuce in the air, shooting at it and looking at the result fall on the plate! I am always lavishly dieting if there is such a thing!

My mother worked, but my Aunt ( yes, my mother’s sister) lived with us, and did all the housework…. I have no idea if much of a routine was followed as a young girl I took it for granted all the housework was done when I got back from school - in the early 50s on ( I was born in 1946 ) . My father didn’t seem to do a lot other than garden work and follow his hobby in the loft ( he raced Pigeons …ok heard all the jokes !) so it was a bit like having a maid…and oh boy did I pay for that when I left home…no idea how to do much at all!
Still very ‘ad hoc’ re housework… but I can now play the ‘old lady’ card! 🙄

biglouis

I have set routines for business otherwise my customers would never get their orders!

So far as housework is concerned my mother had the same routines as many of you - washing on monday, ironing on tuesday and so on.

Housework has always had quite a low priority with me and involved a lot of procastination in the past. I dont have a routine for that, I just employ a cleaner who has their own routines.

Top and bottom sentences = DITTO BigLouis
Centre sentence see above!

What lovely stories. I did not grow up in England and only lived here since my mid 20’s so anything like that is so very interesting as a newcomer there were so many things I just did not get or understood. Now I know why me 2nd husband had to have potatoes with every every meal which I ribbed him mercilessly about. Wish I had not. And now I am going to read this thread again. I think there’s a book waiting to be written here.

Paris123, you should have knocked on the door when visiting your gran’s old house. My parents went to visit mum’s village and family home in Ireland when on holiday, mum was in her 60s and had been away from the area for over 40 years. She knocked on the door and told the woman she had been born in the her house and could she take a photograph. The family invited mum and dad in, showed them around the house including the bedroom where mum was born. They were lovely warm people and they all had a cup of tea together.

Fish on Fridays, roast on Sundays, leftovers on Mondays. I still do this!

My MIL had a lovely Sunday roast on the table at 12 midday prompt. This plus boarding school put my DH off any form of rigidity around mealtimes and what we eat. We had routines when the children were at home, but since then it’s completely relaxed. I love cooking, especially for others, but couldn’t cope with knowing what we were having every day of the week regularly. Yet I know it’s what others love to do, including my friend who lives alone and has the same meals on the same day each week for simplicity.

No ….i refuse routine except for meds!
I’ve no responsibility to kids or grandkids anymore…I’m available if needed, as only 3 miles from any of them . How can we need to follow routine !? I clean the loo and kitchen everyday ….anything else when it looks as if needed. Too many books to read and friends to lunch with.

What a lovely childhood you had paris123 thanks for sharing the memories.
I spent my first 10 years in NZ but came to England when my father died. Funnily enough, I am in NZ now visiting my DS who has emigrated here and yesterday I went on my own to look at our old house.
It looked different. An extra storey has been added plus a garage and there were cars everywhere. I didn't feel like knocking on the door.

When I was a child there were so few cars and more people walking about. I retraced my walk to school. The school has the same name but it's a new building.

My DM always worked so I don't remember a routine. After we moved to England my sister and I were given jobs and regularly cooked which I loved but I hated washing up.

Fish on a Friday yes but never on a Monday because fishermen didn't fish on Sundays so how could the fish be fresh 😊

I like a routine and I do still keep to one leaving at least one day a week free for whatever may happen.

My mother was always 'encouraged' to work by my father so she didn't have time or leisure for a fifties' housewives' routine. That said, she did do some things regularly and I remember her cleaning the house once a week in a fury. I only realised later that the rage was to give her the energy to do it all in a whirlwind - as I am the same now. We lived a somewhat chaotic life and moved often. I attended more schools than there are school years.

I remember mum wringing out the sheets in a mangle, a backbreaking task. She'd cook a roast every week and it was always shoulder of lamb one week followed by chicken the next. For 'afters' we had things like Jaffa Cakes, or Birds' trifle, or shop coffee cake or mandarins in evaporated milk. Then we watched the afternoon film on the 'telly' which I loved. I particularly recall being entranced by 'Waterloo Bridge' and 'The Searchers.' Looking back, both were unsuitable for a ten year old but I was a bit of a precocious child given all the perspective offered by moving and seeing things others didn't.

Moving on constantly meant I never had long friendships and grew rather reserved. Mum liked to read (magazines and stories mostly) and I became an absolute bookworm which I found (then) an adequate replacement for people.

I was actually quite a happy and active child. I loved running about and being outdoors and remember walks in the wood with an eccentric neighbour to see bluebells. I was always out on my (secondhand) bike exploring and having adventures. I don't think they really were adventures but I loved the books 'Ponies at Bunts' and others like it and so everything to me was like the lives of the middle class heroines. I made camps and, for one whole year, I imagined I was riding my own pony wherever I went.

Mum worked all day so I was on my own for all the school holidays and had a degree of freedom unimaginable for children today. I remember climbing up on the cooker to make my toast-and-jam lunch with the gas grill. How I didn't burn myself or immolate the house, I can't think.

One particular memory was when we had a delicatessen abroad, Dad came out the back from the shop and said to us, ashen faced and very shocked, 'They've killed Kennedy.' He had a fixed view, having lived through WW2 as a child, that we were all in danger of what he called 'atomic war.'

Another interesting recollection is of my dad's mum, who came to live with us to look after my little sister while mum worked. Nanny told me that she remembered Queen Victoria's funeral and the crowds lining the streets. She also described Penny Bazaars which seems to have been an early version of Poundland. When I hold my baby granddaughter I think of the physical family link running from 1901 to 2024. Amazing!

Today, in a reaction to the chaos of early years I suppose, I do have very fixed routines. I am the housekeeper in the morning doing all the chores, ironing, cooking prep and other mundane tasks and am Mylady in the afternoons living the life of Riley in my lovely house, garden and village. I actually like the physicality of housework and use it as my exercise regime.

I have had a very mixed life with some experiences that would horrify others but, altogether, my philosophy is that every moment I am drawing breath without being in mental or physical pain is a true privilege and a blessing.

Paris123, I loved your post. You ought to write a book.

Lilyflower

Paris123, I loved your post. You ought to write a book.

l was remembering so much last night that iv just got my note pad out to jot it all down. Then l was thinking' why dont l get hubby to buy me a nice journal nk week and write it all down in some sort of order. ie what each days were like for me in the 1950.s , holidays, Christmas etc.. not sure any of my grandchildren would read it but l thought id write it for me before l forget it all.
Last night l was thinking about the Sunday school mom sent all us kids to. The church is still there just a few mins from our house. Very small ancient Norman brick church,, where l was married in at age 18.
Built nk to a lovely hump back bridge over what l always thought was a river. l later learnt it was a canal.
(another story about what happen to me at that canal )
Its strange that mom and dad sent us every week to Sunday school because they never once went to church them selves.
She let us kids go as long as we wanted to go, we were never forced to go.
l decided one day at age 10 l wanted to go to a different church up the road 10 mins away She said ok as long as l took my baby brother age 3.
So early one Sunday morning she dressed me up like the fairy doll you get on top of the old fashioned Christmas trees. lol. l wore a large yellow nylon frill dress with puff sleeves and a massive yellow bow in my hair. White ankle socks and white leather button up sandels.
*iv only this morning realised why yellow featured very prominent in my life, ie my yellow crochet dress l made in the 60's,a favorite yellow frill blouse l bought and l even had yellow roses for my wedding flowers and had no idea why l chose that colour.
So off me and my little brother went to the different church down the road. We walked in and the service had already started, so we sat quietly sat at the back.
Everyone turned round. l couldnt understand, There wasnt on single child there. They were all old biddies.
The man at the front giving the talk had no white collar on, there was no organ being played for the songs only a stout old lady playing a piano, and not one single flower ,arrangement any where like we had in our church.
There was no church red cushion oak pews, here we sat on hard cheap wood chair's
After the service a kindly gent came and knelt next to us and explained.
This church was a 'born again' denomination and all their children was not allowed at the services but had to go up the road. l was shocked. l thought all churches was like ours C of E lol. l never went to church again till l got married.
My sister changed denomination later to her husbands when she married. Yes it was to the very one l took my baby brother to at age 10 lol.

Great story, Paris123. But you are quite capable of writing your own journal as your style is infused with your enthusiasm and attention to detail. You are undervaluing yourself- and I say that as an English teacher of 34 year’s experience.

I loved the part about the yellow dress and puffed sleeves. I remember the delight when my mother bought me a gauzy party dress when I was five. I think I have been trying to recapture that dress in all my clothes since then.