witterings on OS life

Bunny200

Its all about choice isn't it. Now we have the choice to live our lives the way that we want whereas in the 50s women (& men) didn't the choice, they had to conform to societies wishes. It appears that it isn't much different today, as the OP was making the point that still we are conditioned to a certain way of life making life difficult and stressful for those trying to live up to these expectations. I do find it interesting that those of us who wish to slow down a bit and not get dragged into the rat race or the pressures that modern life applys identify more with those times when choice was less widespread, namely the 50s & 70s, myself included. Not sure what that says about ourselves and the 'progress' made by society!

In recent years I've become SAHM to my 2 kids after working full-time, definatly know which is best for me and my family but can totally understand why some people need/'need' to work as hard as they do and to have the things they feel they need. I'm very OS domestically, i.e cook from stratch, bake, clean OS style but technologically speaking we are 'tooled-up' with LCD TVs, laptop etc. Life is a balance I guess and its finding the best of each scenario without making your life hell to achieve it.

bargainbird

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Of course - are you happy to move to The North, as I couldn't negotiate the Robin Hood Roundabout every day :rotfl:

I can then retire from cake decorating :kisses3:

Penny. x

Robin hood roundabout much better now :D

mardatha

well if we could have 1950s bills & prices, with todays mod cons.....THAT'S A BALANCE ISN'T IT ! :rolleyes:

Austin_Allegro

worbikeman wrote: »

OP is right. Take cars, in the 50s/60s a good family car was the old Morris Minor. Simply built, not much could go wrong but if it did most jobs were fixable by the lay-person. Nowadays cars are so sophisticated millions of things can go wrong and they're all complicated, time-consuming and expensive! (that's the idea).
I've got a 1970 book of the TV programme 'Tomorrow's World'. Very intrestin. It says in the 21stC we will all have more leisure time:rotfl:I think they had more then!

Excellent point. In so many ways we are no better off than people 40 years ago, in some ways we are worse off. I read an article (sorry I forget the source) that said although we are materially better off than we were in 1970, this has only been made possible because of:

- two income households becoming the norm
- longer working hours and commuting times
- easy access to credit

So we're not really any better off! Mums go out to work but have to pay for childcare, ready meals and time saving gadgets; people earn more but have to spend all their free time in the office or sitting in traffic jams, and just build up bigger and bigger debts (and we all know what that's done to the economy).

In the words of the film 'Fight Club': 'we work jobs we hate to buy crap we don't need'.

Whilst I think it's important that everyone has equality of opportunity, the economic cost of women in the labour market has just meant that prices have gone up across the board to reflect this. Eg, in the sixties a working man could generally support a wife and family on one wage. This would be impossible now because rents and mortgages have been bidded up and up because two incomes became the norm.

We can't put the lid on Pandora's box of course; feminism (which had the best of intentions but IMO went too far at one stage) and the change from a manual economy to a service one means that we'll never go back to 50s idea of the bored housewife.

It does seem however now that people are seeing through this scam and that some women are choosing to stay at home (and some men too) which I think is a good thing if that's what they want to do.

The recession/depression is definitely going to mean more of this. For example, two of my female contemporaries (mid thirties) who were previously 'career girls' have now decided to be stay at home mums because they lost their jobs and can't get another.

bellaquidsin

Norman_Bean wrote: »

do we really think OSers / simpler lifers are in the minority?

Maybe we're just not as 'obvious' as our flashy-gadget loving cousins?

I think there are lots of low-octane peeps out there :j

Hi,

When I was a SAHM (I'm now a SAHGranny) in the 70's/80's I used to feel I was the only person on the planet doing it. It can be quite isolating as all the domestic chores one undertakes when stretching one income to meet all needs keeps you just where you set out to be AT HOME and I guess all the other SAHM'S are there too, hence we don't meet likeminded folk.

However this forum has been a real eye-opener to me and has made me realise that I was and am part of a community after all.

Bella.

SunnyGirl

Slopalongplacidly wrote: »

........ maybe to the wool shop for another ball of wool (the total amount for the garment was 'put by' and purchased as required - cash flow was obviously not a factor then!).

My local wool shop still does this! You put all the balls required to knit/crochet the project away having 1st bought a few balls to keep you going and then buy the rest as & when you need them 3 different shops over the past 17 years have done this too so maybe it's still the norm? :T

Austin_Allegro

bellaquidsin wrote: »

Hi,

When I was a SAHM (I'm now a SAHGranny) in the 70's/80's I used to feel I was the only person on the planet doing it. It can be quite isolating as all the domestic chores one undertakes when stretching one income to meet all needs keeps you just where you set out to be AT HOME and I guess all the other SAHM'S are there too, hence we don't meet likeminded folk.

However this forum has been a real eye-opener to me and has made me realise that I was and am part of a community after all.

Bella.

It's possible the internet has been partly responsible for the rise in SAHMs, because a. they know they're not the only ones doing it and b. they have instant communication with like minded people, so feel less isolated, and c. they can do some sort of part time homeworking online, anything from running their own business to just flogging stuff on ebay. Prior to the internet I can see that being a SAHM could have been hell for a lot of women.

[Deleted User]

I can never remember my Mum being bored, she didn't have time ,far too busy mopping, scrubbing,cooking,sewing and taking care of her children. I wonder sometimes if it was worth it, all that cleaning,she was very houseproud,but she never seemed to be bothered and saw her job as a SAHM as her role in life.She never married until she was almost 35 and had been a buyer in the hat department in a large department store (Copeland and Lisle) I think it was called in Glasgow When she married my Dad in 1935 she gave up work straight away as few women were encouraged to be working if married at that time .My Dad would not have been happy anyway if she had worked, he was very old-fashioned in that respect.She had My eldest brother in 1937 followed by twins (one of whom died ) then me so she had her hands full for most of the time anyway.

Norman_Bean

bellaquidsin wrote: »

Hi,

When I was a SAHM (I'm now a SAHGranny) in the 70's/80's I used to feel I was the only person on the planet doing it. It can be quite isolating as all the domestic chores one undertakes when stretching one income to meet all needs keeps you just where you set out to be AT HOME and I guess all the other SAHM'S are there too, hence we don't meet likeminded folk.

However this forum has been a real eye-opener to me and has made me realise that I was and am part of a community after all.

Bella.

Yep I agree it can be very isolating ... when started my career as a SAHM I met lots of fab like minded peeps and it was great but now I live in France and staying at home is far from being the norm, less so than in Uk in my experience and yes I do feel quite isolated now due to not meeting like minded peeps x
Thanks for your comments x
Norman x

shelley_crow

My brain's not working fully at this hour so bear with me.

There have been some very interesting points, i've enjoyed reading about people's experiences in times gone by. Being a child of the 80s, I don't remember a lot of what has been said (although have lived in a unheated house, when ice formed on the inside of the windows).

Personally, I would have loved to have been a SAHM when my son was born. We live a relatively simple life, don't buy into consumerism and live within our means etc. When my son started school, the majority of the mothers were SAHM. The amount of snide comments and flak I got about not being one was unreal. The difference being, my OH doesn't earn enough to rely on one wage and I was not prepared to make a conscious decision to rely on benefits as some of them do in order to stay at home. I started work part time to bring some money in for food and rent then decided to go to uni to retrain. I think the SAHM concept has come full circle and think that we will see more women staying at home in the next 10 years, if this can be made easier in some way then all the better.

I'm glad I was able to pick up cooking and OS fairly quick, I do think that OS skills should be taught in schools though so that waste and consumerism starts to decline.