If life could be like the 1950's would you.......?

Question

stay at home and look after the children and the house while your husband went to work?

Caribbean I only meant family-wise. Sorry if I offended. It wasn't meant.

No-one should EVER be treated as second class!

Answer 1

Isn't it amazing how you get hostile reactions, no matter how innocently the question was meant? That's because in the noughties/noneties/whatever, we're expected to look for offence where none exists. That didn't exist in the 50's and in general, people were happier.

You could leave your doors open and nothing would be nicked, I'm reliably informed, from my parents.

You could be sure that you wouldn't get cheeked from the local youths. One ran by me last week while I was on my way to work, I immediately put my head down and thought 'no eye contact ... don't make eye contact.' There's been a wee bit of ... trouble in my area lately.

As for the question, I think I would. I certainly had parents that lived that way in the 70s. My Dad apparently insisted that my Mam stayed at home to look after the house and us while he earned the momey. Which at the end of the week, he handed over to my mother in an unopened pay packet and she gave him pocket money.

They had one of the happiest and loving marriages I've ever been priveledged to witness, I don't remember any rows. Perhaps one falling out that lasted about 12 minutes, then they were back to being lovey dovie.

From my point of view, my Mam was there when I went home from school (she'd popped to the shops once when I was 11 and I was shocked and cried my eyes out because I didn't know where she was) with a smile, a hug and something to eat and drink.

Dad would get home from work about five and we'd all sit down at the table for tea about half an hour later. Only ever home cooking.

Family life was quite relaxed because Mam did no housework once we'd all got in and we spent the evenings together, we'd play card games, board games or just watch the television.

Possibly we'd have had more money if Mam had gone out to work and there were things we didn't have that other kids did but I didn't notice to be honest. The one time I did ask for something big - a trip to France with the school when I was 12 (1978), I had the complete cost for the trip within a week, apparently, they'd just been waiting for me to ask and had been saving up for it..


They had no debt, didn't tick on and we possibly had better meals than those around because Mam made EVERYTHING herself. Her cooking was legendary and she'd be asked to bake for fetes, fayres and parties. I was the most popular girl on a Saturday afternoon because they knew that Mam did her week's baking on a Saturday morning and the old cakes were thrown out on a Saturday afternoon. The bairns around us would rather have had Mam's 'stale' cakes than what they got at the shops.

If she disliked her role she didn't say. She knew what it was to work, she got her first job at 14 after leaving school and didn't get married until she was 28 when Dad asked her to make the change. She didn't have another paid job (looking after us and her voluntary work (various committees and baking for functions, organising street parties etc) were work enough) again.

Answer 2

If we were transported back to the 50's, there would be no choice. Without a washing machine, tumble drier, dishwasher, microwave oven or even a fridge, women in the 50's who had a family to look after worked 24/7 just to keep everyone fed and everything clean. Our mum had four of us to look after. Go out to work? Not an option!

When I became a mum in the 80's I was fortunate enough to be able to spend the first 5 years at home with our little boy. Wouldn't have had it any other way. Today, most families need to have mum and dad out at work just to pay the mortgage and other expenses. It's a real shame because I think the children miss out. We were never 'latch-door-key kids' because our mum was always there for us. We may have been poor, but we were very secure and knew we were loved. Some things money just can't buy!

Answer 3

Yes. I'm quite happy if someone wants to support me while I create a safe, loving home environment for them. I believed the feminist manifesto when I was growing up, now I realise how much the entire nation has lost through the breakdown of family values that happened after it became expected for both spouses to work.
It's cool if the woman wants to work and the man wants to be the stay at home parent, but kids need stability which is what they no longer have. We have robbed the future generations.

Answer 4

No I wouldnt - my grandparents brought up their 5 children in the 1950s and my gran still went to work. She had a pHD and taught Chemistry at a local grammer school. They had seperate bank accounts as well. So if they could do it then so could I.

I do not mean this offensively to anyone but being a housewife would bore me. I would feel claustaphobic and trapped at home, without my own money, having to rely on my husband for hand outs and ask his permission for everything

Answer 5

For sure, that's what I hope to be doing in the 2010's. Men still have the minds of men and women still of the minds of women, underneath all this modern gobbledyguk. I believe that the best thing a woman can do for the world is to be a good wife to her husband and a good mother to her children. Whatever woman feels like that isn't good enough has some sort of ego problem.

Answer 6

Wow! Someone turned it into a racial debate!

No, I don't like domestic life, kids drive me insane, and being around the house is so boring, I'm a restless person. Women back then were either nurses or secretaries and made less money than their male counterparts. And if the guy was the one working and one day decided to up and leave, the woman would have no income to fall back on.

Answer 7

No I would take ever microfish disc I could find on past pools and horse racing winners and come back loaded with gold which I would have exchanged for the currency of that time. Forget staying at home with babies.

Answer 8

I did that anyway, and by kids were born in the 80s

Answer 9

What husband? What kids? I'd still be a happily single woman.

Answer 10

Yea!! those were the days...common sense ruled.