Empty Nest Mummy

It’s all change since we were kids. The world is a whole different place now. There are so many experiences that we had that our own kids just won’t get. Here’s my Top 5 things that our kids just won’t understand.

1. Phoneboxes

In the olden days, when I was growing up, we didn’t have a phone in our house. Actually, hardly anybody had a phone in their house in my earlier years. On the rare occasion that you needed to make a phone call, you’d scrape around for 10p and walk to the phone box to make a call. All kids did it. But it was a rare occasion as, of course, hardly anybody else had a phone in their house either! No phones. And nobody to call.

Fast-forward 35 years and you won’t find any kids walking down the street to the phone box, clutching a 10p in their grubby little hand.

If they’re walking down the street with anything in their hand these days, it’s likely to be a mobile phone. Their very own mobile phone.

And, for many, it’s stuck to them like glue. Or like an extension of their hand.

2. Waiting for the Adverts to Finish

Do you remember the days of adverts? Of watching through all the adverts? Waiting for the next part of your programme to come on?

…and singing the catchphrases to the adverts as you waited?

In our house now, all the stuff the kids watch on TV is pre-recorded and they fast-forward through the adverts.

Instant gratification! No more hanging about, watching tedious adverts, waiting for the next part of your show to come on.

I guess there is a plus side to this. And it’s a big plus side. I’m not continually plagued with requests for toys they’ve seen on the adverts!

3. Kids’ TV on a Saturday Morning

For me, Saturday mornings were the highlight of the week.

My sisters and I would spring out of our beds and race each other down the stairs, jostling all the way, to get prime position on the sofa, to be ready….

….ready for Saturday morning kids’ TV.

For as long as our parents would let us, we would sit, goggle-eyed, getting our weekly fix of cartoons, custard pies and general slapstick tomfoolery.

We were avid fans of Wide Awake Club, of No. 73 and then, later on, of Going Live! Actually, we were avid fans of anything that they put on the telly on Saturday mornings.

But it wasn’t just us. Watching Kids’ TV on Saturday mornings was what everybody did. Mention Timmy Mallett to anyone in the 35 to 45 age range, and they’ll instantly picture an odd guy whacking small kids over the head with a giant foam mallet.

But our kids just won’t understand the whole draw of Saturday morning TV.

Now, they have kids’ TV at any time, day or night. There’s whole channels devoted to nothing but kids’ TV. All the Kids’ TV you could possibly want, and then some.

But, you know what? It has kind of killed Saturday mornings for me. What about you?

4. Trawling through the Encyclopaedia

Do you remember doing your homework when you were a kid?

I do.

I’d get so far using what I already knew, then resort to the Encyclopaedia.

Although it wasn’t just one encyclopaedia. We were one of the many families who collected an entire range of them, section by section. Probably by the time we finally had the whole set, the information was massively out of date.

Just trawling through from one book, then to the next one referred to, then onto another one that we probably hadn’t even collected yet, took an age.

And our kids will never understand what a pain in the arse that was.

Now, everything you could possibly want to know, and a whole lot more, is right there, at your fingertips. Just type your question into Google and all is revealed. The knowledge of the world. Right there. Right now. And without the need to get those bloody heavy books down off the shelf.

5. Getting Bored

There’s a lot I remember about my childhood. Freedom. Long sunny days.

And getting bored.

Dear God, but I remember getting bored.

OK, so we had hours on Saturday morning going goggle-eyed in front of Kids’ TV. And bloody hours trawling through the cursed encyclopaedia.

But, when we weren’t doing that, we did a lot of getting bored. Or, ‘making our own entertainment’ as it was probably called back in the Olden Days.

But kids now don’t really get bored. They don’t really get the chance to. We are constantly off to a birthday party, or ballet, or football, or drama. Or gymnastics. Or swimming.

In this modern life of near-endless scheduled activities, our kids will never understand how it feels to be bored. Not really bored. Not bored like we were in the 70s and 80s.

Fellow parents of The Olden Days, what things do you think our kids won’t understand? And which childhood is best? Ours, with all its waiting for stuff and boredom? Or theirs, with everything available right now, at the click of a button?

I’d love to know your thoughts. Let me know what you think in the Comments section.

(If you liked this, you might also like Parenting Styles: Now v The 70s)