Monday 8 February 2010

In my day

You realise how different a childhood your children are having compared to your own when...

They think having 2 foreign holidays, a school trip and a few weekends away per year are the norm.

Your children's friends go on holiday to places like Peru, China, Iceland and Vietnam.

Your 18 year old brings home a school friend who has never eaten a chip butty.

You have friends (in the plural) whose children play the harp, it used to be the cello but that's just ordinary now.

Your children don't even think that not going to university and getting a job is an option.

Your own son says without a hint of irony that he enjoys swimming but he only likes to swim in his own swimming pool.

17 comments:

Muddling Along said...

Incredible how things change isn't it - but seriously , the harp ???

Nota Bene said...

I remember back in the good old days when a trip down't coal mine was a holiday, we all stood around the old Joanna for entertainment and ate stale bread for supper....

Anonymous said...

I have to admit, I've never had a chip butty either!

auntiegwen said...

MUM - yep, the harp, mind you, playing at weddings every Saturday should give them a nice little job to see them through uni !

NB - don't forget the whippets

Mud - yeah but you're from Fulham, how did you get through student years without them? or will this show the North/South divide?

Anonymous said...

I work with a woman who hadn't eaten moussaka until late last year.

She's 47.

It makes it easier to believe that there MAY be someone in the UK who's never eaten a chip butty.

AGuidingLife said...

My father never went on a plane. My daughter has clocked up enough personal airmiles with Emirates to get her a free flight to Dubai!

Personally I think swimming in one's own pool is the ONLY option (hence I don't bother swimming hahaha)

Anonymous said...

Auntie: my Uni years were over shadowed by pasta and pesto, with a light shaving of parmasan....(OK the last comment is a p1ss take)

You hate me now, don't you!

auntiegwen said...

Matthew - I think I had left home before I tasted a kiwi

Kellogsville - I shamefully have only been in our pool twice in 5 years and 1 of them was to have sex (we had been married a LONG time)

Mud - I'm your auntie, I'll always love you. My student days were full of jacket potatoes, I think I must have had them daily !

libby said...

Lawd 'elp us...what'll the grand children be like???
Chip butties...ooh now you're talking....and although I do not own my own pool (yet another thing to feel bad about..darn) I agree with your son...our local pool is free swimming...but the world and his wife (and possibly dog)are using it and I would rather not...when on holiday (rentals) I spend hours just slowly ploughing up and down pools and swear that one day when I'm rich I'll have my own. When I was young we had no phone/central heating/double glazing and had to eat what was given to us (Kiwi? avocado? are you mad? on a council estate?)and seriously are'nt we all glad that our kids are able to have and experience so much??

Laura said...

Serioulsy I can't imagine anyone in my town playing the harp, drinking harp now that's a diffrent matter.

Mrs Worthington said...

This made me smile in a nostalgic way. When wearing a label was St Michael's, the fact you could even swim was a blessing, I confess to being able to play the harp, not eating a Chip butty is a crime.
When our holidays consited of caravans trips to wet Kirkudbright & generally with relatives. I think we mnay have even been beaten with glass bottles before getting out of our cardbox hovels.

Shirley said...

I had to Google "chip butty" to find out what I've been missing all these years. Sounds okay, but maybe with some avocado and kiwi on it. ;-)

Helena said...

God, all I wanted for my childhood was a mother who took interest in me!

Haven't quite managed the same for mine but I do have a nephew at classical music school at a tremendous cost to his family! Here's hoping he's actually got the talent to carry him through!

My guys once made a water slide up the garden that gave them hours of fun, so I guess they deserve some credit for improvisation!

Expat mum said...

By virtue of a husband who travels a lot, (air miles) my kids have never flown the Atlantic in anything less than business class. Oh how I laugh when I think of what will happen when we run out of miles!!!

menopausaloldbag (MOB) said...

Long live the changes I say! just think what we might have been if some of those opportunities were available to us eh? A friend at school invited us to her birthday party - we had to listen to her granpa play the bloody spoons for God's sake, he followed that with a jamming session on the comb and paper. Priceless! Thank God for progress, I say!

Rarelesserspotted said...

Jeez life has changed, my dad never got a car until I was 14, we could never afford one and my wife never been abroad for a holiday or anything else until after we had married and she was 28!
xx

auntiegwen said...

Libby - I am glad that we've been able to provide them with such opportunities

Lolly - yep, the harp, not many of them where I grew up either. Can you imagine trying to get that on and off a corpie bus? and the pelters you'd take for that?

Mrs W - the delights of Kirkcudbright, eh ? we were grateful for Troon.:) xx

Shirley - ah yes, the chip butty, I still love em but not with healthy things on, salt, vinegar and ketchup

Lena - I wish all children had interested parents, the rest is all trimmings really xx

Expat Mum - OMG they'll have to turn right, I hope you prepare them well and provide some sort of counselling after :)

Mob - I do kinda miss the homemade entertainment (although not the spoons or the comb and paper), we were always putting on shows for the neighbours and picnics and stuff that didn't cost much, my kids usually have to spend money to enjoy themselves and that's the bit I find sad. Like you say, the rest is progress

RLS - I know, funny to think our kids will look back and think they had nothing in the same way I do :)xx