(upbeat music)
- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel!
In today's video, I'm going to be doing
a day in the life of a 1950's housewife.
I thought this would be so much fun to do,
and I actually got the idea from Love Megs channel,
she made a video like this, and I enjoyed it so much,
that I wanted to make my own.
But this one will be slightly different
because this is a day in the life
of a British 1950's house wife,
so all of the research I have done
is about women in the UK at that time.
So I really hope you like it,
I've used a few different books to research this,
and I've got like really into it,
it's just so interesting how they used to live,
and I also spoke at length to my mother
about my grandma and how she was a mother in the 1950's,
and things that they would do.
Yes so to the best of my ability,
I'm going to live like a 1950's housewife all day long,
and that means things like no technology,
no phone, no email, there's just a few things
that I have had to cheat on,
for instance, I'm using the normal nappies that we use,
instead of cloth nappies, and if the kids go out in the car,
we're obviously gonna use car seats
and safety things like that.
But pretty much this is our 1950's day.
So I really hope you enjoy this video,
and make sure you stay tuned to the end,
because at the end I will be giving
a little rundown of things that I liked
and things that I didn't like, and my experience in general.
So yeah, if you enjoy this give it a thumbs up
and don't forget to subscribe if you're new.
Let me know what you think, and now let's step back in time.
Okay, so first things first,
the night before I did this day in the life,
I went to the salon and had my hair blow dried
and pin curled, because back in the 1950's
you would just have your hair washed once a week
at the salon and put into curls like this.
I'm also wearing a nightie on this morning
because back then they would wear nighties.
I actually found this one on ASOS,
and it's really cute, it has rainbows all over it,
and I actually love wearing it as well.
The hardest thing about this day was taking
the technology away from the children.
Obviously there were no iPads
and things like that back then.
For breakfast they would have toast,
cold cereal, porridge and things like that.
I'm actually making porridge on the stove this morning
because obviously they didn't have microwaves.
I would normally do it in a microwave,
and I'm just making simple toast.
Because the war didn't end until the 50's,
there was still rationing until 1954,
so although I would immediately
think of like an English breakfast,
they actually had a much more simple breakfast,
and I'm having a cup of tea this morning.
Back then they would not have used tea bags though,
they would have had loose tea leaves,
and if they wanted a coffee they would have
ground it themselves each morning.
So I'm just going to feed the boys
and then I'm going to go off and get ready for the day.
So I'm gonna put on a full face of makeup,
and this actually wasn't that different
for me because I do put on makeup every single morning,
and then I'm going to see how my hair has turned out.
Oh I love it!
Oh my gosh.
I was surprised at how well the curls turned out
and how comfortable they were to sleep on,
and I will show you what I'm wearing today.
I'm not actually wearing any earrings,
because back then lots of women
didn't have their ears pierced,
and I'm just gonna wear a very simple dress
to get on with my housework duties today.
The hardest thing for me to do all day
was to ask Matt for money before he left for the day.
Back then there would be one breadwinner
and you would have to ask for your allowance,
and that was really really difficult,
because I'm so used to having all of my own money,
and now I'm gonna take Fraser off to school,
and on the way home Jackson fell asleep.
We're back from the school run,
and I did cheat a little bit because I took the car,
and in the 1950's a family would have just one car,
and it would go to work with your husband.
So you would have had to have walked or taken the bus,
but I did drive, so (laughing).
But I'm back now, and my baby Jackson is just having a nap,
so I'm going to get on with the housework,
because that is my role as a housewife.
So I have now put on a little like pinny,
to protect my dress, and I am loving my hair so much,
I'm so gonna actually do this.
But to protect my hair, I'm going to put it up
and put like a little scarf on,
because back then that is what you did
so you wouldn't get dust and stuff in your hair.
So I'm gonna put a little scarf on,
and get on with the housework.
So first of all I'm gonna clean up from breakfast,
and then I'm gonna get on with all of my other duties.
While I was researching this I could not believe
how much cleaning they would do in a day.
They'd basically do my weekly cleaning routine every day.
And obviously there were no dishwashers back then,
so I had to wash the dishes by hand,
and I did this three times today,
and I've really missed my dishwasher by the end of it.
Then I'm gonna straighten out the kids toy areas,
but in the 1950's kids would not have had
anywhere near this many toys.
They luckily did have Hoover's though,
they were invented in 1951, so I could vacuum,
and they would dust every single day as well,
where as currently I dust every week.
And they also had washing machines.
They weren't obviously as advanced as they are now,
but I could put a load of laundry on.
Then I'm just gonna go upstairs and make all of the beds.
The one chore that fascinated me the most
and one we really don't do anymore,
is how much pride women took on
how clean their front step was.
This was a big tradition back in the 50's,
women would sweep their steps and then wash them.
The would wash them and polish their front stone once a week
and you know, you could tell a lot from
how clean a woman's front step was.
Obviously the roads back then were made of dirt as well,
so they would get really quite dirty,
and your front step would actually be made of stone,
so you would polish it.
This was called Donkey Stoning,
I think it was more popular up north,
but this was like a big thing to do,
and women would get very competitive
on how clean their front step was,
and it also became quite a social thing
because all the women would do it
at the same time in the street,
and they would also use that time to gossip and catch up.
And now I'm going to plan dinner for this evening.
Back in the 1950's women would go
food shopping every single day.
They had very small fridges and whereas
I would now get recipes from the internet,
obviously I'm gonna have to use a recipe book.
And my mother would have taught me growing up
to keep an accounts book, so I'm gonna make a note
of how much money I've been given by my husband
and then work out what I can make with that budget,
and apparently the butcher would become your best friend
because you could literally go to your butcher and say,
I only have a pound today,
what meat can I get to feed my husband?
And they would always work from a list
and not kind of of off of that list or impulse buy,
because that would obviously cost more money.
At about 11 o'clock every morning,
housewives were allowed to take a little break.
So they would either listen to the radio
or swat up on how to be an even better wife.
Jackson just woke up from his nap, and I swear, look at him.
He has been looking me up and down.
He looked at my lipstick, he looked for my scarf thing,
and he looked at my apron,
he just looked at me and was like, what is going on?
Now that I have my list, I'm going to freshen up
before we go to the shops because women would
always try and look their best before they left the house,
and I'm going to walk there today
because obviously I only have one car,
and that has gone to work with my husband.
And I've got Jackson the sweetest little baby bonnet
because this is what babies would wear when they go out.
And it's so funny, I actually think he really liked it.
He's also wearing a little blue cardigan,
but back then they didn't really
have gender specific clothes,
people never knew what they were gonna have,
so babies often wore white, green, or yellow.
(acoustic music)
You like walking more than the car, don't you?
(baby chattering)
You do!
(laughing)
(upbeat acoustic music)
When I got to our local farm shop
and made sure that I stuck to my list,
and I did speak to my butcher,
but I was too chicken to film it.
Back then as well, lots of women would buy canned food
or jarred food because that would keep for even longer.
On the way home I stopped at the park,
I'm pretty sure they had parks back then,
and I wanted to give Jackson some attention.
In the 50's, lots of people thought that babies were
pretty much oblivious to what was going on around them,
and that made me really sad,
so I wanted to stop at the park and play with him,
although I don't really know if
they would do this as much in the 50's.
But I'm running home now,
'cause it looks like it's gonna rain.
I don't have an umbrella.
I would have hated walking to the shops everyday,
even in winter, but now that I'm home
I'm going to put away all my shopping.
I did get ice cream.
Back then there were no freezers,
but they would have an icebox,
so if you bought any frozen food or ice cream,
that was okay, it would keep for the day,
but you'd have to eat it all on that day.
Made it home and we missed the rain,
so that was the result, 'cause I was worrying about my hair.
But I've sweated so much running from the shop,
that it's probably a bit ruined anyway.
But now I'm gonna get on with lunch.
I'm cheating again,
I put a show on TV for Jackson while I make his lunch,
'cause otherwise he would be a little bit bored.
So I tried to get Spam or like meat in a can,
like corned beef, but my local shop didn't have any of that.
So I'd never tried that before,
but apparently that was like a big thing to have in the 50's
you would have like a corned beef sandwich or something.
So I didn't get that.
So the next closest thing I could think of was tuna.
So I'm gonna have a tuna sandwich for lunch.
I fond wearing an apron all day so practical,
I actually really enjoyed wearing it
because I didn't mess my clothes up,
and then after lunch again I had to do the dishes.
Jackson has just gone down for his second nap of the day,
so I'm gonna get on with a bit more cleaning,
and also prepare our dessert for this evening,
because in the 1950's,
you would have a proper dessert every evening,
and it would have been made from scratch.
So I'm making my grandmothers recipe for apple crumble,
so I'm gonna prepare that now,
so that when we are having dinner tonight,
I can just put it in the oven, so yeah.
So this recipe is quite simple,
you just need apples, flour, sugar,
butter, and oatmeal as well,
so it only took me about 20 minutes to prep,
and in the 1950's you would teach your little girls
how to cook and also get them to help you with housework.
Caleb is so used to cooking with me though,
as soon as he got home from preschool,
he really wants to help me, and of course I let him.
So he helped me cook, but you obviously wouldn't need
to teach a boy this when they were young.
And another chore I needed to do once the washing machine
was finished was hang all the laundry out on the line,
because they didn't have tumble dryers back then.
And traditionally after the war, after rationing,
they would have tea and cake at about three o'clock,
but I just couldn't face it, it was just so heavy.
Once my eldest was also home from school,
I decided to take the kids to the park
because I didn't want them to be on the TV
or ask for their iPads, et cetera.
Back then in the 50's, you would just let your kids
play out in the street with other kids,
or play in the garden,
but obviously it's not that safe to do nowadays,
especially at my children's young ages.
So I just took them to the park
and it was actually really nice,
and they were so tired by bedtime,
it was great for them to get all of that fresh air.
I've just got back in from the park,
and the kids are all starving,
so I'm gonna do a really quick like omelet
and maybe some beans or like beans on toast,
something really easy like that.
Because of their ages and they are so young,
they're not gonna last for like the dinner this evening,
and I guess if I hadn't taken them to the park,
I would have just been at home like,
maybe cooking, so I could have made like a proper dinner.
But anyway, that is the situation today.
So I'm gonna go ahead and feed them,
and then try to also put Matt's dinner in the oven.
So back in the 50's people would have meat and two veg,
so I got some very cheap chicken legs from the butchers,
and I'm literally just gonna season them
with salt and pepper and roast them.
That's all they would do.
And I'm also doing some potatoes and some onion.
I think even this is a bit like jazzier than they would do,
and again, I'm just seasoning it with salt and pepper.
And then gonna try and clean the house
because the idea is that your house is like all clean
by the time your husband gets home,
and dinner on the table as well.
And what women would do is go ahead and bath their children
before their husband gets home
so that when their husband did get home,
there would be all these nice clean children,
in clean pajamas, and the house would be clean,
and everything would be lovely,
and it's just so different nowadays.
But I'm going to go ahead and get all three children to bed,
and then I'm also gonna put Matt's dinner in the oven.
The boys are in bed, and the dinner is in the oven,
and Matt is due home in about 15 minutes.
So now it's time for me to freshen up
and get ready to greet my husband.
And in the book that I've been reading
it says that I should greet my husband gaily.
So that's what I will do.
I'm gonna redo my makeup, hair,
and change into like a nicer dress.
(upbeat music)
Right, so I'm totally loving this dress,
but I feel slightly like a crazy person,
and I think Matt is gonna think I've lost the plot,
because I got this Amazon really cheap,
and it's like a proper 50's dress.
I love it!
I think I may have taken this video a bit too far.
Anyways, before Matt gets home,
I'm just going to set the table, and back then as well,
you would lay out their newspaper for them to read,
their cigarettes, and a drink.
Matt doesn't smoke or drink,
so I've just got a Coke for him,
because that is something that he likes.
Then all I have to do is greet my husband gaily at the door,
who is probably wondering what on earth is going on.
And then I'm going to dish up our dinner.
Considering it was quite a plain dinner,
it was actually quite nice, and I think Matt enjoyed it.
Alright, so that is it for this video,
I really hope you enjoyed it,
and now I'm just gonna give a little rundown
of what I liked about the 1950's and what I didn't.
The first things that I really liked were
the fashion and also having my hair done at a salon.
And I think having my hair done somewhere once a week
is an amazing idea, and I have actually booked
my wash and pin curl for next week already.
So that is one thing I might carry on,
and yeah, I love the fashion.
I actually think it's really sweet
that you like freshen up for your husband.
Not that he ever really would notice,
I think half the time when he walks in
we don't even look at each other, but it's just a nice idea.
I mean maybe not to this extent,
but it's a nice idea to maybe like put some perfume on
or something like that.
So I liked all of that, things I didn't like are,
I felt a little bit stressed because
there was just so much to get done,
and it seems like, you know, this pressure to have it
all ready for when your husband gets home.
Where as at the moment, I do have cleaning jobs
and things like that that have to get done,
but if they're not done by the time Matt gets home,
like, he's not gonna care.
I also missed the dishwasher so much.
That is like the best invention ever,
and I missed the tumble dryer as well.
While I was researching for this video
I found myself getting really angry
at some of the things that I read.
Things like, it's unwomanly to go to university,
and like, a housewife should know her place,
and that housewives shouldn't complain,
and that if my husband comes home late,
or not at all, I shouldn't ask him where he's been.
And also when he gets in, (laughing),
one thing said that I should talk
in like a soft spoken voice,
and let him do all the talking
because what he has to say is more important
than what I have to say.
So I found myself getting really
angry when I was reading it,
and I wouldn't consider myself like,
some big feminist at all, like considered nowadays,
yeah but in the 1950's I definitely would have been
campaigning for women's rights,
and I would have missed working so much.
Being a housewife and a stay at home mom
is a massive job in itself,
but I found myself wanting to reach for my phone
and my emails and like, I don't know,
I like having my channel, I like having a thing,
and I've always worked alongside, you know,
being a mom and stuff,
and I think if it was just day in day out,
you know, looking after your husband and kids,
I think maybe, unless you were appreciated by your husband,
you'd feel a bit like, I don't know.
But then back then maybe they thought
that that was like the best job in the world.
I don't know, but I think I definitely
would have missed working,
and my mom told me a story about my grandma.
She had four children, and you know,
she was a stay at home housewife,
and once her four children were all like a bit older
and off to school, she said to my grandpa, her husband,
that she would like to volunteer and help this charity.
So she was just gonna literally volunteer her time
for something to do, and apparently they
had a massive argument about it,
because he did not want a wife of his
to work in any capacity.
She wasn't even gonna earn money,
she was just gonna volunteer.
But like even that was a problem.
So it's interesting and yeah,
I've really enjoyed doing this.
I found it so much fun to like research it and stuff,
I know I've gone a bit like,
it started out as like a fun cute blog,
and now it's ended up as like some crazy like,
long winded video.
But I've really enjoyed it,
and I think I should have studied history
because I find it all so fascinating.
But yeah, let me know in the comments below what you think,
and if you want me to do the next decade,
the 1960's, I will definitely do that for you,
and yeah, thanks so much for watching,
and I will see you soon, bye guys!
This apple crumble would feed about nine people,
and I burnt it a bit.