Back in the day, families were generally large; having between 10 and 14 children wasn’t unusual. When you saw a family with just one or two children, you’d say, “Only two?!”
These days, families have an average of two children. A family with four or more children is huge. Now, those are the families that get stared at when they go out, whether it’s for a family outing or just a trip to the grocery store.
Back in the day, a house had 3 to 4 bedrooms for 10 people.
These days, everyone has to have their own bedroom.
Back in the day, it wasn’t uncommon to have two cribs in use at the same time in the master bedroom.
These days, parents want to get their own bedroom back fairly quickly and make sure the baby doesn’t pick up bad habits or become “too” dependent.
Back in the day, the wood stove was used to heat the house, cook meals, help dry laundry, and so on. It was in the main room right next to the children.
These days, it’s been banned in many multi-unit residential buildings because it’s too dangerous. In a single-family home, there are very specific insurance regulations to follow, and insurance premiums are higher even though we mainly use it to heat our homes in the winter… not to mention the precautions we take to keep our children from getting near it.
Back in the day, it wasn’t uncommon to have two diaper-wearing children at the same time—using cloth diapers and without a washing machine.
These days, many people want to have children close in age—but not too close, so they don’t have to change too many diapers—just close enough so the diapers don’t linger in the house for years. Yes, many families are going back to cloth diapers, but would you really use them if you didn’t have a washing machine?
Things have changed a lot over the years. Is that for the better or for the worse? It depends on the person. There’s a lot we can learn from our grandparents and great-grandparents. For their part, if they’re still with you, they see things they would have loved to have had back in their day.
For me, the stories from my 92-year-old grandmother—who has 14 children, 31 grandchildren, and 42 great-grandchildren (with more on the way)—are always fascinating. She’s seen a lot and lived through a lot, too!
Sophie-Anne