Life was so much easier when we were children – it didn’t seem it of course, as a kid it feels like the adults have everything, you get nothing and life is just hard and unfair!

On the other hand, we also realised how happy we were and we really didn’t need a lot to be happy, the most basic things could be made in to a game, and because things hadn’t developed technologically, the stuff we had was state of the art.

The long and the short of it? Kids these days just don’t realise the things we didn’t have and can’t imagine we were happy without them…..

Finding out stuff….

It wasn’t as simple as booting up the computer and logging on to Google – we either had to get out one of the tomes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica or else get ourselves to the library to find the answer we needed. So it was never quite as quick as “Alexa, what is…..”! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

Buying the latest stuff…..

You couldn’t just log on to Amazon (other retailers are available!), and order the latest film then have it arrive the next morning- you had to leave the house! You had to go in to town and actually enter a proper shop and even, dare I say it, speak to someone! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

Board Games were just that…

Board games were board games, they are trying to reinvent the classics and making them more and more complex and complicated! They don’t need to be, they’ve worked as they are for decades, so leave them be! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

Football was affordable…

The cost of going to a football match has risen so much, not just with the inflation since then but because of the wages of the players and the cost of the TV rights etc. It’s become difficult for families to enjoy it together as 3 tickets will set you back in excess of £100 even for a Championship match! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

There were police on the street…

Image result for 1980s uk police

You could actually go out and see police on the street doing their beat, and most neighbourhoods would even know their local Bobby on the beat by name. It felt so much safer! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

It would take 15 minutes to load a video game…

Image result for amstrad game loading screen

That’s right, you’d put your cassette in, start to load it and see the familiar stripes load across the screen along with the infamous loading noise. Then it would crash. And you’d have to start again! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

There were only 4 channels…

Image result for uk TV 1980s

And yet they somehow managed to have far more that you actually wanted to watch! But you couldn’t sit there idly flicking through the channels for an hour before deciding there’s not actually anything on! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

If you didn’t buy a TV guide you didn’t know what was on…

Image result for radio times 1980s

There were no apps and no on-screen TV guides like there are now. You had to get a TV guide each week or else you wouldn’t know what was actually going to be on! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

And you had to buy TWO TV guides!

Image result for tv times christmas 1983

That’s right, you had to buy the Radio Times for BBC and the TV Times for ITV and Channel 4! I never understood why. Kids today don’t know they’re born!

Interactive TV meant playing Bamboozle…

Image result for bamboozle teletext

The ultimate interactive TV quiz, Bamboozle was the daily quiz of general knowledge that let you test your mettle against Bamber Boozler and his family. They don’t make them like this anymore. Kids today don’t know they’re born!

Unless you made plans, you never heard from your mates after school…

Image result for school friends in the 80s UK

None of this social media stuff, if you didn’t make plans whilst with them, you’d say bye to your mates on a Friday afternoon and not hear from them again until the following Monday. No mobiles or anything else, and people didn’t have everyone else’s home number then either. Kids today don’t know they’re born!

People didn’t have two TVs…

Image result for 1980s tv set

So if you wanted to watch something and the TV was already in use, there was either a fight or it was first come, first serve! We certainly didn’t have 32″ Flat Screen TVs in our bedrooms! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

You had to queue to get in to the cinema and you couldn’t pre-book…

Image result for Cinema 1980s queue UK

That’s right, if there was a big movie released, you would have to queue up to get the ticket, which meant getting there an hour before the performance. I remember the queue at the Odeon in Middlesbrough used to go round the block! And yes, there were times you would queue just for the person in front of you to buy the last ticket!! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

If you loved a film at the cinema, you would have to wait a long time for the video…

Image result for return of the jedi vhs uk

None of this going to see it at the cinema and it being on DVD within 4 – 6 months. In the 1980s if you loved a film at the cinema it would be 18 months – 2 years before you could watch it again as that’s how long it would take for it to be released on VHS! It used to seem like forever before being able to see it again and you certainly couldn’t stream it! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

And then after that wait, your video player would go wrong and chew it up…

Image result for VHS Chewed up

The feeling of sickness sinking in your stomach when you heard the churning and grinding. You race to the video player in the hope it’s not too late. You hit stop and eject. And nothing happens. You keep pressing eject and finally it slowly releases. But not all the way. You give a slight tug and it won’t fully release, you ease it out, and the tape is pulling away inside the player. You give one final gentle pull and the tape snaps. You cry. Kids today don’t know they’re born!

You lose what you’ve recorder because of someone else’s carelessness…

Image result for VHS plastic tab

You remember that program you recorded that you’d been waiting for for ages? Or the big film on over Christmas you recorded? Well you forgot to remove the tab on the tape so it couldn’t be recorded over didn’t you? And someone wanted to record some naff program and couldn’t find their own tape so used the one to hand. Your program has been lost forever and there’s nothing you can do. Except cry again because there was no +1 channel back then! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

You couldn’t record multiple channels…

Image result for Video recording 1980s

Want to record one thing whilst also watching a recording another? Tough luck. The thing you’re watching now you’ll probably never see again because you’re so selfish there are two things you want to see!! None of this recording 3 programs whilst watching another nonsense back then! Kids today don’t know they’re born!

What other memories make you think kids today simply have it far too easy, and yet nowhere near as good as we had it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments as always!