When I was little a day at the beach involved taking a flask of tea, and disposable cardboard cups, then using those cups to make sandcastles (wasteful I know, but it was the 90s), making slate pencils to draw on stones, buying the cheapest lemon ice lollies because they were the "only ones" that had the right sticks for making rafts.
Now I'm grown and a parent, I realise that they were all free/super cheap. We had very little growing up, so meeting my cousins at the beach for a day when they were on holiday was a huge treat. I genuinely didn't notice that I was having a different beach experience than those with floats or body boards. I just thought we had our special family things.
Just goes to show, what kids value is time to play, and it doesn't need to cost the earth. My son does have a body board, and a floatie, but we have also been making slate pencils and he thinks it's awesome.
by Gingersnapandabrew
29 comments
Well said, money does not equal the best memories.
Makes your emotional thinking about the parents
Prefect for exploring and using ones imagination 🫡
It’s all too easy to forget the simple things in our modern, super-connected, desperately rushing world.
It’s lovely to read the simple stories of how things were better, even without the money to afford much back then.
And isn’t that great that they protected you from that knowledge. As a child who was made very aware I was really poor compared to my peers,
Spent every summer as a kid at my nans in Clacton, we’d spend hours on the beach playing. Used to love going on the pier and the arcades too, really good cherished memories. We scattered my nan and grandads ashes at a spot that we would always go to on the coast.
I want to make rafts out of lolly pops now
I mean, I hear ya, but what would an entitled rich kid’s beach day look like?
Also a lot of kids don’t get beach holidays at all
What a lovely reflection share OP. Thank you.
It’s the love that really matters. Not the things. The things are nice but the love is the most important thing. As you’ve shown through your experiences.
We’re on a budget, not too tight. But we are making the final week each month by the skin of our teeth just now.
I found what my seven year old daughters wants more than anything is our time and to be seen. Bellhaven bay near where we live has never seen so many stone and sand Hill forts, created by giants moving chunks of earth with there mountain sized hands.
The rockery in our back garden has one stone or shell for every visit to the beach. To go with the rock garden she is helping to plant.
It’s a privilege to have her.
You had the beach holiday of your parents.
Weirdly, I always prefererred the lemonade ice lollies at the time.
Me and my cousin growing up, one of our favourite toys were these two cardboard boxes!
One box was the small TV, the other box we drew a keyboard on it, all to emulate his older brothers posh Commedor 64 that we used to watch him play RPG games on.
We would sit and play our own imaginary computer games for hours and hours, or take it up to ~~my uncles garden shed~~ our spy base and use it as the hacking computer.
This proves that people had no money back then as well. It’s ALWAYS been tough for people.
I’m 47 and my parents and grandparents used to talk about the hardships they went through in times of poverty.
It annoys me when the current generation says people used to have it easy.
I mean the actual beach part of a beach holiday is usually very cheap unless you’re into surfing or something like that. It’s the accommodation that’s expensive. We used to happily spend like 6 hours on the beach with just a bucket and net catching crabs and little fish everyday.
This is really poignant and really sweet. Your family sound like wise and lovely people.
My mate’s dad used to get up early, go down to the beach and bury a load of loose change in the sand. Then he’d bring the family down to that spot and pretend he’d found some money, so the kids would spend the next few hours busily scouring for money. Genius.
Money is a cover for lacking imagination.
We made our own sandwiches and and beach awning, literally refugee style 😭😭 but I always had the best time, even more happy than kids with so many expensive hobbies
As a kid in the 70s I knew we were we were not well-off – by the toys school-friends had when I was invited for tea. Even in our neighbourhood, other kids got better presents for birthdays and Christmas.
We also took a flask to the beach – but we had enamel mugs which, in the long run, must have worked out cheaper than disposable paper/plastic cups. This would have been decided on cost, not the environment. Few people in the 1970s were environmentally conscious – those who were, were seen as “hippy types”.
On the other hand, the parents of one of my school-friends split up when he was only 8. His dad moved away so he hardly ever saw him. This made me think the latest Action Man with “realistic gripping hands” was maybe not so important after all.
I’m sure you are a better person for it and love your parents dearly for giving you fond memories while hiding their struggles from you. 😍
My parents struggled to and my mum made all of our clothes instead of going to shops. I still tell her today how I loved the dresses etc she made for me. Xxx
I never felt poor growing up, as my family had a way of enjoying what we did have.
It’s only now I’m older, I see how many things we didn’t have, but I treasure those special moments, we wouldn’t have had if we had money.
What great parenting. They didn’t have much financially but they spent time making sure you had wonderful memories of your childhood. Toys and floats break and get lost. Memories live forever.
My kids know that we are on the poorer side. I’m a single mom with one income and zero child support. It actually started with Christmas because one year I didn’t have any way to get them salvation army gifts so they’d have to be okay with what I could do on my own. I told them Santa isn’t real because I didn’t want them having a small Christmas with me and then going to school and seeing their peers with all this crazy shit that “Santa” brought them and feeling bad about themselves because Santa didn’t give them the same treatment. We still had a great Christmas and I was able to get them a few expensive items and several inexpensive items. And it has just gone from there
My daughters say “I want XYZ” and I’m like well you’ve either got to earn that by doing odd jobs or you can wait until I have some free funds which may take a while
Maybe you realise it now, but if they were just beach traditions for you such a long time – those things were good
Heh, I used to wonder why we always had porridge, cheese omelettes and rock cakes, when my mates had frosties, roast chicken, and fondant fancies. Then it hit me later that we were strapped for cash lol
Now that Im raising my children and grinding 7 days a week to make ends meet I really want to go the beach at least once every 4 months. Its a luxury for me and my kids :(. Your childhood are still way more luxury than us :)). Holidays? I dont see it in 5 years time! Break time? Its a No. Bank holidays = work😅. I only see the kids 1 hours in the morning thats it. Hopefully grinding will pay me back!
Childhood memories are made with the time spent with loved ones, not the money spent on them. The best holidays I remember were caravan holidays and going fishing with my dad.
I remember a big survey in the Scandinavian countries some years back about childhood – the richest countries with the best quality of life, best childcare, excellent education etc. – and the number one thing children wanted more of in their lives was time with their parents. Not more toys, holidays, expensive tech, games, clothes – just time with their parents. I can relate to that. We were very poor when I was little, but my parents were emotionally quite resourceful and very thrifty. We spent a lot of time together, always doing fun things. Looking back, many of my peers lived in bigger houses, their parents had multiple cars, they had all the newest toys, went on fancy holidays – but their parents were distant, didn’t make an effort, the children didn’t feel special etc. I remember lots of peers wanting to come to ours and really liking my mum especially. She was very caring and would immediately start baking something for us when we rocked up. She’d ask what they liked and was just such a fun presence. We could play in the garden, hang out with the chickens, help with gardening, or sometimes we went fishing with my dad. Ironically we had to do those things because we couldn’t afford to buy meat and things like that, so we grew, raised and caught a lot of our food ourselves. But that was quality time together which my peers didn’t have with their parents. I remember going to someone else’s house once and the only thing they did was go to their room and watch telly – alone. And with the door closed because their parents would be cross if they could hear them. They could come home from school and go to their room and watch telly until bedtime without being asked to do anything else, not even a chore or anything, and more or less without speaking to any family members in all that time. Except when they would be handed a plate of dinner that they would then eat alone, still in front of the telly. Day in and day out. At ours we didn’t even have a telly to share! Ironically I remember being a little bit jealous of those who had tellies in their rooms, but in hindsight I realise we lived a much richer life. Even the Saturday at 4am fishing trips make me smile in hindsight, although I often resented them at the time.
We also take for granted how amazing the free museums are in many parts of the U.K. and the value these can have for so many children and adults alike.
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