Do you remember the joy ?

often taking a child back with him. (One of ours obviously, not a random one) oh that really gave me a laugh! Thank you GG13 - joy in itself right now. x

We lived in very hot Middle Eastern climates until dds were 10 and 7, so I well remember their delight when we were home for summer hols - and it rained! They were so excited to see rain!

Similarly, it did just once rain during one of my classes (I was teaching EFL) and my students, mostly young males, all joyfully rushed outside to experience it. They called it ‘God’s bounty’.
I’m sure some of us have felt much the same recently about rain!

The pram and the canopy. Lovely memories. I saw a small child crunched into a buggy this morning with hot sun already on his legs and remembered how lovely a pram was for a small child. A hot water bottle and blankets in the winter and a canopy with a broderie anglais cover and legs free to kick and be cool. Joy for me...and for the DC

I agree with henetha joy is in short supply these days. Having got over several illnesses and a hospital admission DH has now fallen over while out for a walk and cracked his ribs which curtails our joy for a while AGAIN!!! I'm horrible aren't I?

OH and FIL were always busy combining so a highlight of the day would be taking their tea "up the fields" when we would all have a picnic sitting on newly made bales of straw. Sometimes the kids would then travel home on top of a trailer loaded with the bales (no health and safety in those days!)

I would put my youngest wearing just a nappy in his big pram underneath a canopy in the shade in the garden. The eldest one would splash around in the paddling pool and I would hang out the nappies on the line. Happy days marred only by the severe eczema of the eldest which got much worse in the hot weather.

Yes, I love that I can wash dry and wear all in the same day!

When I retired I bought myself a sun lounger- thinking that I would have time just to sit and read a book in the sunshine.

How wrong was I?

It just doesn't happen. So yes, I do get nostalgic for the days when my skin was worth showing off...!

I would water my plants in the evening when it was cooler. Watering the hanging baskets out the front, I would take so much joy peeping into the front room and seeing my DH (now passed away), and our children and step children all chatting and laughing together.
I can almost not bear to do it now, it makes me so sad.

I loved to see the nappies hanging in a row on the line.

Long summers spent with the children at my family home, on the beach by 9am and often still there at 9pm. My mum, sister and their friends and children would be there as well. Lunch from a shack on the beach, probably fresh grilled sardines, crusty bread, salad and fruit. DH would fly out for two weeks and sometimes drive down with a friend and a boat, often taking a child back with him. (One of ours obviously, not a random one)

If we were at our house over the summer, if I wasn’t working we would be at a country park or the local beach with friends and their children.

Lovely memories, when together our AC often talk about how long the summers seemed when they were younger.

Now we spend summer days on the beach or at the same parks with our GC, the circle of life

my children were born in the 70's when they were about 4 or 5 years old in the summer we used to make sandwiches pack a bag with towels swimsuits head off on the bus, we had no car then, to the beach which was 15 miles away, we bought the drinks when we got there, we'd spend hours there then buy bags of chips before heading back home to get O H's dinner ready for him coming home from work. simple pleasures but these are the ones we remember

I can remember creating a splash pool in the garden by placing the bottom of the slide in a pretty large paddling pool with just enough water to whizz through the pool on to the lawn. Something that kept them amused for ages on hot sunny days, although ultimately I don't think it did the paddling pool any good, I seem to remember replacing them from time to time Frequently during the long school summer holiday, days spent at the outdoor swimming pool at the club where we were members and picnics in local parks, loading their bikes on the back of my car, or we took roller blades, football as well as the picnic box, where instant friendships were struck up with other children around, particularly with a ball game, that would be an afternoon's entertainment. I do feel very nostalgic for those days. My children often wax lyrical about their childhood which makes me feel I got something right.

Oh yes and canoes. We used to canoe a lot - from south of Totnes and up and down the river. Stopping on beaches and building camp fires melting that horrible sticky squashy stuff on sticks.

Our house was a bit of a gathering place for all the little kids up the street and backing on to it. Often we had a dozen at mealtimes and in and out of the back door. Happy days and really safe then, didn’t hear of any pervs around or come across any nasty incidents at all.

My joy was ranging the countryside and beaches. We were never in. From moors to beach.

The children spent hours and hours on their various projects from making dens to dams in the river to surfing.

Glorious times. And we repeated the whole thing with our grandsons when it was our turn to look after them.

Winter was the time for indoor stuff like museums and theatre etc.

My joy was jaunts out with my 2. DH was away from home a lot in the summer and I used to collect tokens from Persil packets for £1 railway tickets. I then offered my children £5 and £10 outings. 2 £5 outings or one £10. The difference being that with one we took sandwiches and drinks with us, the more expensive included lunch at Mcdonalds. The children usually opted for the £5 outings.

From our home in Reading we went all over the place, including Bath, but mostly to London. Museums were free and we found so many smaller less well known places to go. Occasionally we took friends, but usually it was just the three of us.

When had a slide in the garden. Every child in the street played on it.

I loved hearing my two boys singing 🎶 in the morning, happy as they got ready to go school.

Yes, joy doesn't seem to figure in life much now for many of us. I recall the joy of taking my children on the beach day after day in the school holidays. We lived in Torquay, so lots of beaches to choose from. I taught them to swim at an early age and it was wonderful to see them loving it so.

Thank you for this thread. I was beginning to forget what joy was.

My joyful moment was walking DC to school and coming home to fill the paddling pool. They were so excited to see it waiting for them. Lots of fun with the pool and the hose.

I love doing any washing at the moment and it drying so quickly.

Yes Floradora9 I loved doing the laundry and drying the washing at unconventional times. Another “small pleasurel -this was early 1990s, was leaving the front door propped wide open all night. No worries then.

It was so hot we rolled the hall carpet up, wrapped it in plastic decorators sheets and put it in the cellar just to have the pleasure of walking on the original cold Minton tiles. Bliss!