General Chat

How do you measure happiness?

It's impossible to answer. Poor doesn't mean unhappy does it? I'm sure even during the worst times they fell in love, saw their children being born........danced.......laughed.........

I suspect that as they knew no different and it was life as they knew it they did what most people do even now......made the best of what they have and did the best they could for their families......saving for treats and luxuries if and when. Though I'm guessing their treats wouldn't be a family holiday or a new gadget......... but most likely a bit of toffee or a new second hand pair of shoes.

But I'm sure they had their happy times....despite it all xx

Yes Whirley Im Mel ~ why do you ask?

Muffy you have some very good points there ~ money doesn't buy happiness, but would we be content if we lived back in the day?

i am sure they did and familys did more together

Well lets take Ireland as an example of a country close to us where for the most part the industrial revolution did NOT happen ...mass starvation when the potato crop was blighted in the 1800s, mass emigration to escape that famine, in the power of landlords who stripped the 'peasants' of anything and everything...

over simplified example I grant you...but at least the Industrial revolution in Britain gave to many a chance of a future, if not for themselves then eventually for their children.

As to whether we are happier? the same now as then I suspect.....only the material 'expectations' have changed... and those can't make you happy if your personal life, health etc does not, imo.

Rose x

No i most likely wouldn't be content in their day....but i'm used to a different way of life........they weren't they were living in the here and now just like we are doing......In 100 yrs time it would be interesting to see what our rellies thought of US and how we lived......

Mel I think Whirley was asking you if you were happy and content....or whatever the phrasology was.

Not whether or not you were Mel lol xx

Yes Mel that's what I was asking...........

Medi~eval~angel Today at 21:17 Request review
very true ~ we may have a better quality of life but are we any happier?

Add

We have no idea if they were happy or not, they didn';t know any different that was their life..................

I'm glad for the industrial revolution otherwise my rellies would have stayed in x and I wouldn't be here now lol

Mel if you are measuring family happiness then I think no matter what family came 1st not because of a believe but because they loved their family,

They didn't always like them mind and that is another story

I think people were just as happy or unhappy as we've always been - we don't seem to change much - each generation feels the same things, just against a different backdrop.

Its all hypothetical to me Uzzi x

Im happy Whirley I have everything I could wish for and more than I could wish for as a child ~ Im tarking my family here not material things Im not materialistic

Muffy it all makes for good discussion

Uggers thats very true ~ but would we have prefered to live back in the day?

Thats a very good point Jessie none of us can be sure

Life was simpler then than now Mel.......people knew their place and had no expectations of moving up in life........the class you were born into, was the class in which you stayed.....

They did not expect much out of life, only to see their children grow to an age where they could earn money to make their lives easier.......they did not always choose to have children.......it just happened for them.....

Life and expectations have moved drastically since even the times of my parents........we would not stand for being treated as menials and servants nowadays......we expect respect, wherever we stand on the social scale.....

I would not like to think that any of my forebears yet to be born, would look back on my life as if I lived a life to be sad about.......

Life is what it is, we live it out in the time we are given, and the knowledge of our times.......same as our ancestors did.......and our forebears will in the future....

sally

I don't think so Mel - I'm mostly love life in the here and now:)

some great points there Sally its good to reflect

Well, if you can sleep at night Mel. that's all that counts.


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Medi~eval~angel Today at 21:55 Request review
Its all hypothetical to me Uzzi x

Im happy Whirley I have everything I could wish for and more than I could wish for as a child ~ Im tarking my family here not material things Im not materialistic

I think life was probably tougher but simpler then. We tend to be more dissatisfied now because the media etc. show that there are people who have a more lavish lifestyle, are better looking etc. so we tend to always want more. I don't think I would like to live as my great grandparents did but only because I live a different - and more affluent life - than they did.

Sue x

see Uggers Im prob the opposite my Nan alwes said I was born out of my time though I live and love life in the here and now part of me was born back then

Is that why you are always saying you are old when you are a spring chicken the same as me Mel? lol xx

Whirley I aint sure where your coming from ~ if you mean my conscience its a clear as cyrstal but as an insomniac no I don't very often sleep at night

SueMaid good point about the media

possibly Muffy but at 39 my bones have started creaking more, I think its cos I have always had to look after someone and I grew up very fast