So as an older dad (64) my youngest is just 15. I've 4 in total ranging from 40 to 15 with 31 and 17 in the middle.
This thread is mainly meant to be ammusing as its more about the age gap and tech gap. Last night I was talking to my youngest two about school and how I had to use ink from the inkwell in the desk. Well of all the things that shows an age gap this is one of the classics. Ink/inkwell and a desk capable of holding both simply blew thier minds. The though of a pen that ran out after 10 mins or less quite clearly does not compute to the younger generation.
Thats my starter for 10
Fill you boots
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 20:32
by Jonah Lomas
49 here with 11, 9 and 4 year old daughters.
We went away for a long weekend the other year to a cool beach house and while they were exploring it they came across a stereo with a drawer full of tapes.
They literally no idea what they were. Never seen them before in their lives. Probably never seen a mini system either come to think of it. I asked them to choose a tape and choose a song. The look in their faces when i had to explain that we needed to rewind the tape to the start to play the first song was priceless.
What dad?
You have to rewind it.
How do you do that?
You put it in then press the back button and it does it. Then you can play it from the start. If you don't want to listen to song 2 you have to fast forward it and stop it to check where you are up to in the songs. Unless you had a flash stereo with that auto find next song feature.
What if you want to listen to other music?
Have to change the the tape mate.
*wtf looks*
They don't spend a lot of time in front of the tv or on devices, but even the 4 year old is incredibly tech savvy.
They're never going to have to worry about rewinding a tape with a pencil, or trying to press record at exactly the same time as the dj stops talking and the music starts playing on the radio, and then finding out you forgot to put some sellotape over the anti-record thing you previously snapped off when recording Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 the week before.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 18:17
by Grey Hammer
Told my 13 year old that when I was younger the internet was in black and white. Looked up from her phone so I guess she believed me
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 17:17
by only1billybonds
Crassus.
Great to see you mate thought you'd sacked the place off for good, hope you're well.
Mine had (pedal) go karts when they were younger. When I told them that their grandad made mine using old pram wheels and an old sideboard they wouldnt believe me til they interegated my old man.
The bit that really done them eas when he told them the steering was done by using an old skipping rope. I'm sure our kids think we are all secret aliens!
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 16:25
by Crassus
Great thread this, has made me laugh
Try explaining rag and bone men, what a ha' penny was worth in todays 'new pence' and better still, how imperial measurements relate to decimal
Oh and the old playing out rule that we all had to comply with - home when the street lights came on
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 14:06
by Splodder
"My daughter overheard.... I explained about being little and getting a few pound coins sellotaped in your card and her face was a picture LOL. She just rolled her eyes and said "Weird"
Halfacrown or a ten bob note when i were a lad!
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 10:50
by Mike Oxsaw
One Sunny Day" wrote: ↑17 Jan 2025, 09:52
Surprised anyone wants to admit having young kids, on this forum, what with the "can I borrow a kid for the Ipswich game?" guy, most likely still prowling around here.
Did that poster beat you to it, unfunny gay?
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 10:31
by Nurse Ratched
One Sunny Day" wrote: ↑17 Jan 2025, 09:52
Surprised anyone wants to admit having young kids, on this forum, what with the "can I borrow a kid for the Ipswich game?" guy, most likely still prowling around here.
magic mutley! Best WHO thread of all time.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 09:52
by One Sunny Day
Surprised anyone wants to admit having young kids, on this forum, what with the "can I borrow a kid for the Ipswich game?" guy, most likely still prowling around here.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 09:09
by Russ of the BML
Great thread. Has made me laugh.
Weirdly enough - Only last night me and the missus were discussing my impending birthday... We spoke about having a party - i wasn't too keen but I said "at least I'll get loads of cards with pound coins stuck inside"....
My daughter overheard.... I explained about being little and getting a few pound coins sellotaped in your card and her face was a picture LOL. She just rolled her eyes and said "Weird"
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 07:01
by Monsieur merde de cheval
COOL HAND LUKE" wrote: ↑16 Jan 2025, 08:36
Old dads with young kids - Similar to you, I have 38 and 36 year olds from first marriage, and a 12 year old from this second marriage. I am just a tad older than you.
The 12 year old loves to hear about how we lived in times gone by... she wonders how we survived with no mobile comms. I must confess I look back and wonder about it myself. I had full ST for years, followed the club all over the show in the 70 / early 80s, plus I was a busy nightclub DJ for most of the 70s too, and 'everything' that went with it... It was not unusual for me to leave my family home on a Friday morning with an overnight bag and not be seen again until the following Monday night... Lord knows what my parents went through.
Add onto that ECL football, all the training, nights out with mates and girlfriends, then later renovating property along the way, and it makes me tired just thinking about it. We just made it work - and I reckon we were better off for it, too. I couldn't face todays dating scene with all the constant attention and texts and 'boss' girls with tats, botox, trout lips, shitloads of make-up and bad attitudes.
Our kid is incredibly proficient on the tech stuff, as most of them are these days. Some of her artwork and videos etc are mind blowing to a simple being like me who just about mastered presentation technology in the business world. She's a clever, determined girl, and she's gonna be a shit-kicker for sure. I've just got to stay alive to see it happen!
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 06:45
by only1billybonds
Monsieur
I get accused of lying/taking the piss when I tell them my first pint of lager cost me 28p. Huntingdon Arms,Canning town.
Was the night we beat Fulham at Wembley in 75, ticket for the game was £3.50.
I'm sure they think I've spent their entire lives winding them up.
Two of my favourites are when i tell my lot that we had tele's with legs and toilets with chains. Remember telling why we said 'pull the chain' after using the toilet and they were genuinely speechless.
make sure you pull the chain
...great shout bonzo
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 03:03
by Monsieur merde de cheval
MaryMillingtonsGhost wrote: ↑16 Jan 2025, 20:57
Was born in '66, so never tire of telling the daughters the fact that I was born in the year we (WE) won the World Cup.
Will also NEVER tire of there rolled-eyed response.
Ungrateful cunts
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 17 Jan 2025, 03:02
by Monsieur merde de cheval
RootsRadical wrote: ↑15 Jan 2025, 15:29
I'm 59 with a toddler turning 2 tomorrow.
BIt too early for me to comment on the tech gap but nice to know I'm not the only old dad on here.
Old enough to know better ...I give you 5 yrs.. tops .
Do you own a treadmill?
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 16 Jan 2025, 20:57
by MaryMillingtonsGhost
Was born in '66, so never tire of telling the daughters the fact that I was born in the year we (WE) won the World Cup.
Will also NEVER tire of there rolled-eyed response.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 16 Jan 2025, 19:30
by only1billybonds
Told mine about my 8th birthday and getting a ten bob (50p) note in a card. I was bowling around the sweet shops of Limehouse like a was Bill Gates.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 16 Jan 2025, 19:00
by Alwaysaniron
Some great stories on here... keep them coming.
Tried getting it over the to kids about travel.. We moved from Stratford to West Hampstead just before i was 5 and i had to go to school in Finchley Road. Only one stop on the tube but I used to do it on my own 2d it cost..... Never once paid, always sneaked under the turnstyle and bought crisps with the money. Kids look at me as if I,ve got 2 heads when i try and explain I travelled alone on the tube aged 4....... Differenty times.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 16 Jan 2025, 10:30
by only1billybonds
Russ.
Two of my favourites are when i tell my lot that we had tele's with legs and toilets with chains. Remember telling why we said 'pull the chain' after using the toilet and they were genuinely speechless.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 16 Jan 2025, 09:57
by Russ of the BML
I am not too much of an old dad. 49 with a 14 year old and an 11 year old. Some lovely stories on here and made me laugh and smile.
My addition would be phone boxes. I tell me girls about Saturday mornings, me and my mates would go cinema club and then swimming and then McDonalds. Great days. But I would then go to a phone box, ring my mum and reverse the charges to ask her to come and pick me up.
They were like, what you had phones in a box? So I told them about them and said you have seen phones boxes. And they said they had but never really knew what they were??!!?? Then I tried to explain reversing the charges. Their faces.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 16 Jan 2025, 09:34
by only1billybonds
Plodder.
One of the great things about getting older are grandkids. They are an absolute gift.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 16 Jan 2025, 09:19
by Splodder
Whenever I start to remenisce, my daughter (now 34, I'm 70) would say "during the war......" a la Uncle Albert in Fools and Horses. Started taking her to Upton Park almost as soon as she could walk. We used to go to The Prince of Wales? around the back of Green Street for a swift half before the match. Visited again the next season (we live in the sticks and can only go infrequently) saw the sign and turned the corner. The pub had gone, replaced by flats!
I have a 1 year old grandson now, it's great! Brings back memories.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 16 Jan 2025, 08:51
by oioi
I told a group of teenagers to put their telephones away. They all fell about laughing. "What did the old man say? Telephones? Hahahahaha."
Another time my son walked into the room and asked me what I was doing. I said I was burning a music cd for a mate. He laughed in my face, said "alright grandad" and walked out.
The list is endless.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 16 Jan 2025, 08:36
by COOL HAND LUKE
Old dads with young kids - Similar to you, I have 38 and 36 year olds from first marriage, and a 12 year old from this second marriage. I am just a tad older than you.
The 12 year old loves to hear about how we lived in times gone by... she wonders how we survived with no mobile comms. I must confess I look back and wonder about it myself. I had full ST for years, followed the club all over the show in the 70 / early 80s, plus I was a busy nightclub DJ for most of the 70s too, and 'everything' that went with it... It was not unusual for me to leave my family home on a Friday morning with an overnight bag and not be seen again until the following Monday night... Lord knows what my parents went through.
Add onto that ECL football, all the training, nights out with mates and girlfriends, then later renovating property along the way, and it makes me tired just thinking about it. We just made it work - and I reckon we were better off for it, too. I couldn't face todays dating scene with all the constant attention and texts and 'boss' girls with tats, botox, trout lips, shitloads of make-up and bad attitudes.
Our kid is incredibly proficient on the tech stuff, as most of them are these days. Some of her artwork and videos etc are mind blowing to a simple being like me who just about mastered presentation technology in the business world. She's a clever, determined girl, and she's gonna be a shit-kicker for sure. I've just got to stay alive to see it happen!
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 15 Jan 2025, 19:30
by wils
Nurse Ratched" wrote: ↑15 Jan 2025, 15:59
Obviously not a dad, and I had my children in my mid-20s, but I hope you won't mind me adding an anecdote of my own.
I can't remember how the conversation came about, but when they were in their late teens, my kids couldn't get their heads round how my school friends and I managed our social lives when none of us had mobile phones and our parents wouldn't let us make frivolous calls on the house phone.
Them: "But how did you know when and where to meet up?"
Me: " We just had a conversation about it at school, agreed the time and place and remembered it"
Them: *surprised Pikachu faces*
When I was in Australia in the early 90s calling home was so expensive I did it about once a month. No email. So I wrote letters (you know, pen paper and stamp) to my friends and family. They wrote back. Took weeks.
Pity my kids will never experience that. Facetime in seconds from anywhere now.
As for ages. My eldest was normal age for bloke these days. But the youngest took her time so I was mid 40s by the time she came. I was paranoid about it at the time, thinking I would be conspicuous and self conscious about it. But see plenty others the same and much older these days.
In fact I think the boomers were the anomaly as they were the first generation to have small family sizes. So they did it young and stopped early. The generation before them would have started young but kept going until no more came. Which for a woman would be her 40s and man perhaps a bit older. After the boomers those who were planning a small family delayed having kids until their 30s or 40s.
Re: Old dads with young kids
Posted: 15 Jan 2025, 19:16
by Turk1
I had my kids in my 40's. Similar conversation on the 3 channels and limited time for children's programmes. My eldest, about 6 at the time, said 'Couldn't you just put a dvd on?'
