Back in time...1930's

Mami and I (and papi too) went back in time. Well, sort of.

P&G asked mami to take a challenge, and let me tell you, it was definitely not easy!

They asked mami to live as a 1930's housewife (ha!) for one day. This was before P&G products were introduced in the UK. So that meant no fancy shampoo, no dish soap, washing clothes by hand and lots and lots of quiet time!

Mami thought it would be fun. Papi said "this I've got to see" and I just said "does this mean no TV?"

It took her a few weeks to get around to it because she works 4 days a week and on Fridays we always have so much to do.

Weekends are packed full of activities with friends coming over or birthday parties and trips. But eventually mami decided she would break up the tasks over a few weeks.

She still did not complete them all due to time, but here are a few of the one's we did.

Challenge one: Doing the dishes with a soap flakes and a circular coiled scrubber

Mami says she is "allergic" to the kitchen. It is not her favourite place to be and when we were moving house she said where ever we end up "must have a dishwasher".

So doing our dishes was no fun for her, but she found it relaxing and "not so bad". It was only our breakfast plates, so not that many. I think if she had done the dishes after dinner she wouldn't have liked it so much!

Challenge two: Keep me entertained with just blocks and a yo-yo

This actually wasn't so bad! I wanted to watch "Chugginton" but after mami brought out the simple wooden blocks I forgot all about it. I really like playing with blocks. These were strange, no colours or numbers - just one colour.

Papi helped me stack them and he showed me how to use a yo-yo too! He sat on the sofa and read the paper, it was from the 1930's too while mami was in the kitchen. Papi said "I could get use to this!"

Challenge three: Laundry

I had no idea you could wash clothes with your hands! Mami took out my flexibath and used that to wash my trousers and shirts. She filled the tub with hot water and used a scrubbing board to rub the clothes up and down on it and used a bar of soap at the same time.

She said her "arms hurt" by the end of it, but the water was dark blue and dirty. I guess they really did get clean. She can't imagine having to do ALL of our laundry like that. She was exhausted after doing that.

What she learned:

That she loves technology and modern day appliances! But also just how much the role of motherhood and parenting has changed over the past 80 years.

She says it's not easy now but certainly much easier. She cannot imagine having to do everything essentially from scratch and without the help of papi.

Thanks to P&G for this opportunity and happy 80th anniversary!