Family struggles to cope with post-war 1950s housework in new TV show

Domestic life has changed a lot over the last few decades, with the back-breaking housework and constant family cooking of the 1950s slowly replaced with cooking machinery, fast-food outlets – and of course, more gender equality in the home itself.

But while many will remember the days of near-constant cooking and cleaning, Millennials and younger generations can only believe what they hear – and for many, it may be hard to imagine just how much work went in to running a home.

Now, a new ABC TV show challenges one family to travel back in time, and live as families did in past decades – forcing mum Carol to cook and clean clothes by hand for the whole family with minimal or no help at all, while her husband Peter experiences immense guilt and they all have to dress in the vibrant fashions of the time.

The first episode of Back In Time For Dinner will air on Tuesday (May 29), and sees the family’s home in Sydney transformed into 1950s style as they meet presenter Annabel Crabb and are issued a series of instructions on what to do each day, over a wireless or rotary dial telephone.

Having given up their mobiles, tablets and other forms of modern entertainment, the Ferrone family are forced to play older board games and make do with minimal resources, as well as the music hits of the time – just as families did then, and a preview of the show reveals they struggle almost immediately with the dramatic change in lifestyle.

Read more: Rise of ‘kidults’: More Millennials staying home to mooch off parents

The show aims to focus on the post-World War II revolution in food, as well as the way we live, the fabric of the nation and the past definitions of the roles of men and women in the home.

While the series kicks off in a 1950-style home, the Ferrone family home undergoes a transformation each week to fit each decade until the present day – perfectly reflecting how much society has changed in such a short amount of time.

“It’s almost like a bell curve. We start the series with me being by myself all the time, and then as we move through the decades, we’re doing more things together and having a great time. And then it starts to drop off as technology advances and everybody starts doing their own thing again,” Carol explained to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Read more: Millennials blame ‘destructive’ Baby Boomers for making life ‘worse’

In a synopsis for the show, the ABC explained: “In 60 years, Australians have gone from food being influenced by our British heritage to having the world on our dinner plate. Along the way we’ve been introduced to dehydrated, frozen, microwaved, pre-packaged, and takeaway meals. And, our recipes have gone from being handed down through our mothers to, simply, being downloaded.”

While researching the show, ABC TV found that a typical 1950s housewife did up to 15 times as much housework as an Aussie today. 

Do you miss the home life of the 1950s and ’60s? Or do you prefer it now?