Compare aspects of the life of your mother at the age of 15 with the life you have, aged 15

English Non-Fiction Coursework By Rachel-Kozlowska-Best

Compare aspects of the life of your mother at the age of 15 with the life you have, aged 15.

What did your mum do for fun at the age of fun when she was 15? What sort of career prospects did she have? What sort of food would she have eaten and what would she have viewed as cool? This essay is going to attempt to explore the differences between my mum’s life at 15 and mine.

My mum at 15 went to a boarding school in Devon, and so her leisure time was structured. My mothers TV viewing was decided by two prefects and the headmistress. At 15 I mostly choose what I watch on television and this varies from Eastenders to Big Brother, whereas the highlight of my mothers viewing every week was TOTP. The girls were never allowed into town except for dental treatment and could only go to the shops if the matron’s helper was in a good mood and would let them. By the lower fifth (year 10) the year would have its own common room where they would listen to records by the Rolling Stones and Tamla Motown and talk. My mother told me that after half terms and exeats she and her friends having pooled their money together would have midnight feasts. Midnight feasts are now a feature of most sleepovers and shopping in town is a regular occurrence. As for music it has progressed from records to CDs and from the Rolling Stones to the Darkness. Although we do not have a common room we are now from year 10 upwards aloud to be in our form room at lunch.

When my mother was 15 job prospects for women were still pretty limited and the expectation was that women should have a job but should give it up once married to look after the house and any children. There were few respectable professions for women. There example are nursing, teaching and secretarial work. This is very different from the prospects for women today. Today so long as you have the qualifications you can get almost anywhere.

In 1970 there were no convenience foods such as pizza from the freezer. My mother ...

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In 1970 there were no convenience foods such as pizza from the freezer. My mother remembers most mornings being able to have either a cooked breakfast or toast and cereal. At least once a week there would be a roast dinner as well as Sundays, and also a salad once a week. Desserts were traditionally stodgy such as spotted dick and jam roly poly. There were sometimes non-traditional foods such as paella as the school employed a Spanish cook. Today you can acquire most traditional foods at supermarkets as convenience foods though puddings at school still are mostly the same such as chocolate sponge. Roasts are not as frequent and at most schools you can have salad any day of the week, also food from other cultures are quite common.

Fashion styles may have changed since my mother was 15 but the fact that if you were not in the most up to date fashions then you are considered ‘Square’ has not. When my mother was 15 mini skirts had just gone out of fashion and skirts had gone to the opposite extreme of maxi skirts. Fashions were more fixed, it was either one thing or another and they did not change as often as today.

There are 34 yrs between me and my mum being 15 and though some fashions and the names of the bands that teenagers listen to have changed. Teenagers still follow fashion avidly and try to break as many rules as possible even if boundaries have become wider. Prospects and boundaries may have widened but in essence things have stayed the same.

Compare aspects of the life of your mother at the age of 15 with the life you have, aged 15

This is a preview of the whole essay

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