take for granted

[junxi3q]

When I was reading a passage about Fort Steele Heritage Town, I came across a sentence I couldn't quite understand.
'Visitors can learn what it was like to live without electricity, running water, and many of the twenty-first-century comforts we take for granted.'
What does 'take for granted' mean here? I've looked it up in a dictionary but it doesn't seem to be helpful.
Thanks in advance!

 

[junxi3q]

Does it mean something important but has been ignored?

 

[Thomas Tompion]

When I was reading a passage about Fort Steele Heritage Town, I came across a sentence I couldn't quite understand.
'Visitors can learn what it was like to live without electricity, running water, and many of the twenty-first-century comforts we take for granted.'
What does 'take for granted' mean here? I've looked it up in a dictionary but it doesn't seem to be helpful.
Thanks in advance!

It means to take for given, i.e. we assume that it's normal to have them, and forget that a lot of work and development has been necessary to achieve this level of comfort. We often seem ungrateful.

 

[junxi3q]

It means to take for given, i.e. we assume that it's normal to have them, and forget that a lot of work and development has been necessary to achieve this level of comfort. We often seem ungrateful.

Thanks, Thomas, do you mean 'Something important, valuable and not easy to get, but often be ignored'? Can we say 'Some people take the love from parents for granted'?

 

[Adam Cruge]

"take for granted" means nothing beyond what is explained in dictionaries.
But what is odd here is that the use of "to live without.....", it should be "....living without...."
Anyways it is understood.
Well for your better understanding of this sentence I am rephrasing it.

"Visitors can learn how daily routine (living) is without electricity, running water etc. Electricity, running water etc are stuffs of twenty-first-century, they brings comfort, but while dealing with it we almost forget their presence, I mean we are so much engrossed into this kind of comfort we almost forget their contributions"

 

[Thomas Tompion]

Thanks, Thomas, do you mean 'Something important, valuable and not easy to get, but often be ignored'? Can we say 'Some people take the love from parents for granted'?

Yes, indeed. Some people take their parents' love for granted might be slightly more idiomatic.

I'm afraid that, pace Adam, I find the original sentence perfectly well expressed.

 

[junxi3q]

Thanks, guys, quite clear now.