To wonder about sunburnt children before suncream was popularised?

Hi I was born in the 60s and my mum's policy for us kids in the 70s was 'You'll burn, and then your skin will get used to it and go brown.'
Amazing when I look back now.
My sisters and I had many a 'fun' holiday evening peeling each other's skin off - to see who could get the biggest sheet in one go.
It was very painful when you had sore face, ankles, back, shoulders, legs etc but you'd be taken back to the beach every day for more of the same.
Mum was always careful with money and in the late 70s made her own 'sun tan lotion' with olive oil and vinegar ...!!!! She slapped it all over herself and us to go brown. We all smelt disgusting. Like a stale hot salad.

I grew up in the south of England in the 70s, played outside all summer as we all did. Granddad was a ginger and worked outdoors all his life. Rest of the family never thought twice about sitting out on a sunny day. I don't recall being aware of the existence of sunscreen as a kid.
The first time I ever used suncream was in my teens on our first holiday 'on the continent' (Italy), which was also the first time I ever got sunburnt! To this day, I only use it if I'm on holiday somewhere south of southern England (I live in the far north now :-)) In contrast, my grown up stepkids use sunscreen whenever they step outside, and get burnt without it - customers for life I guess!

I was a child of the 50s and 60s. Nobody used sun cream. I have had surgery for pre cancerous lesions on my face. The surgeon said it’s common in my age group.

We spent the whole summer holidays out playing in the sun all day and then in the evenings watching TV peeling the skin from our arms and legs or each others shoulders to see who could get the biggest bit off in one piece, or play slapping each others sore red bits. The best bits were the skin peeling on your head and peeling off with lots of holes in it like a teabag.

Ah the memories.

Mum had some special medicated cream, that really stank, but relatives from Canada swore by, they brought it over every year in huge tubs and we got slathered in that every night before bed to "take the heat out".

I grew up in the sixties. Fair skinned and burned regularly when young , it was thought that it would harden you off and then you'd tan. I have never tanned and never will my freckles might join up bat that's about it. Lots of people used olive oil in the sun , yuk. I remember going in holiday to Spain and being laughed at because I stayed in the shade as I was scared of burning too badly. I now use SPF 30 or up when in the sun and cover up as much as possible and I'm having a mole and skin check this week to check all is ok.

Burnt my legs so badly I couldn't walk one year in France aged 7ish. Utterly grim.

Yep, born late 80s and I never had cream and always burnt. One of my enduring childhood memories is lying in bed in agony and also peeling sunburn every year. We spent a lot of time outside as I grew up on a farm. I can remember floppy hats to try to cover us up but we didn’t like them and they were taken off pretty quickly. My mother goes brown really quickly but I’m bluey white and can burn even with F50 on. She still doesn’t get it - I sent her off with sun cream when she had DCs on a sunny day and told her she must put it on them. They burnt. I was really cross and asked her how often she applied it and how come they burnt - turns out she didn’t put any on cos “it wasn’t that sunny” and she doesn’t understand this modern obsession with sun cream 😡 She won’t be having them again with that attitude!!!

I was born in the mid 70s and have olivey skin so only burnt maybe once or twice, never peely. My younger sister was much paler and I remember her skin peeling off just the once. My mum was quite progressive for the early 80s and we had factor 8 sunscreen. We also practiced a lot of sun safe tips - hats, t shirts, stay in the shade, not out between 12 and 3.

My PIL are the total opposite. They lived in Australia for 2 years and FIL spent most of the time working outdoors topless. He died at 63 of malignant melanoma. Just after that my MIL tried to put some factor 4 suncream on my 2 year old (the bottle must have been at least 10 years old). That was 2012 and she couldn't understand why that might be wrong.

Grew up in 80s

• we only ever went on summer holidays in the uk
• we were outside generally a lot from spring onwards, so we very gradually built up a light tan, so by the time we went on a beach holiday we were already a bit tanned
• we burned. I remember getting burnt shoulders a lot and having a dark red back/ backs of legs on a few occasions
• in some ways we were more careful - we had beach umbrellas etc and were encouraged to go in the shade in the middle of the day.

I work in care, most of the people in their 70s upwards have skin cancer. There’s very few that don’t and the ones that don’t tend to be women,
we’ve had 6 men diagnosed in the last month with skin cancer.

I was born in the 80’s and very pale and blonde, even now I look at the sun and burn like a lobster, always burnt very barley as a child. It’s why I hate summer!!

Even if some didn’t burn, they still would have invisible sun damage.

That seems kind of obvious

60s kid here. Grew up at the seaside. I have no recollection of getting sunburnt back then

The sun wasn't as strong- ozone layer! Factor 4 would largely protect someone with sallow skin. We did get sunburnt regularly though.

We honestly thought that to get a tan, you had to burn and peel. There was something in it as the skin after the burn would be browner than the non-burned part.
I remember a friend's sister putting cooking oil on herself 😬
I remember my parents being more cautious than most - we at least owned some suncream (factor 15).

I was a child in the late eighties and early nineties. We used some sun screen back them but would usually just apply once a day. We all used to get terribly sunburnt at the first hint of sun. We would all be like blistery lobsters. We would enjoy peeling each others skin off in the folllowing days. I don’t even like the sun and remember getting sunburnt like this multiple times every holiday. There was a strange belief around that a sunburn would ‘fade to a tan’ and that a tan was good for you / would protect you 🫤

Meanwhile the cases of skin cancer has soared :

news.cancerresearchuk.org/2023/07/07/soaring-skin-cancer-cases-hit-a-record-high/

It's self check in UK and you can get individual moles checked if you are concerned about them.

https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/our-services/dermatology/skin-cancer-service/how-to-check-your-skin-for-cancer/

OP, that makes sense if you were born in the 00s as I think sun protection was already well established by then. I have younger half siblings born then and I remember them having big sun hats with the flaps at the back.

However you have also given me a new MN milestone as being the first MNer I've come across born in the same decade as my eldest child this was unexpected.

Yeah another child of the 80s here with pale skin, freckles etc. Getting sunburned was part of summer. It used to be quite satisfying peeling big pieces of burnt skin off (after the initial pain wore off obviously).

It seems totally mad now looking back. My DM is still of the belief that if I let the sun get me a bit brown it will protect me for the summer 🙄. I don't go brown, I just burn! That belief persists despite my ginger DF getting skin cancer! (They are divorced).

I'm quite proud that my two DC (one ginger, one blonde, both very pale) have never caught the sun. Factor 50 all the way for us.

Hope you are okay now @PinotPony.
My mum had a pre-cancerous mole removed, so was lucky. Same with my uncle. Both in their early 70s, when you doused yourself in cooking oil when the sun came out. Package holidays were becoming popular in the 70s and 80s, so to have a good tan was to show off that you could afford a posh holiday! I remember peeling and even blistering in the 80s. Db was taken to the hospital to have his huge blisters popped and dressed. The idea was to burn and then tan. We hired sunbeds and didn't read the warnings about time limits or goggles. I hope I got away with it, time will tell I suppose. I'm proud that my dc never burned in the sun when they were little. My youngest burned for the first time at 16yo last year and was read the riot act.

I got burned every summer, blisters and peeling and sometimes the dreaded Hell Itch. One year I fell asleep in the sun in Brittany and got huge yellow blisters, I remember my dad ripping holes in my t shirt for them to poke through. Also had heatstroke several times.

60s kid. We did burn occasionally, but mostly what I remember is being nut brown in the summers, with just a white bum! I am dark haired with olive skin anyway so it was rare that I burnt but my sister has pale skin and frequently did so. I wouldn't use sunscreen now unless I was going to a hot country. I just tan gradually from May onwards.

Presumably those that did die aren’t online to tell us about it…

like car seats. We never used them and no one died…

I was a child in the 60's and can't remember being burnt. Im fair skinned so maybe it was because we lived so far north we didn't see a lot of sun. I can remember being very burnt as a teenage in the 70's to the point I had sun stroke. We lived further south then though.