To wonder about sunburnt children before suncream was popularised?

80s child and very pale. To my mother's credit she was quite sun safe because she didn't want her children to experience the pain of sunburn...but out of her sight I wasn't so careful. So whilst it was fairly infrequent for me to get sunburn it did happen.

Roll on to my forties and I've already had cancerous cells removed from my skin. Mercifully not the lethal kind that can affect the rest of your body, but still very painful and unsightly to deal with.

So to answer your question...the children who grew up without sun safety/sun cream as the norm are at pretty high risk of skin cancer as adults. Given that I avoid being out in the sun directly as much as possible (just because I don't like being hot) I can't imagine the damage some sun worshippers are doing to themselves.

I was born in the 60s and remember holidays abroad in the early 70s, DM burned easily herself so used to slather us in ambre solaire but moaned about how expensive it was - it was in a white tube with orange lid and didn’t have any kind of factor rating but if applied frequently and after swimming did the job
DF was mixed race and tanned very easily even if he spent a lot of time asleep under a tree! We always had a sun umbrella too
If we got caught and went a bit pink we had lashings of Vaseline intensive care - I still remember the smell
Living in North West England - playing out on a normal summer day in shorts n t shirt didn’t have a huge risk but if we were going to beach or an outdoor lido we would still use cream

We used to swim in T-shirts to prevent burns on shoulders/back.

Forearms were pretty hardy after being exposed the whole time.

Suncream wasn't really routinely put on kids until well after the 1970s. It's a very recent thing. People might have put a bit of SPF on their kids' shoulders and back for a boiling hot day at the beach, but that was about it. Kids didn't wear sunscreen just to play outside. The suncreams that were available were mostly very low factor - I remember when most places only stocked factors 2 to 8, and factor 15 was basically only used by very pale redheads.

And yes, we got burnt. Not really on the forearms which are exposed a lot of the time and where you build up a gradual tan from spring onwards, but on the first day it was hot enough to have bare shoulders or to be running about in the garden in swimwear, we generally got burnt and didn't notice until it was too late.

I was born in 1976 and I would estimate that I probably got burnt on the shoulders, chest and back every single year of my life until the age of about 23ish. I'm really pale and this was just something I thought you had to put up with. I'm very glad times have changed!

1970s child. Blonde haired, fair skinned child of a dark haired, olive skinned mother used to use tanning oil or olive oil to brown in the sun. I burnt badly, peeled terribly, and spent many holidays in bed with sunstroke. Eventually, my redhead dad bought us sunhats which improved matters a bit. At least DM didn't baste us like she did herself.

I was born in the very late 70s. I have light olive skin that tans easily -never been sunburnt beyond the odd short lived red patch of skin when I have been caught out by the sun. We were outside all the time (farm kids).

We had suncream, albeit usually low factor and not regularly or diligently applies.

We never went abroad and summer was for harvesting not holidays.

Due to being outdoor workers my parents knew to cover up, wear hats and stay out of sun on the hottest parts of the day. My dad would harvet in mid to high 20s wearing cotton trousers, a long sleeved cotton shirt and a straw hat.

I remember terrible sunburn as a child in the 70s. My mum would apply calamine lotion after we had been in the sun, that was it. My DH & his brother had to go to hospital with second degree burns on one beach holiday - MIL was most annoyed that the consultant given her a row for not covering them up. To be fair to MIL, it just was not considered in the 70s.

It was both the norm and bloody horrible to get burnt. Almost seen as part and parcel (is that the phrase?)

Me and my fair skinned brother, both of Irish descent used have competitions to see how much skin you could peel off in one go. Upper arms to elbow was usual.

Back burnt, peeling, sleeping in a bunk bed in a caravan without soothing lotions etc.

My parents bought me a back scratcher though, scratch all that dead skin from your burned back.

Always just bright red with cossie marks.

I can't believe it looking back. Needless to say, our skin damage is noticeable and both of gave had moles and basic carcenomas removed.

Of course my Mum denies it all.

Born in 1981 with olive skin but my mum was ahead of the curve and insisted on factor 15 for the first few days of a holiday, down to factor 8 after that. We never burnt badly, the odd pink shoulder/nose. Didn't wear cream in the UK but due to my skin tone it wasn't a problem. My husband is 8 years older and fair (and would readily admit his family were not as forward thinking!) - he remembers burning to the point of peeling and blisters!

We all burnt every year in the summer. Skin always peeled off in big sheets, sometimes blisters, especially on shins. We used Hawaiian tropic oil to make us dark brown. I’ve had several moles cut out now that have turned ulcerous, as have my siblings and most of my friends.

I was also born in 1973 my mum.used to put sun cream on us if we were abroad ,but not in England ,I too remember getting burnt .

Same us some others here, growing up in the 70s we (and majority of our friends) spent all hours outside and in all weathers so were pretty much perma tanned anyway and didn’t really ever burn. We did live in the country so maybe that was why we were always outside, might have been a bit more unusual to be outside that much in cities and towns I suppose. We used to have one annual day trip to the seaside and I don’t ever remember getting burnt even when it was very hot. I do remember, however, that we had one tube of Ambre Solaire In the bathroom cabinet. It was a white tube and the cream was pale brown, and it smelt divine. I was never allowed to use it though, it was for special occasions! God knows what that would have been, think we had it for about ten years!

Born in 1965 in the tropics. Burnt regularly. Not sure sunscreen had been invented. We certainly never used it. By my teens, we were lying out in the sun covered in cooking or coconut oil and I'm very fair.

Certainly wouldn't do that now

I was born in the 70s and used to play out all the time. I'm lucky in that i tend to tan rather than burn, and I dont remember ever getting burnt in the uk. I'm from the mill towns of Lancashire so i don't think we saw the sun very often anyway 😂

I definitely remember using suncream in the 80s when we went abroad. I only remember getting badly burnt once, and that was when we were camping in France.

So severely burned in the 70s/80s. I remember one I was so burnt it felt like my joints seized up and I could barely walk.
I’m very freckly and I’m sure a lot of it is early sun damage.
Tbf, I was neglected. I’m sure I remember other children having sun cream put on them.

We used sunscreen on the beach but it was only like factor 10-15 and the same bottle was used year on year so probably useless.
Never used it at home on a hot day, and never wore a hat.
But luckily didn't burn. As an adult I burn at the slightest whiff of sunshine.

I was born early 70s.

Lots of memories of being plastered in sun cream, wearing a sun hat and having to wear a t-shirt in the pool / sea when on holiday - and that was in the UK as we couldn't afford to go abroad until the late 80s.

I spent my 70s childhood being burned to a crisp on my august beach holidays. Not good but my mum was a sun worshipper and usually only used oil on herself with no protection factors. I think we were lucky as so far no dodgy outcomes.

Yes, burning was considered pretty normal although I grew up in a hot country and we were encouraged not to burn, and we often wore sunscreen and burning wasn't a crisis but it wasn't considered okay either.

Today, if I have a mole that feels or looks even slightly odd, my doctor sends me straight to the clinic for checking because I'm fair skinned and she knows where I grew up. And I've had some scares. My father, who tries to avoid being in the sun without sunscreen but is also very fair, has had more problems and it's a real concern.

It's also worth noting that sunburn in the past was less dangerous. The ozone layer still isn't fully recovered plus the general impact of climate change.

We went to Spain in around 1980, my brother who was paler than me ended up very badly burned I remember.
Luckily I rarely burn as I am quite dark but I seem to remember my parents and most adults occasionally suggest someone wear a hat but that was all.

Interesting because I grew up in one of the hottest countries on earth and using sun screen wasn’t a part of my 80s childhood but staying indoors during the hottest part of the day was, plus covering skin in clothing. School finished at 1pm and we went home and generally wouldn’t emerge again till about 4-5pm. Hats were a big thing plus long sleeved shirts and I remember my dad chasing us down to turn up the collars of our shirts so protect our necks. If we went to the beach or camping and so couldn’t avoid being out during the hottest hours we had umbrellas or shade structures put up. I do remember my parents being amazed that when some French friends came with us to the beach they refused to sit under the shade and parked their beach chairs in the direct sun!

Sunscreen was around in the 1970s, but it was unusual for people to use more that factor 6 in UK (if anything) - that only really changed in 1976.

Holidays in the much stronger sun abroad were far rarer. And holes in the ozone layer were unknown. So the risks to the UK population were considerably lower.

I can remember getting very badly sunburnt in the 1970s but that was my fault because I fell asleep in the sun on the beach in Greece. We first started going abroad in the early 1960s, and I can remember my parents buying us tanning pills which you had to start a week before you left home and took until you had been home for a week. But we always had sun cream even back in 1963, although the only brands I can remember were Ambre Solaire and Coppertone.

People would just burn - badly.

My mum used to tell me how she would cover herself in oil and just lay the sun. My dad has a similar skin tone to me and burnt a lot as a kid too. They both grew up in Australia.

Both have bad sun damage as adults and worry about cancer. I was always covered in sun cream as a kid and only remember burning twice - once on my ear where clearly a bit of me had been missed, and once in Australia as a teen when it didn't feel hot and I decided I didn't need cream on. Luckily I didn't do too much damage.

I work outdoors now and either wear long sleeves or cover myself in cream and top up every hour. I still see people wandering around like lobsters and wonder how they can do it!

Same, beach holidays in the early 80s, UK based. My shoulders were almost permanently burnt. And I never tanned - I would just go red in the burnt areas and white everywhere else, like a fucking crabstick.