To wonder about sunburnt children before suncream was popularised?

I just wasn't allowed outside. She resented it because it meant she couldn't go out and get more tanned as she was stuck indoors with me, but she would not buy sunblock or a hat.

This meant I just freckled all over my face and arms instead of burning in the ten minute walk home from school, but that pissed her off as well - she hated freckles as they were dirty, apparently.

I grew up in the 80s and I'm very fair skinned - like others I remember we had a bottle of SPF 8 in the bathroom, that from memory lasted the whole of my childhood! I think my parents advocated the idea of the base tan - I never remember burning really badly or peeling, but I definitely remember the idea was to go a little bit pink (yes, I know that is also burning!) and then you'd be good for the rest of the summer!

Tbh though, I just kept out of the sun as I was never that much of a fan of it - I never remember burning badly and we tended to be the sort of family to get to the beach early on a nice day and be gone by the time it got really busy.

I remember having painful sunburn and blisters. The term 'burn off' was used, it means burning repeatedly over the summer until your skin gets used to the sun ☀️!!

Yep. A sunday on the beach with my grandmother and she didn't shade us from the sun at all at ages 8 and 6. When we got home we were lobster coloured and covered in deep yellow blisters across our shoulders and backs, tops of ears etc.

We had to have two days off school and spent all that time lying in bed covered in ice towels and camomile lotion. My mother was furious and there was a huge family argument.

If you started to get a bit red on the beach the norm was for you to wear one of your dad's T shirts which had been dipped in the sea and wrung damp. But we were out all day, everyday in the sun.

I was born in the early 70's and grew up beside a beach. I do remember burning but never to the point of blistering thankfully. We were always encouraged to cover up if we noticed part of our body getting too hot but to be honest I spent the majority of my time in the water so I never felt hot! I was very pale as a child but after years of sun damage I tan quickly now even with a high SPF on.

God yes - remember vividly brothers and I picking each other's skin off like monkeys picking fleas

I mean, I know the science/cancer thing may not have been well known but how in the name of fuck did our parents not learn to maybe do things differently the first time out skin peeled off?'n

I'm a redhead born in the late 60s. I got burned on many occasions in my childhood and teens. I remember when factor 15 suncream first came out I thought it was a miracle!

Often burnt. I do miss my freckles now I keep out of the sun!

I'm red headed and remember peeling badly in the 70s, my dark haired sister did tan and would like out in factor 4. I remember my mum shouting at me to put on sunscreen (it was really thick and difficult to rub in) and I was the only fair skinned one in the family and I hated being made to put it on. Kind of grateful now though...

Yep, similar as many other posters.

Burning and peeling seen as normal part of summer

Sometimes Suncream at the beach but otherwise just stay out and it will do you good....

We just got burnt and nobody worried about it. Far moire relaxing for all concerned.
Sometimes calomine lotion was dabbed on with cotton wool to "cool it".
If we were really lucky, the sunburn peeled and then we could pull it off in sheets 😂
And this was just in the UK - never went abroad.

Me also - born 1975

I'm hyper vigilant now especially as my 2 year younger brother has had several malignant melanomas over the year

Just because our generation didn't visibly burn it didn't mean damage wasn't done.

And LOLing my ass off that sunscreen is just for the beach or pool

Yes we got burnt, and pretty badly too. I remember after-sun lotion being applied but we definitely had nothing to prevent us burning. No skin cancer so far, but I guess a lot of us will have it.

People knew to keep babies in the shade. The big old Silver Cross prams had massive sun canopies with fringes.

Children probably did burn but I don't remember burning. There again we also wore t-shirts rather than skimpy vest tops.

I do remember seeing men especially construction workers being burn red raw. I guess you only let that happen to you once.
However since about 2000 employers have been pushing sunscreen on sites and trying to kick the whole "its not macho to use sunscreen" mentality into touch. Partly because they are frightened of future law suits of employees getting skin cancer.

I agree.
I also remember a girl when I was in hospital who’d badly sunburned her shoulder and subsequently developed cancer and died- I remember her arm looked like a dead tree branch, dreadful sight.
Poor girl was only 13.

I was taken abroad on holiday from 1959 onwards

I've had one basal cell carcinoma removed

I think I'm lucky because I was olive-skinned.

I have burnt badly - even with sun lotion - I missed a bit!

Back then the sun protection was often oil and people used to just lay there, literally cooking in the sun.

I used to burn regularly as a ginger, freckled person. Went to south of France with the school about 79/80 and got sun stroke.
Suncream wasn't much used to my recollection
I do remember sun tan oil....

70’s playing out all day DC here, I’ve had 9 malignant melanomas removed, 5 needed a wider excision to get the cancer out and 1 needed removal of lymph nodes. I’ve had multiple BCC and SCC burnt, frozen, chemo creamed off. I need to have my skin checked every three months for the rest of my life.

I have very fair skin that is very sensitive to the sun. I remember spending most of one (UK) holiday in the 80s, vomiting and shivering due to sunstroke. I am very diligent in applying sunscreen to my dc, factor 50 on all exposed skin daily during the summer and I make them wear hats. I think we're much more aware of the damage it can do now, not to mention the aging effect it has on skin

I grew up in the 70's and yes burnt frequently. I remember the feeling of sore skin rubbing on the bed sheets at night. It was considered a normal part of summer - and getting a tan was considered good for us.
I remember my mother using factor 2 "tanning oil" when "sitting out" in the garden.
I remember my uncles and Aunties coming "out to the country" (they lived in London) and sitting in my Nans garden all summer and going home with skin like polished leather.

I had more of an olive skin tone so I didn't burn but my brother did, every summer without fail he would burn horrendously until my mother started using sun cream and this was about 1993!

My mum always used sun cream on us. My dh remembers getting badly sunburnt as a child. He now has moles he has to get checked regularly.

Grew up in the 70s. Burning was seen as a necessary precursor to 'a good tan' which was 'healthy'. I was always being told to 'go out and get some sun on your face!' (Reddish hair, pale skin). My sister and I would peel great swathes of skin off each other's backs, and only if it got too painful would my mother grudgingly dig out the calamine lotion.

I remember going on a camping holiday and lying on the polyester sheet at night, stuck to it with the fluid from my bursting blisters, too agonised to move...

Yes, another one who remembers getting burnt and skin peeling.
Born in mid-60's plus of course we used to spend every available minute outside.

I remember feeling more weathered than burnt.

We mostly spent our summers in wetsuits, with startling effect when you took them off -- absolute pallor to deep brown with a sharp divide mid biceps, neck and leg.