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Original poster

Was childhood it better back in the day or was it insanely dangerous?

85 replies

FleetFootedJanet · 03/09/2025 12:08

I grew up in the 80s. My group of friends were the boys and girls who lived on our street and surrounding street. We went out for hours, with those friends with no adult supervision, and played in the streets or gardens. We also, when slightly older, went further afield.

I distinctly remember one occasion when we played on a building site close to our house, when they were building an extension to the estate where we lived. We also used to “sail” on the old canal using whatever we could find, and played on a bit of disused land next to an old car park.

I don’t know, but I sense that kids don’t do stuff like that now. DD is quite young but the idea she’d play in the canal or on a building site seems mad, even though I did it and have fond memories of exploring and doing all that stuff. I’m still friends with a good proportion of those kids who I played with back then.

So was it better? Or was it insanely dangerous, and I’m lucky to have made it to adulthood? Did it give us something kids now don’t have - are they missing out? Or am I just getting old and nostalgic?

OP posts:
CreationNat1on · 03/09/2025 12:32

There was a more cavalier attitude to supervision, but the wider community supervised more.

Now we all have firmer boundaries and are more risk averse. Positives and negatives to both ways of living.

Comeinupto40 · 03/09/2025 12:29

I think it was more dangerous, yes.

But the benefits were lower anxiety and better risk assessment, greater independence, probably better mental health too. And less stressed parents (because they didn’t have the pressure of entertaining / paying for childcare)

Brenda34 · 03/09/2025 12:27

I grew up in the 70s and remember my mum saying she had more freedom as a child than I did. That was traffic related though. She used to cycle off to a seaside town 20 miles away for the day with her friends. She wouldn't allow us to do that because of the traffic even though our street only had anout 6 cars parked on it in old photos.
I think the Moors Murderers and the relatively detailed way their crimes were reported may have started parents being more cautious for other reasons.

Silverbirchleaf · 03/09/2025 12:26

It was different.

There was a programme on tv called ‘That’s Life’. As well as numerous stories (wonky veg, talking dogs), they did campaigns such as ensuring playgrounds had safe surfaces. Previously, if you fell, you fell on hard concrete.

The same programme also resulted in the creation of Childline. Before then, I don’t think children’s voices were really heard.

I think we do live in a safer society today, but due to social media, it’s not perceived that way.

Brenda34 · 03/09/2025 12:22

The dangers are different now for sure.

CoffeeCantata · 03/09/2025 12:22

I grew up in the 70s and I think it was both - better and more dangerous!

I say that, but of course I don't really know what childhood is like in 2025, so a comparison is a bit pointless. I grew up in the country and yes, me and my friends really did go out after breakfast and mess about until we were hungry and then wander back home. We built dens, climbed trees, dammed streams, even built a raft from old pallets and polystyrene once, made fires and cooked horrible stews over them etc etc.

I'm not making this up - it was a bit Enid Blyton. We were lucky. The worst we suffered were cuts and bruises but it could have been a lot worse, My mum was quite happy for a gang of 7 of us to go swimming unsupervised in little river nearby - which no parent would ever countenance nowadays.At one birthday party, the dad fitted all 8 of us into a family saloon car by having us sitting on each other's knees and letting 2 girls curl up in the boot!!! We were 12 years old. To be fair, I don't think my parents would have been happy with that!

I think we were more innocent, though. We were all unaware of some of the nastier aspects of life because we didn't have the internet, and we played very much in the real, rather than the virtual, world.

Also - and sorry to introduce a very grim subject - but child abductions were more common in those days, partly because parents were a bit less watchful sometimes but mainly because the existence of CCTV and mobile phones has made it much more difficult for would-be abductors to get away with it.

StMarie4me · 03/09/2025 12:19

Both lol!

AncientHarpy · 03/09/2025 12:18

It was different, in ways that are good and bad. But I'll happily take DS having a more sedentary, indoor lifestyle in exchange for the grinding poverty of my own childhood. Though, obviously, there is no correlation between the two things.

I was sexually abused aged ten in a situation that would not happen now. Safeguarding is better.

turkeyboots · 03/09/2025 12:13

It was both, simultaneously. My dad's friend lost a foot playing on farm machinery, I was rescued by the Lifeboat service twice as a child, my sister met a flasher and I knew about 6 kids who were hit by cars. All lived to tell the tale though. My DC have never met a flasher or had to be rescued by any service, but they also haven't had the freedom I had.

childofthe607080s · 03/09/2025 12:12

Well there is a huge gap between better and insanely dangerous

children do get killed on building sites and in open water

lack of physical activity also kills, although slower

and children need to learn to gauge risk also

but I don’t think I’d like a child playing on a building site ( even though I also did that)