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Original poster

What things were you not allowed as a kid that you can now do to your heart's content?

220 replies

BubblesInTheTub · 25/10/2018 09:28

I know this has been done before but I love these threads.

I'll start:

  • We never ever used to have Paracetamol in the house unless someone was actually ill with a cold or the like. I used to have horrendous period pains but pain relief was never available. Now I pick up Paracetamol whenever I'm in a shop (I think I've got about 20 boxes at the moment) and I take it whenever I need to.
  • When I was a kid drinks were like food, you got a drink, you drank it and it was finished until the next drink. I've always needed to drink quite a lot and remember always being a bit thirsty as a kid. Nowadays I have a drink constantly on the go - a water/coke/squash just on the table for whenever I need a sip.
  • When I was about 12, it suddenly became very uncool to wear a backpack. I used to walk two miles to school loaded up with really heavy shit sitting on one shoulder. Now I'm an adult and don't give a fuck what I look like, I'm happy hiking around town with all my heavy shit loaded up on my back

C'mon tell me yours!

OP posts:
PyongyangKipperbang · 25/10/2018 10:13

And....

Having a drink or (shock horror) a meal in a cafe or service station. She is disgusted that my sister and I meet in Costa when we could meet at one of our houses and save the money.

Again, not a budgetary thing but a "tight as a gnats chuff" thing.

MotherofKitties · 25/10/2018 10:21

Mine are mainly food related, which I note is a running theme on this thread...! 

Putting beans on my toast and eat the toast and beans together with my hand. Parents said it was 'uncouth' and I had to use a knife and fork to cut the toast, and eat it like that.

Eating dinner on the sofa. Whilst watching a good film. I love it. It feels like such a treat because I was never allow to do it!

Long hot bubble baths. We had to share our bath water as kids and I hated it, especially as there were so many of us and never enough hot water. Having fresh, really hot bubble baths therefore feel like a real luxury.

Takeaways. Like a PP, partially geographic, mainly financial reasons meant we had one maybe once a year as a special treat. As a result I completely OD'd on takeaways when I went to uni as I was living in a city for the first time and I could! Now I love a good Chinese/Indian/Lebanese takeaway whenever I fancy it and it still feels like a treat

MotherofKitties · 25/10/2018 10:23

And butter. Is kids weren't allowed butter, Marge only. Since I left home I haven't eaten margarine and will only have butter.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 25/10/2018 10:25

Food. Well cooked, tasty, plentiful food. Mind you, that was down to boarding school. DM was a pretty good cook, although she had an occasional lapse into parsley sauce: "Spunk with green bits again, mother? You really know how to spoil us".

AnneOfCleavage · 25/10/2018 10:26

Having to use 1 piece of loo paper for number 1 and only two pieces for number 2. Use whatever quantity I like now.

Having a lego man haircut for all of primary as DM didn't know couldn't be bothered to do bunches/ plaits.
DD has had long hair since it started growing with NO fringe that needs trimming every 2 weeks. My hair is still long ok and I'm in my 40s 😁

Stephisaur · 25/10/2018 10:34

It wasn’t until my honeymoon last year (when I was 25) that my husband informed me that I could swim in the sea.

I was only ever allowed to paddle, so when DH informed me that I could even SNORKEL if I wanted to, I was like a kid at Christmas 😂

OutPinked · 25/10/2018 10:41

Cleaning as and when I wish to but my DM will still undoubtedly have a go whenever she visits. She’s an extremely fastidious woman and will find absolutely anything she possibly can to pick on.

Going to bed whenever I want to.

Leaving the house without having to explain to anyone where I’m going.

Living without being generally lectured on my appearance.

Putting the heating on as and when I feel like it.

Eating whatever I fancy whenever I fancy it

OutPinked · 25/10/2018 10:42

Oh yeah and buying semi skimmed rather than skimmed which is vile water. Also buying Lurpak rather than flora. My DM was ALWAYS on a diet despite never needing to be.

KnitFastDieWarm · 25/10/2018 10:43

My dad, aged about 55, once rang me up very excitedly to tell me he’d just gone back to an ice cream van and bought a second one immediately after finishing the first one ‘because I remember always wishing I could do that as a child and then it dawned on me, fuck it, I CAN!’ Grin

PyongyangKipperbang · 25/10/2018 10:46

My dad, aged about 55, once rang me up very excitedly to tell me he’d just gone back to an ice cream van and bought a second one immediately after finishing the first one ‘because I remember always wishing I could do that as a child and then it dawned on me, fuck it, I CAN!’

That is my absolute favourite!

hmmwhatatodo · 25/10/2018 10:49

Wow ArsenicNLace. I had exactly the same thing. One (usually mars bar) cut into three pieces. So basically a bite. Always cut on a side plate with a sharp knife. If you were lucky you got the tiny shards that fell off.
Mine also include me now being able to have a bath as often as I want with as much water as I want and not having to use someone else’s water.
Being able to sort clothes when washing them - everything used to get shoved in together, often on too high a setting and come out stretched or dyed some shade of pink usually.
Being able to buy a drink or a snack when I’m out on a journey.

So many things actually!

vampirethriller · 25/10/2018 10:50

Tuna. My dad refused to have it in the house because he doesn't like it.

FfionFlorist · 25/10/2018 10:54

Wear new shoes home from the shop

hmmwhatatodo · 25/10/2018 10:56

When we were younger our house was always freezing. I remember thinking to myself that when I was older I would have it so that I always came back to a warm house and that I would also be able to put on as many lights as I liked!

Moussemoose · 25/10/2018 11:00

I can remember with total clarity the first time I had a whole packet of crisps to myself.

We always had to share. I hate sharing crisps now.

FayKnights · 25/10/2018 11:06

@PyongyangKipperbang lové your dad’s excitement at 2 ice-creams Grin

GreenDinosaur · 25/10/2018 11:09

Urgh, the backpack thing was awful. At our school you would be teased mercilessly if you dared to use both shoulder straps. Ditto if you put your hood up or god-forbid use an umbrella. 
I had stuff thrown at me in the street for putting my hood up in heavy rain, by random people from another school, it was like you had to be wet and uncomfortable or you were a complete loser and deserved everything you got.

Kids today with their hoodies and their correct backpack wearing, don't know they're born! 

ShirleyPhallus · 25/10/2018 11:10

Eating sweets and drinking squash

We used to have treat Saturday where we were allowed one small pack of sweets and that was it. I used to be so jealous of the kids who had decent stuff in their lunchboxes

Mine were always two dry slices of bread and some ham (which I hated), and a manky old apple which was all bruised and warm and tasted like plastic and bread from being in the lunchbox all day. And a bottle of water which had been washed out and refilled so tasted like it had been sat in the car for weeks.

Glad to be a grown up now, basically

ThunderInMyHeart · 25/10/2018 11:11

The minibar!

I don't care that it's over-priced. I'm on holiday, and I want to have a drink or a snack on the massive bed.

My mother, especially, would "watch the pennies" to the point of sucking all the joy out of life. She could still remember the price of something from 40 years ago.

VauxhallVectra · 25/10/2018 11:12

Hair!

I have afro hair. My hair was relaxed every eleven weeks without fail. For school it had to be scraped back into a ponytail. No funky bobbles or clips.

I used to get to school and immediately go and restyle it into something funky. But I always had to change it back before I got home.

As soon as my mum threw me out I left home, I started experimenting with funky hair styling and cuts. I've had an afro, I've had it shaved, I've have it bleached, I've had a hidden rainbow. My mum does not approve.

Getoffthetableplease · 25/10/2018 11:14

Condiments to my hearts content, not just flipping ketchup (for my demanding brother) in the fridge.

Having actual fresh fruit whenever I want - was only tinned in our house growing up and this was usually reserved for topping a gross flan on a Sunday.

Cuddling my two dogs. I used to dream about owning a dog as a kid but my parents said no in case it barked too much Hmm.

WitsEnding · 25/10/2018 11:19

Eating biscuits instead of meals occasionally, not having regular mealtimes. Reading in bed. Filling up the bath and being in it as long as I like.

Actually these might be things I can do since I got divorced, rather than since I left home!

hellojim · 25/10/2018 11:21

Are we related?!ArsenicNLac and hmmwhatatodoSometimes my dad would buy 2 chocolate bars to divide and I would wonder why he couldn't just buy 3 smaller bars like Milky Ways so that we could have a bar each without all the palaver. I never mentioned this weird custom to any of my friends as I was convinced that it only happened in my family.

SoundofSilence · 25/10/2018 11:25
  • Having all my clothes in the wardrobe at the same time. When I was growing up, either our winter clothes or our summer clothes would be bagged up and put in the loft to save space. If you felt cold enough for a jumper in the summer, unlucky.
  • Eating in motorway service stations. The food may be overpriced and not particularly good, but now I'm entitled to do it if I want instead of eating a cheese sandwich en route and looking sadly out of the window as the promise of hot food passes by. Every time I drive past one, I think, "I can stop if I want."
happytoseeyou · 25/10/2018 11:28

Licking the lid of a yoghurt pot