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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:
Chrystal1982 · 25/10/2018 20:04

To never ever have to even look at a broad bean never mind eating them! 🤢🤢🤢
To have the big light on
Eat sweets

Purplejay · 25/10/2018 20:21

Loving these.

For me it’s having long hair, having my ears pierced, being able to stay out as long as I like, having a deep bath - maybe for over an hour, being able to light candles and burn insence and not planning in advance what I was going to eat on each day of the week!

GallicosCats · 25/10/2018 20:51

Being able to have something daft for lunch like crackers and Mars bars washed down with champagne.

Watching rubbish TV. If I fancy the occasional GPs Behind Closed Doors or Police Camera Action I'll watch it.

Admitting that some 'great works of literature' are either suicidally depressing or a crashing long winded bore Thomas Hardy you are a creepy weirdo

GrandmaSharksDentures · 25/10/2018 20:53

Going to theme parks. My parents didn't approve of them. We go whenever we can afford to now

kalinkafoxtrot45 · 25/10/2018 20:54

Long hair :)
Short skirts
Having the light on AND the curtains open, shock horror, the neighbours might see in!

PlinkPlink · 25/10/2018 20:58

God yes, I agree wih long hair.

It was always lopped off! I think he longest my hair got was just touching my shoulders and that was only once!!

I used to put my mum's skirts on my head to pretend it was long hair!!!

ChikiTIKI · 25/10/2018 21:14

Drinking black currant cordial drinks. Yellow cordial was fine, red was not... Apparently it would rot our teeth...

Villanelle123 · 25/10/2018 21:50

My DCs would comment on this thread:

‘Being allowed to eat in the car’ - I don’t let them for safety reasons not being anal about the car.

‘Being allowed rollerblades’ - I don’t let them in case they break their neck.

‘Being allowed chewing gum’ - they are desperate but far too young!

buttonup26 · 25/10/2018 22:00

Swear

TheWiseWomansFear · 25/10/2018 22:39

Chew gum except for once a week and only in front of her... I understand why, she didn't want us to choke

PyongyangKipperbang · 26/10/2018 00:41

Being able to have the same thing for dinner twice in a row or even.......twice in a week!!

Even if it was our birthdays when we could traditionally choose what we wanted for dinner it had to obey the "never twice in a week" rule. Not that it ever really came up as she would plan the meals for the week and then it was set in stone. Unexpectedly busy day so change Wednesdays chops, spuds and veg for Fridays egg and chips?! NEVER! It will be chops cooked in a very bad mood* and slammed on the table an hour later than normal.

*This is not a sauce.

Flobalob · 26/10/2018 00:56

Eating a Maccy D's pack of chips to myself instead of being split 3 ways. Again, not a budget thing but a controlling mother!

I always let my kids have their own happy meal - no sharing for them!

Strokethefurrywall · 26/10/2018 00:58

Watch Knight Rider whenever I want.

RunningWhileTheWorldBurns · 26/10/2018 01:06

Coming home and putting my pjs on when I know I’m not going back out. Drove my mum bonkers, pjs when you weren’t going to bed. “Slovenly” apparently

SecretWitch · 26/10/2018 01:46

Have a cat(s). My mother dislikes all animal life form. She always says growing up on a large farm caused her to never want anything furry near her again. I sadly had to make do with dragging a stuffed dog with a cord around its neck. I now have four real live cats. They all love my mum and want to sit on her whenever she visits 😈

notsurewhatshappening · 26/10/2018 02:14

I was never allowed to bring my duvet downstairs to snuggle in on the sofa at home. Now I love doing it!

PyongyangKipperbang · 26/10/2018 03:43

I was never allowed to bring my duvet downstairs to snuggle in on the sofa at home. Now I love doing it!

In my mothers world you cannot go back to bed or have a duvet on the sofa. She will lie on the sofa with cushions or newspapers across her feet, 3 cardigans draped over herself and consider this better than just grabbing the spare damn duvet!

PyongyangKipperbang · 26/10/2018 03:44

Oh and I have a sofa duvet especially bought for the purpose that lives in the alcove next to it. She disapproves but I suspect is secretly jealous!

Shockers · 26/10/2018 04:05

Taking water on hikes. Mum didn’t believe that kids needed to drink in between meals, even when walking up Scafell Pike.

I used to loiter behind and drink from streams. This was forbidden because ‘there might be a dead sheep further upstream’.

lovetherisingsun · 26/10/2018 04:19

I'm allowed to talk.

Peraltiago · 26/10/2018 07:58

Light! Both my DPs hated the overhead lights being on, we could only use side lamps. They also had an aversion to 100 watt bulbs, so these side lamps were equipped with 40 and 60 watt bulbs. It was so fecking gloomy! I was an avid reader as a child and I remember having arguments with my sister about sitting nearest the light so I could see!

I have 100 watt LEDs in my house and no side lights. Bliss.

JMAngel1 · 26/10/2018 08:43

Buying clothes! As a child, I was rarely bought new clothes and often had to wear my older brother's hand me downs. I had a best friend who used to go a gorgeous boutique with her Mum all the time and she had velvet knicker bockers and ra ra skirt dresses and my most vivid memory were beautiful red japanese style flat shoes that I used to covet desperately.
My dream when I was a teenager was going through catalogues and fantasising about which outfitsnI could have.
My mum was a make do kind of mum and just didn't understand - I stopped asking although I did get clothes for birthday and Christmas but usually just one thing.

Once I started earning money, I massively hit the shops and to be honest I do still have a major shopping problem - nothing that has got me into debt but I certainly feel like I should have more savings than I do! It has also left me with a gnawing feeling all of my life that I'm not good enough - maybe I should see someone about this!

BubblesInTheTub · 26/10/2018 09:02

There must be people reading this who brought up their children this way. What do they think, reading it back?

Re. pain killers I think my mum would say "you could have just asked for them and I'd have bought them for you". That's absolutely true, she would have done but, at 12 or 13 or 14, I found periods very embarrassing and personal and I hated my mum knowing when I was "on" so actually, no, I didn't find it very easy to ask. Plus, because pain killers were only used when someone was really ill, I didn't know you could just pick them up in Tesco and use them whenever- I thought you had to be at death's door.

Re. drinks I think my mum would say "I didn't want you to spoil your tea because you'd always gulp drinks down". Well, yes, I used to gulp because I was so bloody thirsty. Maybe if I'd had drinks between meals, I wouldn't have been a greedy bugger when it came to drinking.

Re. bags I think people at school (including me) would say "yep, we were twats to each other and about ourselves. Many of the "rules" made life very hard. I don't understand why we cared so much but we did. Hey ho, character building"

OP posts:
longwayoff · 26/10/2018 09:27

Lots of forbidden foods/eating. Me too. Unfettered access to whatever I fancy has made me fat. I wish I'd been taught restraint in childhood rather than simply being told no can't have it, I might have more self control around food.

runningtogetskinny · 26/10/2018 09:32

Heating and a warm house. It was FREEZING in our house in the winter, it still actually puts me off calling in at her house in winter as I know she won't have any heating on! We had no central heating, we had a gas heater on the landing but you weren't allowed to put it on . Even now she'll buy new clothes every week but thinks heating is extravagant. My house is always toasty warm 

Whoever it was that posted about using more than 5 rubs with the eraser had me laughing out loud here! (In my warm house)

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