What did you do as a teenager that would never be allowed to happen now?

[slippyfeet]

Reading threads today, one in particular about teenagers having phones has got me thinking about how times are so different now and the sort of things myself and my friends got up to as teens that just wouldn't happen in a widespread way today. Mostly a good thing, from a safety perspective, some of the things we did were downright dangerous and stupid. I was a teenager in the late 90's early 00's.

For me it would be:

• Arranging sleepovers where we'd all say we were staying at someone else's house when in fact we were all just staying out overnight, usually with a bottle of something alcoholic and the local teenage boys
• Sneaking out from sleepovers to wander villages in our pyjamas, god knows why
• Going to nightclubs and pubs underage (pre-photo ID being a thing)
• Watching films at the cinema that we were too young for
• Sneaking magazines with sex in them (hello MORE Magazine) to read about when parents were in bed
• Playing spin the bottle, properly, with the boys

Most of ours revolved around illicit alcohol actually. I should add that we all grew up unharmed to be responsible drinkers with good jobs and families now, in our mid thirties (I still have mostly the same friends!)

Aged 13 me and my friend would walk around the village enjoying all the wolf whistles and leering we would receive from men in trucks and vans.

I think that things weren’t allowed to happen as such, but teenagers tended to hide things from their parents more than they do now.

Lots of skiving off school and no one noticed. I missed about a term's worth of French at one point and somehow it never got picked up on.

Going to the pub from the age of 14. No way did the bouncers really think we were 18. Lots of older boyfriends - I had friends dating 30 year olds at 15 and somehow that was ok.

My mum died when I was quite young and so I was basically entirely free range from the age of 12 - walked myself to school, came home, cooked dinner and dad got back around 6 pm. No one seemed to find this odd.

Oh god yes the relationships! My friend (male) used to snog the PE teacher when we were in year 12 we all knew as well!

Also yes/yes to teacher/student relationships. Our drama teacher at school was always dating someone in the upper sixth. It was a running joke. He never got fired.

Do these things not happen anymore? I’m hopeful not!

This sort of stuff still goes on. DS faked a passport page on his phone, used as ID to get into a gig for over 16s when he was 15. When I found out I was secretly quite pleased and proud that they were still having mini adventures like we did. And DS also told me which salesperson at which local convenience store always forgets to ask for ID when underage people try to buy booze. They just go into the shop regularly for sweets and soft drinks and as soon as he is on the till they buy stuff for parties.

Got my first tattoo at 16, at a very well known tattoo shop (so not some shady shitplace) and they just did the tattoo on me without asking me for any ID.

@Olliephaunt4eyes - it was always the bloody drama teachers!

Buying bottles of alcohol from any supermarket or off-licence aged 13 and getting pissed with a group of older boys on the town park on Saturday afternoons.
My mum must have been able to smell it on me ( and the cigarettes), but she never said anything about it?

Yes to also being a bit free range! I think I’m a couple of years younger than OP!

• stopped having child minder/ baby sitter from start of year 6 (who would hear of that these days?!) Had my own door key, got myself to school each morning and had a couple of hours alone (if I didn’t have a club) after school, likewise at secondary school
• Was able to say I was just going “out” - I.e to field with friends
• so much easier to spin “I’m going to so and so’s house and no social media that someone would then “check in” or post a photo that gave us all away! No smart phone location finder !!!
• I would say older boyfriends were more common
• definately knew of at least 2 girls from school who were shagging there music teachers when meant to be learning the flute or such. Everyone knew
• Easier to skive off school. I’m sure the school didn’t start chasing the minute registration ends like they do now
• def easier to buy alcohol and cigs back then underage

-

Buying drinks in pubs at 16

Buying cigarettes for my dad when I was about ten

Cigarettes being sold singly to us in the sweetshop near school, while we were in school uniform

One of my teachers used to give me a lift home sometimes when I was about 15. It was all absolutely fine.

Outdoor parties (illegal raves) usually up in a forestry somewhere in North Wales (not much clubbing around here). They would sometimes go on for days, loads of alcohol and drugs available, and sometimes busted by the police 😬🤦🏻‍♀️. I could literally think of nothing worse now

My friends and I used to walk home from nightclubbing . We would walk off on our own when we were near our homes. Frightening

Have fun with friends that wasn't at someone else's expense / bullying and didn't involve electronics and also have a sense of decent adventure, helped me grow, build confidence and fresh air!

We had a pirate radio station open up in a disused corner shop a few doors down from my house.
They used to have the most amazing parties, of course, being 14 I wasn't allowed to go.
So I would wait until my parents were in bed or watching TV downstairs, climb out my bedroom window onto the slopped roof of the kitchen, hop over the wall and party.
I would then, pissed, have to climb back up without breaking my neck and back to bed.
One time, my dad turned up to tell them to turn it down as he had daughter's trying to sleep. No. He actually had one daughter trying to sleep and one at the party.
Never got caught.

It was always the PE teachers at my school. One had a full on affair with a girl in my year in year 11 (he would've been in his thirties) but to be fair he did lose his job so people were bothered. It was an open secret for a good while though. He wasn't prosecuted.

Another was dating an older sister of a girl in our year, older sister being in sixth form - while he was engaged to the English teacher! Who he later married.

We went on trips abroad in year 9 and 10 too and we're all drinking and partying the whole time, with the teachers present!

Telling my mum I was staying at my friends house but getting on a minibus to go 3 hours away to Wigan Casino. Aged almost 15. Madness!

@afternoonspray

I don’t know anyone of my generation or any of my son’s friends, who have had thousands given by their parents for their university education. I got through on a full grant, all my siblings on loans and overdrafts. Same for the young people today.

In any case, you only need to refer to this www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jun/07/how-to-use-the-guardian-university-guide-2020

I’m still a bit chinny reckon about parents looking middle aged and gormless on open days.

Hitchhiking

I’m 31, so my teenage years weren’t that long ago.

I started going out out when I was 15, but there weren’t really any places to go where I lived so I would either get the train to manchester, leeds or London, there weren’t as many station barriers then so I always travelled without a ticket and nearly always got away with it. I would then have a big night out, wake up with a random guy and then get the train home. This was before Uber and I had a brick phone so I used to have to wake them to ask where I was to find my way to the nearest station/bus stop.

I got stranded in Leeds once as the trains were cancelled, I really panicked as I knew if I wasn’t home by dinner I would be in serious trouble as my parents would have driven to the ‘friends’ house I was staying at to pick me up. So I told the guy I was only 15 and if he didn’t drive me home I would call the police.

I was terrible until I was about 19, I narrowly avoided going to prison when I was 18 due to being found guilty of ABH. I used to peddle drugs quite a bit. I did some (mainly nude) modelling when I was 18, it made enough money to tide me over at university.

I would be absolutely horrified if my son ever did one of the things I got up to as a teen.

I’m now a 31 year oxbridge graduate!

As a total goody-two-shoes, I can assure you all that having an older boyfriend did NOT get you respect from everyone else.

(Being let out to the pub for the evening on orchestra courses definitely isn't allowed nowadays.)

I'm nearly 40. Definitely relate to most of what you've all said 😂when I was 24 I had an 18 year old boyfriend. Parents were not happy. Bunking off. Going to friends houses and taking alcohol from their parents stash. That sort of thing. Another thing was I was allowed to go to London on the train ( 2 hour journey) by myself aged 14, and when I was 15 I did 2 months work experience in central London - rented a little bedsit for the duration. Loved it. I would never dream of letting my daughter do that now

• 14 not 24!

This thread is bringing back memories

I wagged school for three weeks straight, before they rang my mum

Just used to wander out at 7.30 in my uniform then come back at 4. Would just go to older friends’ houses and watch Sunset Beach and Jerry Springer!

I was one of the few who went to university open days without my parents.

Not really a forbidden action, but writing actual letters to each other. I did it with a few of my friends after I left school! This was in the late 90's, and not everybody had email or internet at home.

Taking forbidden Walkmans to school.

Lots of pupils smoked in the back streets at lunchtime, to the extent that the school issued disposable cameras to complaining residents.