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!)

Oh and there was ALWAYS a

Teacher had shagged a student rumours at least 2 of which were definitely true.

One because the teacher was sacked and one because it happened shortly after a public event with witnesses

Working up to 20 hours a week from the age of 13 in hotels whilst doing O and A levels.

@VanyaHargreeves We had a youth club like that here. I remember one memorable occasion when we were about 14 having to call an ambulance from a phone box (a phone box!) because one of the boys had drink an entire small bottle of vodka there, come out, gone to be sick in a public toilet and fallen down in his own vomit smashing his head on the urinal.

He had to have his stomach pumped and stay in hospital overnight and even though it happened outside of school we all had to go and see the HT the next day!

None of us thought that was big or clever though, we were well aware that he could have killed himself.

Yes @MsMellivora! I worked as a chambermaid and waitress in a local hotel from the age of 13. I used to walk down to start at 5am for to waitress breakfast, then do the rooms until lunch, then clean again after lunch. I'd do 12 hours days, and I earned a fortune because they paid me £4 an hour. I was loaded!

No wonder I could afford so much lanbrini

It would be good if someone in their early/mid 20s could come onto this thread as it probably hasn’t changed much since they were teens. There must still be loads of things that parents don’t know about

Yeah @slippyfeet and all of us got massive lectures, including the ones who were completely oblivious to what happened - child was a minor celeb upon their return

@camelfinger Going by current TV programming a lot goes on online that is far more advanced sexually then anything we knew, nudes etc that didn't exist in "my time"

Teenage secrecy is within the home not outside of it now

All saying we were staying at a friend’s house across the village and instead drinking in fields with friends and crashing in hay barns and horse boxes. Once I believed I even shared my own horse’s stable.

Spending most maths lessons at a friend’s house who lived behind school.

Skiving for the whole day all at once to go off on train somewhere.

How I got the A Levels I did and got into a good university is a mystery to me.

One teacher for one subject so ineffectual, you could walk out of the class and he wouldn't notice.

There were 3 classrooms together but set apart from the main run of the building - I vividly remember shutting myself in one of these rooms with 2 other girls, outside the door was a group of lads picking on one of the girls for being on her period.

No one doing any work and the teacher just fucking around. When OFSTED came though, he put on a right show and was commended to the headteacher.

His lessons were fucking chaos, literal survival of the fittest, lawlessness.

@VanyaHargreeves We had one of those ineffectual teachers too. One of the really naughty boys used to quite openly get up, take out a cigarette and lighter, go for a smoke then come back. The teacher just let him do it, as long as he didn't disrupt everyone with his comings and going.

Madness.

@Olliephaunt4eyes @afternoonspray - it was the drama teacher at my school too...

My mum actually encouraged me to have a fling with a teacher at my posh sixth form. I think she felt it was a rite of passage.

Do schools still do "overnight incommunicado" for pupils who take an exam earlier or later than everybody else? Occasionally such pupils would have to stay the night at a teacher's house. Could this happen nowadays? And would the pupil be forbidden to take their mobile phone and searched to ensure compliance ?

I'd love to see the face of a safeguarding lead if that was suggested now. They'd combust!

I've never heard of that even when I was at school

The youth club where I lived was in a building with different levels. Kids just wandered from room to room without any checking. The fire alarm couldn't be heard in the art room so if it went off (which was often as there was a toaster) various kids would run down the stairs yelling "fire alarm" and until someone relatively sensible shouted it everyone ignored it. Also if you wanted a drink you jumped across the road to the sports centre, but no-one was keeping a note of who was in the building and not.

I once skived school for two weeks by telling my reg teacher that we were going on holiday. No chance you can do that now

DH got married at 17 ( not to me , I would have been 12!)

A lot of these things still happen. My DC used to regularly come home from school with stories of classmates who had to have their stomach pumped after drinking too much vodka. Unsupervised parties and parents leaving 16 year olds home alone while they go on holiday definitely still happens. Underage drinking is still very much a thing, just not in pubs and clubs like it was in the 90's. Drugs seem to be much more rife now than they were back then.

I think one of the biggest difference is in attitudes to dating It used to be totally normal for girls to date older boys, in fact it was considered odd to date someone in your own year. Teenage pregnancies seemed to be much more common back then too.

I lived in a village so if I wanted to party I was partly reliant on my parents to take me though they did do this frequently with no worries. We used to camp in my friends field for "festivals" and wander round the village with alcohol we'd got from various parents stashes.

If parents were out we'd be smoking weed as often as possible.

My parents were actually reasonably "strict" so for eg I wasn't allowed to get a late bus home, not would they collect me so I had to either stay over or not go. One party I went to with my boyfriend at 16 we were supposed to be staying over and the person whose party it was changed his kind so we had to taxi back from over an hour away and then walk through the village (as we ran out of money so told taxi to stop!) and had to hammer on my door at 2am! My mum made my bf sleep on the sofa.

But when I went to uni I would walk home alone along the canal path pissed as a fart. It's a wonder I'm still alive!

I also had a 22 year old boyfriend at 17. I stayed with him for 6 years!!

A 13 yo got pregnant in my school

Also my sisters first boyfriend as a 15 yo was 20

Underage clubbing was huge as well

Bunking off school, used to go in for registration, then get the bus in to town until after lunch, go for afternoon registration, hang about the shops till home time. Did it for ages, only got caught once just before I left when I skipped to go to a sound check for The Jam gig because Paul Weller's dad always let the kids in out of the cold.

At our convent grammar school, not only did the teachers drink with pupils at lunchtime, but from 5th form onwards we were allowed to smoke in our common rooms.

I went to a pop concert with my bf when I was 15 it was a coach trip run by the coach company in the next village, we were due back at 1am and my mum was collecting us. Anyway some minor drama ensued with people not being able to find the coach outside Wembley after the concert and we ending up getting back at 3am. MY MUM WAS NOT THERE AND THE BUS DRIVER WENT HOME AND LEFT US THERE! In a pitch black bus company car park in the middle of nowhere! (This was pre-mobile phones obvs. She did eventually turn up about an hour later

14-16yos having ‘relationships’ with older men (abusers)

Makes me sick now and those girls were the ones treated like they were in the wrong.

The going out and the drinking in pubs and nightclubs-2 to 3 nights a week from about aged 15 onwards.

Just wouldn't happen now-think bouncers and bar staff are stricter but also not sure as many kids would want to do it.

I'm not naive-my 14 year old has almost certainly had a blue WKD or two down the park I suspect but not the extent I did it and certainly not in a nightclub til 2am!

I can't speak for all kids obvs but my two are fairly square and far less adventurous than I was. I took them to a gig last night in London. One was one year under age to get in and they were panicking about that and then dithering about would it be safe blah blah-At that age I would have gone without even thinking about it, and probably not even told my Mum, never mind gone with her! (It was only the ally pally we were going to-we weren't going anywhere remotely dodgy).

All of yours op, from about the age of 14-15😳😳. I also got a phone at 15 and never had restrictions though it want one that you could get WiFi on!
Patents never came to open days either!
I turned out pretty good also I reckon!

Mine are really square too, I'm glad though, my poor parents must have been tearing their hair out half the time when I was their age and much younger.