If you grew up in 70s/80s what things did you do which would be unimaginable these days.

[newlabelwriter]

Just thinking about this. When I was about 9 my friend and I used to go around knocking on our neighbours doors to see if we could pick dandelions (or something similar) for her pet rabbits. Seems such a random thing to do and obviously v v young to knocking on doors to go into their gardens!

@foxgoosefinch you obviously come from a financially secure background.

[quote RoyalFamilyFan]@foxgoosefinch domestic violence was more accepted in the 70s and not seen as a real crime. Although thanks to feminists that was changing in the 80s.
Childline started in 1986 so it is untrue to say that child abuse was ignored.
I think the current sedentary and relatively risk-free childhoods are throwing up their own issues with an increase in mental health problems.[/quote]
The Children Act, which introduced the first modern safeguarding legislation for children, was passed in 1989. Before then even the legislative framework around child abuse was very patchy indeed. Even if not ignored, there was no clear statutory duties around the responsibilities of child services and the police in relation to child abuse until 1989.

And I was an adult and did not have kids, but travelled in the back of cars without rear seatbelts.

You could have rear seatbelts if you could afford a car with them

BBC article I’ve posted says 6/10 drivers didn’t belt up before it was made compulsory in 1983

[quote RoyalFamilyFan]@foxgoosefinch you obviously come from a financially secure background.[/quote]
No, my parents were not well off and grew up on council estates in the north. My mum became a child protection social worker working in some of the worst tenement estates in the north west of England. They just were extremely careful about looking after their children.

I think the point is that anyone who was a responsible parent had them, and had them well before the legislation too. Because it was bloody clear it was unsafe and you were putting your kids' lives at risk.

You only had them if your car had them. Many people moved hand to mouth back then too except there were no tax credits etc and often only one parent working. Fitting seatbelts in your banger you had to push to start each morning wouldn't have been a priority

@foxgoosefinch you seem to think I know nothing about this. I worked with kids before the children's act. Yes there was patchy practices, but some organisations had better practices than the new acts made compulsory. Schools tended to be poor though with their practices.

@foxgoosefinch if she was a social worker you were financially secure and don't know what you are talking about.

My cousins, my sister and I piling in the back of my grandpa's estate car. There was plenty of room in the car but we all used to get in the boot and he would go round the corners really fast so we'd all pile on top of each other. Bloody brilliant fun (and totally stupid of course!).

[quote RoyalFamilyFan]@foxgoosefinch if she was a social worker you were financially secure and don't know what you are talking about.[/quote]
No, we weren't actually -- how much do you think part time social workers were paid in the north of England in the 1980s under Thatcher? I think it's you who don't know what you're talking about.

You clearly could afford new cars Fox

@liveforsummer

If I remember rightly rear seatbelts were only mandatory if they were there and only new cars had to be fitted. Not an issue for us driven around in an old Renault with 4 different coloured panels. Especially lap belts I'm sure even fairly recently if there wasn't a middle lap you could travel without.

You still can. Until recently I had an early 80s campervan with no rear seatbelt which occasionally I used to let friends ride in the back. I did finally have a lap belt installed (not possible to fit a normal one), not sure it was very safe still especially as the rear seat was homemade from plywood and the garage said it would disintegrate in an accident. 🤷‍♀️

[quote RoyalFamilyFan]@foxgoosefinch if she was a social worker you were financially secure and don't know what you are talking about.[/quote]
Yes a family friend was a social worker and they had a big house with the most amazing garden with fruit trees i loved visiting. They didn't have seatbelts in their car though and they smoked copious amounts of weed in front of their children and us 😅

Spending most of the summer holiday at the local open air swimming pool with no parent or adult from the age of 9, slightly older siblings were meant to be looking after me but we all went our separate ways as soon as we got there 😃

@CovidCorvid tbf we went in a horse box to a show a couple of years ago with no belt. They still don't need them apparently and you can travel in the living area on the sofas if it's accessible from the drivers cab

No, my parents just weren't idiots who drove their kids around without seatbelts and in the boot. It wasn't mandatory not to care about road safety in the 70s and 80s! Plenty of ordinary people actually paid attention to it, even gasp poor people.

@Sparklingbrook

I remember the Alpine pop man delivering. Not to us, oh no we weren't allowed pop. Next door got bottles of limeade and cherryade and the children always had Ribena moustaches, we were not allowed Ribena either. Or sweets or ITV.

Me either @Sparklingbrook! We weren’t allowed Ketchup either.

I love a bit of nostalgia myself, but I also like facts and reality!

Yes we're all getting quite the lecture, on what was a good thread.

@MazzleDazzle we were allowed Ketchup and HP sauce I actually hate both now, but I do drink pop and watch ITV. Don't tell my Dad!

I've loved reading all these, although much hadn't changed for me I was born in 96 and would play out till dark, would often ride in grandads 3 wheeler with no belts even in the 2000s, and take my self and younger brother to and from primary school and cook our dinner we would often play in the woods and go swimming for 20p at 7&9 years old and I was babysitting over night with my friend by 10.

My uncle had a fruit and veg shop, he had a flat back lorry to collect from the wholesale market.

In the summer he would put a settee on the back of the lorry and all the kids and some of the parents would go off to Derbyshire for the day.

Happy days

Born in 1972. I've got loads that I'll add tomorrow but I remember reading shitty Virginia andrews books at about 10 ( so early 80's ) maybe Earlier but I can't believe my Mum let me read that's shit after she'd finished with them.

Also being driven around without a seatbelt, my Mum was paralytic driving a Renault 12 I think singing Bob Marley one NYE, I seriously don't know how the fuck I actually made it.

She's 82 now and lives with us, she's still the same lax crappy 70's parent though.

Apparently she isn't maternal she said - wish she'd thought of that before having 4 children though 🙄

I'm pretty sure my childhood made me into the paranoid helicopter parent that I am now.

Being dropped off at birthday parties from about age 4 onwards - parents never stayed.

And no one worrying that they didn’t know the parents well before their child “went to tea” with their friends (no play dates then!)

My mum used to send us to the local shop for milk etc when we were in infant school. Except to get there you had to go past the scary man’s house who had seven big rabid dogs roaming round on the pavement. You just used to run as fast as you could and hope for the best. Several kids were bitten by them over the years. Dogs weren’t really seen as part of the family in lots of homes around where I lived.. They just used to be sent out to walk themselves and shit their white poo all over the pavement.

Also, we went to a school netball tournament when we were in Y10 in 1995. Our netball teacher bought us all half a lager each in the bar.