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!

Getting a penknife for Christmas

My grandad kept his front door open all day in the sumer in london on a council estate never had any bother

played out most of the day and bought cigarettes just said they were fro my gp who they knew

sitting in the back of the car lying down asleep or poking my head out the sunroof which i thought was so cool

Smoking on the top deck of the bus and the cinema thought i was cool-well i was at the time

Hitch lifts with my then 13 year old daughter from Preston to Cambridgeshire and part of the way back. It took 5 there and two plus the train to get back. One guy let her sleep in his overnight compartment behind the front seats in the artic en route to Hull then got us a further lift from another trucker he knew at the services stop. I paid for their meals as a thank you.
We had a card which we held out showing our destination. It was lots of fun.

These were both overnight trips from 9pm onwards...in decent weather.

Being dropped off at the lido aged 5 and looking after my 3 yr old brother. Looking back the whole place needed sorting out as it was full of young unsupervised children.

Very early 1970s. A day trip to Drayton Manor Park as part of a summer play scheme. A coach full of junior school kids supervised by a couple of sixth formers!! Mum did give us half a crown spending money though.

some of these are actually quite frightening remember sexual abuse from our class teacher a man at age 10 and we all getting together in the playground to talk about it and deciding not to tell as we would get told off and he was a teacher thus he could do what he liked this was in 1979
We were never told about abuse from adults by our parents It was never discussed . I think if it had been people in positions of trust would not have got away with the things they did then I would like to hope there is a lot more awareness today
It affected some people for life right into adulthood it was eventually reported years later and he was put on sex offenders register by then he was no longer a teacher but an old man in his 80s

to add it wasnt always the idyllic childhood people are painting and a lot of dangerous and lazy parenting went on. My own children were certainly parented differently though I wasnt a helicopter parent but much more aware of safety etc than my own parents were thank goodness

Another one school gates left unlocked all day so anyone could walk in think this only changed after the dunblane shooting at a school !!

Yes to the car ones. Apparently as a baby I was transported in an unsecured carrycot on the back seat. Later on my parents considered themselves very safety conscious, we shared a daily school run with two other families. Two adults in the front, three seven year olds in the back with three four year old siblings on our laps, but each set of two had a seatbelt round them!
Also remember as a teenager piling 8 of us into my friends small car, I believe it was two in the front passenger seat and five in the back, the smallest lying across the rest.

A bit of a sad one, to be included in "unimaginable now", but I grew up from aged 6 to 12, (1976 -1982) on a new build housing estate, surrounded by nursery land and woods. A semi urban area. Everywhere we looked there was wildlife. A marsh, stream or a pond would be teaming with frog spawn, frogs, toads, newts, fish... that would be unimaginable now.

No car seats for kids until it was legally required.

Nightclubs from age 15 with my mum helping me pick what to wear!! (I wouldn't allow my kids to go at this age!)

@workingtheusername

Playing out on local waste ground Getting mums fags from shop Getting served in pubs at 15 Laughing at the local flasher???!!!

Hope it put the dirty bastard off !!

@orangetriangle

Another one school gates left unlocked all day so anyone could walk in think this only changed after the dunblane shooting at a school !!

Yes, there was no security in schools. People could walk into schools, although it was incredibly rare for it to happen. But parents did occasionally walk in and go to the Head office for example.

Hitchhiked every day and got lift every time after 5 minutes!

Did most of these.. and my parents were definitely stricter than some and I went to church a lot...but I'll add

Class pushing the school minibus to jump start it when it broke down on a trip (aged 12)
Buying alcohol from a corner shop aged 13 no questions asked and then drinking before school disco to visibly paralytic levels. Still allowed in.
Leaving school mid afternoon by climbing over a fence and walking down the verge of a dual carriageway. Once a week for 2 years. Never told off/caught.
Driving in a car full , no rear seat belts to a town 20 miles away (aged 14) driven by a boy who was 17 and just passed test.
Catching a train to a city 50 miles away just to go to Body Shop aged 13
Going on a school trip to same city aged 16 and leaving the museum shortly after arriving to go shopping to a specific record shop returning in time to get coach home.
Drinking with teachers on a school sports trip (brother not me..aged 14!)
Saving up lunch money to go to pub on a Friday lunch time (5th year!)
Getting the bus to school on my own age 7 with brother age 5.
Working in a hotel-pub doing silver service for events for the Masonic Lodge (leering business men) age 14.
Night clubbing age 14...
My best-friends brother used to bring home girls and shag them on the bottom bunk aged 17 while his little brother aged 7 slept on top bunk! Weekly occurance.
Aged 10 i spent a whole year going to a random old lady's house to play with her cat. She lived several streets away and no idea how it started but I'd go every few days..then I got bored and stopped!

I met a hippy man in a pub when I was aged 16 who offered to teach me guitar. He came around for weeks after school until he tried it on. Then he kept showing up and my dad and brother had to step in. He was I'm guessing 35! Not even sure if he could play guitar that well

Going to teachers houses for tea was a thing round my way too.

Teachers making fun of poor kids. Especially the ones from the children's home.

Also
In lower 6th form going out to pub every Friday with a fiver which in those days bought 3 pints of red witch ,(pernod/black/cider), 10 fags and a bag of chips. Was supposed to share a taxi home (always said I did). Instead walked a mile n half alone down an unlit main semi rural road p*ssed up... what was I thinking?? Was bloody scary even then as passed graveyard and one side was scary woods and open fields (shudder)

As a teenager I was always the last one in the taxi to be dropped off on the way back from the clubs.. Everyone would just give me their share and I'd pay when I got to my house.

My mum worked as a cleaner in the evenings and I used to look after my little brother from 5 til 8 Monday to Friday. Dad worked away through the week. I was 8 and my brother was 2. But it was okay because I could always knock on our neighbour in the next door flat if there was a problem 😳🤣

We used to get to know random people by going bob a jobbing. People my parents didn't know. We'd often visit for no reason and go in and play even if they didn't have kids! There was one family who moved into the area from Africa and this was a huge novelty at the time. We would call in randomly and they wouldn't tell us to get lost. The worst was that I remember being in their house playing the day they came home with their first baby! Adult me is horrified at this!
Then there was the disabled man, whose house we were banned from, but we still went to anyway. He was always trying to get us to show our private parts! Because he was disabled we could keep our distance yet we still went there to play all the time! My friends grandad used to help him out and when he came we had to hide!! Absolutely crazy times looking back!

Yep cracked my head open on the monkey bar, ended up with white mallon streak in my hair and quite a dent in my temple.

Just to add didnt got to AnE

I volunteer for youth work now... you are categorically not allowed to give any lifts to any children or young people - even if parents ask. In the 80s living semi-rurally you had to get a lift to get anywhere. This would be given by school teachers, guide leaders, church organist, random neighbours who happened to be going that way and assorted other people. You just piled in. People would also stop and pick you up (you were told not to go in strangers car ever.. but random bloke who works with your cousin you met once.. ok).
Now I can't even pick up a friend of my DSs who is walking with him outside school and drop him home 5 mins away without the need for them to call their dm (but its seemingly ok to allow them to continue walking home alone at dusk!)

@orangetriangle

Another one school gates left unlocked all day so anyone could walk in think this only changed after the dunblane shooting at a school !!

Or walk out! I escaped from my infant school aged five in 1980, in an attempt to walk home (about a mile and a half) during the day but then got lost. Just walked out of the classroom saying I was going to get a drink of water, past the office, out the door, across the playground, through the open gate, and away. Teachers had to scour area in a flotilla of cars looking for me.