Five things you miss from your childhood, and five you are glad to have left behind!

[sadpapercourtesan]

Just being nosy, really . I'll start: I was born in 1977, for context.

Things I miss:

1. Playing out in massive groups of kids and having the freedom to wander, play really long elaborate imaginative games etc.
2. The sense of collective excitement when something was happening on TV, like a new Dr Who or something - everyone knew, everyone was watching it.
3. Clapping and skipping games/rhymes, and the whole pre-digital subculture of children.
4. Cadbury's chocolate that tasted like chocolate
5. Great children's TV - I know not all of it was great, but more so than today's offerings. Grotbags, Superted, Chocky etc.

Things I am happy to see the back of:

1. Leaving kids/animals in cars for hours in all weathers. I remember whole Sunday afternoons sweating and crying, jammed between warring siblings in the garden centre car park.
2. Violence against children in school and at home - and in public sometimes, without much risk of being challenged.
3. The practice of feeding really awful food to kids that you wouldn't touch yourself; tinned meatballs, tinned hotdogs, Smash and beans while the adults ate steak or ordered a Chinese takeaway
4. Thatcher
5. Compulsory praying and hymn-singing in school (I know there is still legally a collective worship requirement, but most non-church schools no longer force kids to pray)

Late 60s baby:

Miss
1 My parents and grandparents
2 The excitement of Top of the Pops, going to school on Friday buzzing over a new song that we had seen the night before
3 Tribes - goths, skins, mods, ska-heads, rockers. All thinking we were "different" whilst being slavish in our similarity to our chosen gang.
4 Crappy bedsits. Everyone left home at 17/18 - we lived rackety lives in rackety places with incredibly low rents - the freedom was brilliant.
5 Playing outside and the imaginative games we invented. The freedom to climb trees, have short hair, etc. without being labelled for it.

Don't miss

1. Chilblains
2. Power cuts
3. Sectarianism - being "the only Prods in the village" was tricky at times, especially in the early 80s when we had to move.
4. Secondary school bullying - I wasnt directly bullied myself, but the general hostile environment and strict hierarchy combined to give me a lack of self-confidence which held me back in 3rd level and in my career. If I could go back in time with the confidence I have now as a middle-aged woman, I would be a force to be reckoned with!!!

5 smoking everywhere. The cinema was hazy with smoke, buses, shops, everywhere - we all stank of second-hand smoke.

Miss
My daddy
Endless summers
Having no fear
The ice cream man
The Top 40

Don't miss
Fillings
Sunday afternoons
Trying to be cool
Getting the bus
Chilblains

RonCarlos

@Dacquoise oh yes, the killer fridges“

Still occasionally have nightmares with a running, barefooted child about to tread on a broken bottle 😱.

I miss:

1. My Grandparents
2. My Dad
3. My childhood dog
4. Summer holidays playing outside with neighbourhood kids from breakfast until bedtime.
5. Believing in Santa and the Tooth Fairy

I don't miss:

1. Dog shit on the pavements everywhere - and white dog shit! Why was it white??
2. How boring the food was. Meat and potatoes all the time. No garlic, no chilli, no herbs. Lasagna was weird and exotic....
3. Nylon clothes that crackled and gave static shocks when you pulled them over your heads.
4. Jimmy Saville
5. Racism as mainstream entertainment - Jim Davison etc.

Born in 1986. I miss:

• My lovely primary school.
• School plays and concerts and once the pageant! I also have fond memories of the St Lucia festival every year
• Riding lessons and endless summer days at the stables
• Everyone watching TV at the same time. Top of the Pops especially, or waiting for the next episode of Friends for a whole week.
• Magazines. I used to love Horse and Pony and my Vicky magazine.

Don't miss:

• My mother's horrendous, controlling behavior, especially about weight and food. From when I was tiny she forced me to clear my plate and yet also constantly shamed me for being fat and greedy. I'm glad the "clean plate club" is on the way out
• Smacking for relatively trivial things
• Everything just always being a bit shit
• This is very privileged, but also refers to the above. Our holidays were always a bit rubbish and my parents always fought and they got very tense and stressful. They were also SO BORING as a child, and pre-kindle/tablet, you could only take so many books. I have nice holidays now and I love them, and try and be mindful of places that DS will enjoy too.

(I have a LOT of unresolved trauma around terrible childhood holidays. So much stress, so much fighting, so much ruining of things)