Odd/ strange things you did as a child?

[Thecatistheboss]

My mum found an old picture of me, around 6 - in the picture I had a piece of wool fastened as a necklace! I apparently insisted on doing it all the time, I used to walk around with various colours of wool around my neck 😂😂 I’ve no clue why!! I also used to write in colouring books, I’d never colour them in but used to write on the pages, no idea to that one either

Me too but on a wall and I used metal coat hangers for stirrups.
I recently went back to look at that wall - it brought back such memories.

I spent a long time creating various secret clubs for my friends to join, complete with badges, passwords and headquarters. Unfortunately I was an only child and didn’t have many friends so my clubs were pretty much just me 😢

I also enjoyed spending hours stripping the bark off logs and pretending I was carving them. Which perhaps explains the no friends.

Another bath water flannel sucker here 😂 I loved the taste and the texture, so weird.

i also aged about 9 used to sit at my window each night and look for each streetlight coming on, we had quite a view of the local village and not only that I used to make notes, they all came on in a particular order each night, I used to assign them names and personalities and pretend they were friends. My parents thought I was nuts but in hindsight I was an incredibly lonely only child who had a lot going on at home and was suffering emotional abuse from my mum

Hide; I was always hiding. Had plenty of friends but just loved to squeeze behind the boiler or book cases in primary school. The reason was so I could sit on the hot pipes that went round each room and not be sent out in the cold to play!
At home I loved making dens behind the settee or hiding behind the curtains. Is this weird-no idea🤔!

That sounds amazing!

Can I play??

That’s so funny as I used to do the same. I also absolutely loved my Funfax spy file to record such criminal evidence! 😂

I did so many weird stuff now looking back. I guess it was the result of being a child born in the mid 80s! 😄 Some I can recall:
Making a tent out of my duvet in the garden in the pouring rain.
Making perfume from rose petals and selling to passer-bys!
Having funerals for poor dead animals such as frogs or mice that me and my friends found on the school playing field.
Holding ‘clubs’ for the neighbourhood kids in my garden shed and charging admission!
Creating my own make belief worlds - never seen my own kids get so immersed as I did but I guess there was no internet/devices in those days!

I used to eat the oddest things: pritt sticks, rubbers, pencils, the sleeves of my school cardigans, I'd tear the margins off books and eat them, putty from round the windows!

Not actual food though.

My sister and I used to do the rose petal 'perfume' thing, but we never tried selling it.

My brother, sister and I used to play a game called 'Cavemen' where we'd find everyday objects and pretend we were cavemen who had just invented them, eg 'I've just invented the clothes hanger!' Kids are bonkers...

I’d wear my trainers on my bare feet, because I liked the way they felt without socks. I was delighted when we were made to do this at primary school to walk to the assembly hall for PE.

I used to ask my brother or my parents to “kidnap me”: to blindfold me, and leave me somewhere, such as in the garden, and see how long I stayed where I was, without peeping. I loved sitting and listening to what was going on around me, and I often managed an hour or so before I got bored.

Thanks for this, I needed a laugh 😂

When I was about seven my friends and I decided to see if worms could swim. We found an nice big one and dropped it in a muddy puddle, when we realised said worm wasn’t going to float to the surface we had a sudden pang of guilt so we held a funeral in his honour 😂 One girl made a cross out of lollipop sticks and one said a little prayer for him.

RIP Willy The Worm - Gone But Never Forgotten!

Lots of great Gen X tales!

I’d try out phrases from dialogue in books in conversation at school: Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables, Enid Blyton. People would be 🙄A friend told me to stop it.

Had glow in the dark transfers of stars on bedroom furniture: frightened me after dark so had a ritual of hanging knickers & socks over them each night.

My cousin & I would stamp on the wet sand at the beach to ‘bring up the giant skinny worms’ that left the big, wormy sand piles - and dare each other to wriggle our toes into the piles - we envisaged something emerging like in the worm surfing like in Dune 2!

Lick the side of the matchbox… the rough side… so sour but I absolutely loved it.

The barbie & sindy feey were v satisfying to chew, bouncy, squeaky and strong material - never tried the boobs though!

My siblings and I used to spread our paperclips and wrap them across our teeth to pretend we had braces

Did anyone else make obstacle courses out of garden or garage objects like a saw horse to leap over or a garden sprinkler to jump through?

I used to do the smushed up crisp thing but with skips (do they even sell them anymore?)

I used to go through the Argos catalogue and make a list (with order numbers and prices) of things I would need to kit out my house when I was a grown up. Then using an old phone I would "ring through" my order! I used to ask my mum for a budget each time.

Me too!! I used to wear a petticoat on my head, with the body bit hanging down which was the long hair. I even have a photo or two with me wearing it. To this day I cannot understand why she didn’t let me have long hair 😔

My friends and I would play on building sites at weekends. Didn't have to break in or anything but it was the very early 80s.
Swinging from scaffolding, dangerous jumping, hiding in foundations. Nobody cared or stopped us.

When I would be out walking I would constantly be checking the bottom of my shoes to make sure I hadn't stepped in dog crap. And I mean it was constant, it was left foot look, right foot look, straight back to left, straight back to right, all the way to my destination. My mom used to get so annoyed and embarrassed 😳

God, I was a right weirdo looking back! I had an obsession with lampposts, I used to draw them 😂 and I would get my eldest sister draw them as she was good at drawing.

I had a toy phone from the pound shop and had it on the cabinet we had in the front room and pretend I was a receptionist at the doctors.

also sniffed the sofa after a visitor had gone! Luckily I have read two other posters did the same!! 😂😂

I used to stick safety pins under the top layer of skin on my fingers and hands, so that they were stuck there, just visible under the skin. It didn't hurt. I assure readers that I didn't practise any other form of self harm, in fact I've never even had my ears pierced. Although I did used to - and occasionally still do - chew the skin and flesh on the backs of my hands and forearms, leaving deep teeth marks. I also used to jiggle one leg constantly under the desk at school. There's probably more if I think hard enough.

Can you imagine the replies if anyone posted any of these about their kids now 😮