Things that you can’t quite believe were the norm

[ItsNotAShopItsAStore]

What’s one of those things you think in 10/20/30 years people will go “WTF why was that acceptable?”

For me - the Jeremy Kyle show. I’m so pleased it’s off air - awful poverty porn hosted by a nasty little bully and enabled by god-complex shit stirring producers. Also who wants to watch so much shouting and arguing at 9.25am!

In the 1970s it was the norm to:

Keep another person's child safe from harm without being criticized

Consider other people in your community apart from yourself

Doing everything to avoid waste, especially food waste

Be polite and helpful to school and school teachers

I could go on...

I am pitying the middle aged men. they were vile.

Not sure what you’re trying to get at like, I’m answering the thread of “Things that you can’t quite believe were the norm”. And I can’t believe men and viewers gawping at young women was seen as normal.

Dog owners will be appalled at my revelations but in my childhood in the 50s and 60s dogs weren’t taken to the vet routinely for health checks, vaccinations or minor ailments. Vet visits were only for serious emergencies that couldn’t be treated at home.

Most people had mongrel dogs and it seems they were low maintenance. Our dog had a long and very healthy life for 16 years and never saw the inside of a vet practice. I only knew of one family who had a specific breed of dog. Our neighbour had a poodle and they were considered “posh”!

I can verify too that the naked showering was a thing in our school, compulsory. We just used to run through them as quickly as possible. I was on my period a lot during that time (😜) and made my mother write a note to exempt me from games as much as possible. To the poster who said she can’t believe parents used to let their kids play out without being supervised in the 70s, we still do. Village life is often like that. The kids hang out in a gang and go off exploring. They look out for each other.

Kids looking after babies and toddlers. My ex's daughter was 9 when DS was born. She was 12 when DD was born. She kept asking if she could take th@em out I always said no.

Now you just go online and buy from any breeder who keep mammy locked up churning out puppies all the time in horrible conditions and pay a fortune for it , then most will be dumped in rescues and shelters shortly after, not much has changed really 🤔

Smoking on airplanes ✈️

Yes, I flew to California for my cousin's wedding, in 1995 and it was smoking. I was near the back, in the smoking section and I'm surprised it didn't go nose up, with number of people coming to bloody well smoke! And they wouldn't let me change seats!

Fake grass, weed and slug killer and cutting down trees in nesting season.

We had a smoking room at 6th form !

They did at my high school, as well.

Kids play out where I live. It's a small town and most people will look out for kids. I remember going to the local shop and there was a little girl of about 3. Member of staff was saying I'm finishing my shift now so I'm taking her home. She had crossed 4 roads one is the shop is busyish.

The showers we never used. They were there but we were always told they didn't work. Even though we had 3 blocks with a PE department and changing rooms in each block. I'm not sure if something had happened in them. I never thought about it until I was an adult.

State pension

Things from the past that I think of...

Young people being able to leave school at 16 or college at 18 and going into a full time job with potential to progress e.g. apprenticeships, office junior, file clerk etc with a contract and set working hours (i.e. no zero hours BS).

Being able to buy a family home on one average full time salary.

Things from now...
Giving children unfiltered/unsupervised access to the internet and social media

Oh also had to sit boy girl in junior school. But we also got changed for PE at our desk. There was no changing rooms even though it was newly built in the 80's the year I started.

We also spent the first few months in the old school building it was in a terrible state of disrepair. The whole first year, 2 classes so there was 60 kids only 2 teachers had to walk up to the new school a 10-15 minuite walk for our dinner. If that was now they would be asking for parent helpers DBS checked etc.

Group showers at school activities eg swimming.
smoking indoors!!! Madness.
page 3 absolutely agree.
i think cosmetics will be shown to be hugely dangerous inter

I was 3 when my sister was born in the 80's. I remember our mum doing that for her. I also remember her flicking it at me. 🤣🤣🤣

..In terms of chemical absorption into the body. And other household chemicals eg cleaners and scented products. It’s starting to be shown that chemicals really are having a detrimental effect on sperm count and fertility.

being asked to strip to my knickers for medical for a Saturday job at Sainsbury’s

I was in the last intake year of school being on two blocks with a 10-12 min walk between them. Had French, Maths, Music and RE there. We walked unsupervised. Surprised that nobody stood by the old people’s home as that was in a dip with a long grassy slope from pavement to OPH. As year 9s pushed year 7s down the hill.

I watched two teenagers on a ticktok video yesterday watching an old VCR video tape for the first time, the looks on their faces lol! I remember the joys of rewinding all the way back to the start to watch the films on them again.

1970's infant school, paddling in pants and then running round the tree naked to get dry, in full view of the secondary school next door. Walking to school alone from 7 and accompanying 4 year old sibling to the infant school and then walking on the juniors. This included crossing a busy road that usually, but not always had a lollipop lady. In juniors doing PE in navy blue "school" pants and vest. No seat belts, as many children that could fit in the back of the car. 3 children to a 2 person seat on buses/coaches. Different level tables in class, most able at maths used the Alpha maths text books, less able the Beta books (big alpha and beta symbols on the fronts of the books).
Secondary in the 1980's being hit with a ruler on the hands by teachers, 8 to a tennis court when we actually did PE. Sport not thought of as important in an academic girl's school, I was sporty girl and hated this! When we did judo, the male teacher had wandering hands and groped us all. Smoking on the back of the bus and sneaking into discos and pubs at 14. There were a few weddings of pregnant 16 year old peers in the summer at the end of year 11, their boyfriends/husbands in their 20's .
The setting on tables still existed in primary when my kids were at primary a few years ago, but it was more discrete than when I was at school with the tables having names rather than being top table etc, but the kids still knew!

Gah. I remember it seeming to be perfectly acceptable to empty my car ashtray into the gutter - never occurred to me to take it to the nearest bin 😳

Imagine their reaction to a cassette tape & pencil!

A lot of those children still wearing nappies when they go into reception have (often undiagnosed) additional needs. It amazes me how nobody seems to take this into account whenever this topic comes up.