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!

I believe there was a countdown like that in the Sunday Sport for Linsey Dawn McKenzie leading up to her 16th birthday during the 90s. Beggars belief really

I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I had a lot of independence and went to the park/shops alone or with friends from age about 10, and got the train to London with friends at 14. My parents trusted me and I appreciated the freedom so never broke their trust.

Never took up smoking, didn’t have sex till 18, didn’t try weed till 25. We did drink at friend’s houses from 15/16 but that was literally the whole of the UK at that time.

Maybe it is older 14/15 year olds who are likely to get into bother. But if there's no supervision available the second they hit secondary age their won't be for 14 /15 year olds.

This thread has adults reflecting on their teen years as girls dating much older men. Girls and young men haven't changed!!

That said few parents would pay for childcare for teens but I do feel their should be more available for secondary kids to do in the summer holidays. It's not so much the couple of hours after school it's the long days in summer etc when they are left to their own devices and nowhere to go.

Lots of posts about Covid on here. I completely ignored all Covid restrictions. I was only restricted by others who adhered to the daft rules. And all that shite about neighbours reporting people who broke the rules?
And what was all the fuss about handwashing? What did people do before? The dirty sods 😊I have always washed my hands after the loo, before preparing food, after sorting out the washing etc etc, and when I come home.

It was the parents after Dunblane who campaigned for the police checks.

And yes it crazy that so much was done on trust before that, and that was across so many sectors and groups, churches, youth groups, schools etc.

The Scouts had basically banned Ian Hamilton so he set up his own boys club.

My brother-in-law had a little 2-seater MG midget and me and my sister, we were around about 8, used to sit on a little shelf behind the seats when we went out with my eldest sister and him! We loved it!

I definitely remember PE in vest and pants in infant school (mid eighties). By the juniors we had PE kits, but everyone changed at their desk and the punishment for forgetting your kit was to do it in your underwear. Totally shocking when you think of it!
I was also another one with an older boyfriend (I was 15, he was 21) this was the 90’s but my mum remembers being 14 in the 60’s and having a boyfriend with a car.

People pretending that they can change their biological sex.

Yeah I cant believe in an unprecedented global pandemic people thought that other human beings in public office were perfectly prepared to handle a novel virus. If people hadn’t been so selfish, and more countries had worked together the virus could have been contained. But people are far too selfish these days and stupid enough to believe conspiracy theories on social media. Hopefully future generations realise how humans failed each other in the pandemic by making it impossible to stop the spread.

I thought it was the Soham murders that led to criminal records checks.

I miss the Jeremy Kyle show so much 😥

Remember my late DM telling me that she was admitted to a sanatorium in the 1950s for about 18 months as she has TB. They were wheeled out onto the patios daily for cigarette breaks

In 50 years time people will wonder how plastic and other chemicals were allowed to be produced knowing that they were dangerous for the planet also for parents giving chemical substances in food to their children.

I used to walk to school and back on my own from age 6. There was virtually no traffic on the roads and there used to be quite a big group of children who walked in the same direction so we were rarely alone. Although I once went home for lunch at playtime by mistake. My mum shooed me back out of the house to get back to school before anyone noticed I was missing.
Nobody had noticed!!
Imagine the uproar of that happening today!!

Being asked smoking or non smoking at the check in desk.
Cigarettes being on view in shops.
Smoking in general in public places.
Paying for everything in cash.
Kids playing out all day.
Walking to school.

People making TikTok videos

The baby listening service at butlins. Leave your baby in their cot, go to the show bar and someone will walk past occasionally to see if they are crying 😨

Yes, and we could all leaver out doors open and nobody would nick our stuff. And we wouldn't have to pay taxes because everybody would share what they had. And lions and lambs play together in fields.

Conductors on buses. Got on at the rear and the conductor would collect your fare. That went about late 70s near me. Cheap rail travel and special excursions and mystery trips. So I could go from Manchester to Windsor or Edinburgh for a £5 or less and back. Had some friends and that's what we did. Went all over the country and the trains generally full

We might be both half right.
Disclosure Scotland may well have been available before the equivalent in England.

Dunblane was 1996 Soham 2002.
Bless them

Protection of Children Scotland Act was 2003. And was superceded by PVG 2007.

I thought they had some special monitor you borrowed not just walked past listening!! Of course no one would have been checked

Haha mine too! She was only 17 tbf

Similar experience / perspective here.

I was walking to and home from school from age 6. I was subjected to flashers on a regular basis. It was normalised. This was the late 1970s. Awful times in many ways.

I was stupidly sensible, and never got involved in trouble, and was shocked when the 14 year old were dating lads of 20+. Didn't lose my virginity till I was 20.

My cousin is much younger than me. I'm 53 and she's 27. Believe it or not, we had mostly the same teachers (those that were in their late 20s, early 30s when they taught me in the late 80s were in their late 50s / early 60s when she went to school in the mid to late 2000's) We have compared notes many times. Teaching styles were similar, but times had changed.

My cousin was smoking and drinking in the park when she was 12. My daughter is 12 now. Yes, she barely leaves the house without me, but at least I know she's not smoking and drinking in the park. (For what it's worth, both me and DD are Autistic)

Neither generation is right. Both generations have had their fair share of tragedies in the way of abductions etc. I honestly don't know what the difference is, but it's not necessarily down to parents. It might be, partly, but I think a lot of it is how you're wired in general.

I heard that on the Kyle show, the producers lied to the guests about the starting time, and then burst into their hotel room hours earlier than expected, saying “you’re on NOW”, so they didn’t have time to get dolled up, and had to go looking dishevelled.

Definitely smoking around kids. My parents would smoke inside and in the car with the windows rolled up mid 90s. We must have stank! But then all the teachers smoked too so they probably couldn't smell it 😂