WTF moments from childhood

[Lyannaa]

I vividly remember sitting in a circle at primary school and playing a game (facilitated by teachers). It was a variation on ‘spin the bottle’ and this boy named the girl he wanted to kiss. The feeling was not mutual from her end and she began running around and around the circle, trying to evade both the boy and the disgraceful teachers trying to hold her down. Vile. How was this a thing? All I remember was sitting there thinking ‘thank goodness this isn’t me’.

This was 1989…

Hi @BertieBotts you didn't go to Howe Dell School in the 1960's did you!?

I fell off a piece of equipment in PE and knocked myself out when I was 4 or 5. I remember seeing stars (shimmery grey twinkles going up) when I came round with everyone staring at me. It was just casually mentioned to my mum when she came to collect me at home time!

I remember having sleepless nights when our Y9 teacher told us we’d be weighed in front of our classmates for a ‘science’ project the following week. Horrendous. Like you I was one of the heavier girls and it was so humiliating.

I think my wtf moment would probably be at the turn of the millennium I had just turned 10 years old. I was the eldest of 7 cousins. They were 6, 6, 5, 3, 2 and not yet 1. My parents, grandparents and aunts left me at home in New Year’s Eve alone babysitting my cousins while they went out. They left around 7. They always said I was so ‘mature’ and responsible and at the time I didn’t mind as they each gave me a fiver (!) but looking back it’s quite appalling and scary to think of what could have happened.

See my post above, this in a widespread (worldwide!) game that was first mentioned in Samuel Pepys diaries in the 1600s! And features in movies etc. So it’s not localised to one particular school.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_as_a_feather,_stiff_as_a_board

I was born in the 90s so secondary was 00s. My step dad (of the time) was astounded we didn't have communal showers after PE. The school had stopped this. And he decided to write and complain to the head that he was going to campaign to have them reinstated.

1. Why?
2. How does it effect you?
3. I begged him not too. He already creeped me out.

He never took much interest in my education so I was a big taken aback. And didn't want to get bullied for being the kids parents who made them start showering naked in school again.

Year 1 in the 80s. A boy in the class was cheeky to the older lady teacher and she went to hit him, so he took off ran around the classroom with her chasing him. It was like something out of a benny hill sketch.
I can’t remember what happened when she caught him, but I’m fairly sure she didn’t hit him in the end.

Two male teachers used to let us girls do trampolining every lesson for a whole year and would openly laugh and joke with us as they bent their heads down trying to get a look up our shorts if they were loose or tops as we bounced up. This was every single lesson and they were early to late 50s, in early 2000s. We were around 15.

Oh and in the 90s we had to do pe in our underwear as in vest and knickers (not gym knickers) underwear knickers!

Most of these games are of course harmless fun, but as a child, I found being blindfolded a bit "wtf?" when I was five or six. I remember it was a bit of a shock the first time someone blindfolded me, and I zoned out and forgot what I was supposed to be doing (guessing who was speaking in a funny voice). I remember thinking "why can't I see the pattern on the scarf", and "why didn't they just ask me to close my eyes?" It felt odd that someone could stop me seeing anything, just like that. However, I did like blindfold games when I was older.

Later, there were some childhood games I remember which involved being blindfolded, and made to believe you were doing something really dangerous, disgusting or scary. I remember them fondly, but at the time, they could be really frightening. For example, "Nelson's Eye", where you were blindfolded and given Nelson's hat and coat to feel, then told "here is where he lost his eye", and your finger would be poked into something cold and squishy. Another one was "walk the plank": you were blindfolded, led into a room with a plank raised off the floor, and helped to stand on it. Then you would have your hands on the shoulders of people walking alongside you; and as you walked along the plank, they would lower their shoulders, so it felt like the plank was getting higher and higher. If you were brave enough, you could jump off at the end, and it felt as if the plank was really high up; when actually it wasn't.

I remember forgetting to wear a vest on pe day and being made to do it in just my knickers. I still remember how cold my chest felt and how exposed and embarrassed I was.

Bizarrely, those in white were the pants I wore for a lot of my childhood, until I was maybe 8, 9? Mum used to buy them in packs from a school shop. I still remember how uncomfortable they were when a sie started to get slightly too small as there was no give to the leg and they really dug in! No idea when these were considered the most appropriate underwear for me. I remember the joy of a pack of regular stretchy ones purchased in a pack from Woolworths!

In my school if you have PE, you just come to school in joggers and a T shirt weari g trainers.

Not to be rude but you UK people appear to have an obsession with "knickers" which I have never heard anywhere else in my life. And all the girls running around in their "knickers". Not a single person thought " you know what we could get them to buy shorts like the boys"!! The more I go on MN the more English I sound and the more envious of your beautiful country but then I think sometimes " they are all bonkers" . I mean anybody that could look at Jimmy Saville and think "no he's great,, best person to be around vulnerable children " at the very least needs a CT scan. Have you actually looked at him??? Any picture of him? Ever? He may as well worn a hat saying "I'm a weirdo creep paedo". If he had knocked on my door he wouldn' t be coming in. I'd have called the cops. And sorry I'll stop insulting UK people on a UK forum.now.

90s primary. At Christmas we sat around the tree with wooden benches in a square as a sort of gate. In the wooden benches there were live burning candles in front of your face.

The headmaster sat in the middle of the square in front of the tree reading a Christmas story smoking cigars. Like chain smoking them! Then at the end if you got picked you could go and blow out the candle and go up to the head to collect a present and he kissed you on the cheek!

Mental

Oops I did it again. I've been thrown off forums before but I love MN so hopefully not this time

It had to be the headteacher on the school trip in year 6 early 90’s joking with the other teacher about blow jobs so loudly. One child must have informed everyone what it meant! And both teachers bringing their husbands along for the trip. Before the times of dbs checks.

Exactly the same thing happened to me, although my parents did challenge the man, who made an excuse about having no feeling in his hands so didn't realise he was holding mine and he thought i was one of his grandchildren (obvs both could not be true and he was trying to abduct me), and then they let him just walk away.
I wonder if it was the same man as you? Mine was in Hinckley market around1984 or so.

My year 8 Games teacher smacking my arse as I went into Games then asking me to sit on his knee (while the other kids laughed).

A teacher who didn't teach me came into a room where I was helping another male teacher I was about year 11, he put his arm around me and squeezed my breast.

I met Charlie too 😂

Yes to doing gym in your pants and vest.
The girls got sewing and the boys got woodwork
The belt if you even looked the wrong way.
Away on a school trip and male teachers in the girls dorm while we were getting into bed. That was France circa 1986.
Church twice a term.

For someone not wanting to be rude you're doing a very good job of it

@Dearg
Yes! In the 1970's when I was at school we had navy P.E. knickers. Why not shorts????

From a very young age he gave me the absolute creeps and I used to leave the room if he came on the TV I don't know how people adored him especially other children.

90s nursery, I was 2yrs old - I (apparently) fell and hit my head, which resulted in a gash just above my eye. They took me straight to hospital to have stitches without informing my parents. Resulted in a life-long phobia of needles / hospitals. My mum was like 'wtf' when she collected me from nursery that day..!

Well the BBC has shown themselves to not care about hiring pedophiles. Even in recent years.