What was normal to you as a kid that would never happen nowadays? (For good reason!)

[Wintershealing]

Back in the 90s as a child/teen, my best friends (sisters) lived across the road, and their mum was an alcoholic. She'd spend all day in her room, which to us was normal, and walk up the road to spend most evenings in the local con club (conservative club, she wasn't a tory she just went for the cheaper drinks and men), leaving my friends home alone. The younger sister would have been around 9/10, and older sister was around 12. This was completely normal to us! Their mum would have a boyfriend in tow who she'd meet at the con club and he'd be around for a while, then they'd split up.

Meanwhile we'd be roaming the streets (to be fair most kids went out unsupervised back then) but no one ever checked where we were or what what we were up to!

When my friends were around 12/13 and 14/15 their mum would go on a booze/fag run to france with her boyfriend and leave them home alone for the night. We used to have house parties when she was gone! Drinking/smoking etc. Crazy! But this was normal and would never happen nowadays!

What was normal for you that (for good reason) would never happen now?

Photos from school trips being hung up so people could request copies. Wouldn't happen now for data protection reasons, but the worst was when it turned out that one teacher's photographs were all closeups of the most attractive boys in our year group. It was all shrugged off as harmless, as he was in a relationship and it was just photos.

Babysitting aged 12 for 3 kids 7 nights a week from 6 -12 I got my dinner- mince and potatoes and carrots and 30 bob -£1. 50 pence for the week . This went on for about 3 months until my maths teacher complained about me not doing homework and found out why I wasn't able to do it.

I also babysat a little boy with haemophilia, his mum explained what I had to do if he cut himself and left me to it

Knocking on random doors selling blackberries we'd picked

Climbing onto the roof of our school in the evening and getting into the gym through an open window and scarpering if we heard the police coming

Never mind feeling comfortable or not, they'd be sacked and struck off!

My ex husband was playing out by himself as a child, fell on the railings at the park and a spike went through his arm. He walked 3 miles to the hospital, got stitched up and was sent off to walk home by himself. His parents didn't have a phone.

Another of his friends lost his leg on a railway line when his shoe got caught in the tracks and a train was coming.

My mum collected for RNIB every year and sent me, aged 6, on my own, several streets away, to knock on people's doors and pick up the envelopes with money inside.
There's just no way I would have done that with my kids.

This was only 30 years ago too! I think the teacher was in her 40s then, so a child/teen in the 50s and 60s where I imagine changing/showering naked at school was normal.

goldfish from funfairs

Sending love to you - no one should ever have to live with that ❤️

I was just about to mention this, I remember being given the book of pictures at Sunday school and having to sell the photos to neighbours or relatives! Really weird looking back now!

Daddy rewarding me for being a good girl .
i suspect it’s still very common though.

For some reason this has me literally crying with laughter 🤣 I'm imagining the kids faces looking at each other while she stood there with her bush out! The 70s were just bizarre!

This was the early 90s! 🤣

Agree with all of these. To add, seeing a wild sunburn as a glamorous must have. I'm the palest of the the pale, and were lobster red more times than I can count. Cannot imagine my kids out in full sun all day without a lick of sunscreen.

Where?

Yes! We had a PE teacher like that too. Also with a huge dark bush that went all the way down the insides of her thighs almost to her knees. She would insist on wearing the PE navy knickers we all wore too.

I wonder if having a magnificent bush was a prerequisite for a PE teacher in the 70s 😂

OMG, the 90s 😱

I sold the most Sunny Smiles one year and went to a Festival of Queens at the town hall wearing an old evening dress of my Mum’s and a crown.

Calling friends on the landline and having to speak to their parent first!

Sitting on a bean bag in the back of a van with my sibling beside me in a Moses basket!

Squeezing 6 primary age kids into the back 3 seats of a car with no seat belts!

DV Mum having black eyes/ bruises on the school run and no teachers or other parents saying a word.

Going out on bikes and no one having a clue where we were.

Getting into clubs aged 16 and not knowing how we got home (pre mobiles).

Being made help at parties, walking around with a tray of food or drinks and serving the guests. They would treat us like the staff, demanding more ice, napkins etc. If a guest got up to get a glass or top up we'd be in trouble.

I thought it was just my family but it seems it was common. I can't imagine my kids doing that.

Oh yes the early 90s! As said I can only conclude in her youth of the 50s/60s this was a normal thing!

@Wintershealing god that's really odd! For some reason I assumed it was when I was a kid in the 70s, which would have still been strange but there were many strange things going on back then 😂

I also recall back in the 90s being invited to a friend's party (primary age) where we travelled there in the back of a van of about 10 kids just being feral in the back! No seats let alone seat belts!

Adults smoking around children and babies: I have a lovely pic of me in a carrycot with one of my parents sitting beside me, smoking.
Not wearing seat belts in the car until it was required by law. Sitting in the boot/someone's lap/laying across people in the back seat.
Teachers hitting kids.
Teachers sending kids out at lunchtime to buy cigarettes.
Teachers telling us "well, don't look then" when we reported a man exposing himself in the park.
Page 3
Houses with no central heating and an electric fire bolted onto the bathroom wall.

Not being diagnosed as autistic until my forties.

My aunt telling me to lie face-down on the lilo at the pool because a paedo was perving at my nascent tits, instead of reporting him to the pool staff.

Builders wolf-whistling at school girls in uniform.

Being expected to babysit my sister whilst aged 13.

Teachers hitting kids. It was outlawed in England whilst I was at primary school so I experienced it whilst young.