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?

My mum used to often say to me “I might not like you but I’ll always love you” 🤦‍♀️

green shield stamps
credit at the corner shop
buying fags in singles for my mum
5p bags of crisps
Honey Monster ads
Page 3 girls
Bus stop porn rags
tomahawk bikes
getting beaten up on the estate then playing 40/40 with the same kids the next day

Walking to school on my own from 9 (it was in the next village), and coming home to an empty house at 3:30pm until mum got home at 5:30. I would happily just sit and watch tv and do my homework. My kids would never do any of those things!!

Sitting under the table in the pub because it was after 6pm and kids weren’t allowed in (and the occasional hand would pass down some crisps).

Going on coach holidays abroad that mum found in the paper for £99 each. I would be the only child on the coach, it would take 3 days to get there, and I was content with softmints, a Walkman and a new magazine.

Playing out in the summer and stroking random dogs that were just wandering the streets.

being left in the backseat of a car with my sibling and a can of pop while our “father” (hate calling him that, more like evil ) would go and gamble all of his money away and wouldn’t return until the sun went down. That was what spending a weekend with him was like, oh, and that was the LEAST cruel thing he ever did to us but I won’t get into that.

ha- so i was young nuf t be oblivious to HOW big a deal even considering a female pm was (seems very apparent now "conditioned thinking = yer ma was in charge so n concept of relevance) neither was discoverin the worst of the swears being heard any\every time her face on tv...
led t actual flashback-mum n dd took us to london one summer. me n my big sis cartwheeled up downing street n proceeded to do handtands\backflips in aattempt to entertain the doorstep police man....
getting served asti in italian restaurants or half pints of cider in normal estblishments...a d having a really good time.lol

National Childrens Home (NCH)

My kids did with neighbouring kids (now early twenties).

We used to go to the school during school holidays
and play tennis on the courts. Now you can’t enter the same school after hours as it’s all locked up.

Similarly we used to have house parties at 13/14 when various people’s parents had gone away for the night - in full knowledge we’d be doing this. This was early 2000s. We’d all get drunk (very easy to buy alcohol) and get up to all sorts, everyone would stay over and crash everywhere. Fun but I can’t believe now how young we were!
Also used to get into local clubs at 16/17 using student ID cards belonging to friends (while they were just in front of me in the queue usually!)

Yes, my mother often said that when she did p.e in the 60s and 70s, it was your vest tucked into your pants/knickers regardless indoors or outdoors and in front of boys who would be doing something different and even said that's how it was in winter whilst the p.e teacher s wore tracksuits and coats. Unbelievable.

Teachers could dish out physical punishment and it was normal. Our head teacher use to hit us on our knuckles with a wooden ruler. DH got the buckle of the belt across his bare legs.

So many of these.

Catching a school bus at 5 years old. We sat 3 a seat because there were not enough seats. Also at 4 or 5 going to the shop with a note for my mum's cigarettes.

RC School - we had a card with a picture of a child, probably African and squares on the back. You took a donation each week and a square was ticked off. Once the card was full you picked a name and that was the name the child in the picture would be baptised with.

Going out on bikes, occasionally using a skipping rope attached to the handlebars to pretend you had a pony.

Knocking on neighbours doors and asking to take the dog for a walk, or their baby for a walk. You would get a group of girls pushing a pram between them.

When I was about 6 or 7 we moved to a new build with houses still under construction and we used those houses as a play ground.

Nicking putty from windows, playing in the sand, finding the keys to the builders' hut one day and letting ourselves in.

Smoking everywhere including in the car. When you passed the staffroom at school you could virtually see the clouds of smoke.

We went from Lancashire to Spain driving and using the cross channel hovercraft. I was in the tailgate the entire time with all the luggage.

So sorry, sounds awful.

I grew up in a street where there were lots of children, which was great. Almost all the girls (about 8 of us) went to Brownies on a Saturday morning. My dad had this big black estate car and would pile us all into the back seats and the boot and drive us the two miles to the church hall. Everyone always wanted to go in the boot so we had a rota system to make sure everyone got their turn.

My childhood was pretty crap. Parents loved alcohol more than they loved us. They would invite people.back from.the pub too
Basically anyone they met who would then leer at me and my sister.
I hated my childhood. They would get drunk, fight, drink until they are absolutely bladdered.

Sometimes we went without food and when we asked for food, we would be told to go away and that they needed a break from us. Absolutely hated my childhood. That's why now I give my kids the best in the world. And I hate and never drink alcohol.

sleeping in the boot of the car while adults in the pub evening
day time sitting in the front of the car while adults in the pub

Sorry, sounds terrible even thought you say that is the least terrible thing. I hope you're in a better place now 💐

Smacking at home or using the wooden spoon to beat me
Force fed food or not allowed to leave the table until it was all eaten
Smoking - at home, cars, buses, planes
No seatbelts in cars and loads crammed into cars
When we did go out to play, we were out all day and often miles from home
Belt at school

I grew up in the 70s 80s
We had no phone and it wasn't normal for husbands to be with their partners In Labour . My sister was born on Christmas Day 0100 but we didn't find out till 08 ish once Dad had got me up done presents and ambled over to the call box to ring the hospital!

Stray dogs really sticks in my mind, I really wanted a dog so my friend and I would just nick a stray , take it for a long walk with string attached then pop it back roughly where we'd found it.

The re teacher at middle school Mr Healing used to put his hand down inside the backs of boys trousers when he was marking their books, we all accepted this but did nickname him 'feeling healing'

i remember having to sit and wait while the family finished the meal, i had nothing to look at, wasnt allowed really to look at anything
i dont remember how my own dc felt about waiting for others to finish as we did follow the same rule but i guess we chatted

Myself and friends at 15 all having boyfriends in their 20's and no one caring

All of that, lived in a middle class neighbourhood, dad was a doctor....

My parents were a bit shocked when I'd been out with a friends when I was 8 or so and their parents left us outside the pub with a packet of crisps and a bottle of tizer.

I had my children in mid 90s . Cannot relate to previous pps . My children had car seats ,smoking always outside ,never smacked my children, all the above applied to my circle of friends.
My children had a lot more freedom though ,out in the village with their friends for hours ,the snow in 2010 meant I didn’t see my 10 year old for hours every day ..too busy having fun !

I'm sorry to hear that x

I also hated my childhood and it has affected me in a lot of ways. (Definitely should have therapy). I think it's part of the reason why I've decided not to have children (amongst other reasons) x