What do you remember of your childhood that would be unacceptable now?

[Happyspendingthedayinthegarden]

I'm thinking smoking

We had sweet cigarettes.

Doctors smoking in their surgeries whilst examining you.

I remember when I first started working for the (then) DHSS we used to be allowed to smoke. Managers had glass ashtrays (with 'property of DHSS' & the HMSO (Her Majesty's Stationery Office) mark on - now they would be worth something on eBay now, I wish I'd kept a few) Clerical Officers & Assistants had foil ashtrays & there were large column ashtrays fixed to the floor in the public areas for them use. In the afternoon there would be a fog of smoke hanging a few feet from the floor on the floors where the benefit processors worked & the public area. 😨

Being able to buy single cigarettes for 6p each in the sweetshop opposite our school in 1983

Being left in the car with a bottle of Coke while parents stopped of for a quick one in the pub (in their defence it was my grandparents who insisted on stopping at the pub!)

My parents smacking us. Not abusive but the norm back in the late 70s / 80s. They would never ever dream of doing this today!

Travelling in the boot of the car when parents were taking extra kids to swimming or whatever. Not enough seats- no problem, just pile in the boot. We had a big estate car so could have 4 kids in the boot. And all the parents did it, no-one ever seemed to complain.

Continuing from that - my father used to talk about places that they'd been to dinner at 'in the days when it wasn't dangerous to drink & drive' to which my mother's response was 'it's always been dangerous - it just wasn't illegal'

Kneeling on the back seat of the car to look out of the back windscreen and wave at other drivers.

Jokes.

Room full of parents/grandparents smoking around kids (didn’t even have a window open 😳)
Kids going into the shop to buy said cigarettes (dm would write me a note to give to the shopkeeper)
Being left outside a pub in the car with a bottle of pop and some crisps while parents met their friends inside.
Being sent out to play all over the housing estate where we lived at quite a young age and told not to come back until teatime. Sometimes with a very young sibling in tow.

Smoking was my first thought, staff at school in the breaks, post 16 we had a seperate canteen for the children who smoked.

We moved house across the country when I was 3 and my parents cba taking the car seat with them so from 3 years old I didn’t even have so much as a booster seat, I have an almost 3 year old now who is still rear facing… it blows my mind and this was only the 90s!

Doing PE in your pants and vest 😂

A lot of smacking round the face

I remember two teachers smoking a pipe whilst teaching.
People just lighting up everywhere.
Children being caned.
Going to school alone from the age of 6.
Walking home from Guides alone in the dark (about a mile).
All perfectly normal in those days.

No seat belts on the back seat of the car, no car seats for children, sleeping in the boot of the car (an estate) on longer journeys as a child (had a mattress, duvet, pillow and everything there). Luckily my dad was a very careful driver! And nobody crashed into us.

Teachers throwing blackboard rubbers across the room. One was aimed at a boy behind me, hit me & knocked me out. I still have the scar above my eye.

Taking the bus into town on my own (village to small town, around 10-15 mins tops) to go swimming at age 10.

The 70s/80s was amazingly safe. Mostly.

Just 'playing out' in general. See ya mam at 10am and stroll back in for dinner later that day, could have been anywhere.

Could smoke on hospital wards too.

Pretty much all of the above - no seatbelts, people smoking, teachers chucking board rubbers at us etc etc.

Having to be quiet while adults were talking. Not expecting everything to revolve around us. One present at Christmas (plus the ones from rellies, for which thank you letters were written immediately).... you see, some of it was actually quite sensible!

And you know what? We survived!

Definitely smoking. I also used to work at the DHSS in the early 80s and was surrounded by smoke all day. Nobody ever wanted the windows open either. Car safety too. I used to sit on hump in my mums sports car with the roof off. No seat let alone a seat belt.

Yes, smoking in the house, and smacking. And going to the shops to do "errands" for elderly neighbours when we were about ten.

When I was in primary school, our choir would take afternoon trips out to the local day centre for elderly people, and after we’d finished singing for them, we’d go around and take them all a cup of tea and speak to them all. Often we’d sit on their knees and give us a kiss in the cheek as we drank warm, weak orange squash and ate hobnobs.

One of the first Girl Guide camps I went to back in the late 1960s v. early 1970s, the camping equipment was thrown in the back of a smallish lorry, us Guides all got into the back, sat on top of the equipment (there were no seats or seat belts) with the back of the lorry open (although the small tail gate was shut) for the duration of the journey.

We also then had to dig the pit for the waste from the latrines as soon as we got there....

We survived! Elf n Safety would go into melt down today!

I’m still never sure whether I imagined it or not, but I’m almost certain there was a dedicated piece of music called ‘Pants and Vests’ with the lyrics repeated which the teacher would play as we all free-formed, barefoot, around the hall in our pants and vests.

We so did & learned to be self-reliant in the process.

People talk about how safe it was in the 1950's & 1960's for children to play out - but when were the Moors Murders happening?

I think we, as children, were more savvy & we looked out for each other. We knew not to talk to strangers or to go into stranger's houses. Everyone's house was a bit like your house - a group of you would pile in to use the loo & your friend's mum would give all kids squash (or if you were lucky & they had Corona delivered - that's another one - fizzy drinks delivered to your door) fizzy drinks, bread & jam (or again, if lucky sandwiches) & sent you off to play again with warning to be home when street lights went on.