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. 😨

Kids travelling in the car boot.
My dad smoking cigars in the car when siblings and I were in the back.
Kids not being allowed in pubs.
One of my primary school teachers having open favourites and being unfairly harsh towards less favoured kids for no reason (at least I hope this doesn’t still happen now).
Being made to run naked round the school swimming pool to dry off after swimming lessons. I really can’t believe that one happened but it definitely did!

Smoking in bed!!

Babysitting when I was only about 11 for families in the village with several small children,like under 5,sometimes including a baby. I didn't even know them well. I find that really odd..is that a thing now?!

Parent making their own wine in our garage. Pipes and big plastic tubs everyhere. I recently asked my mum about it and she said it wasn't great - we were skint!

Pubs which wouldn't let children inside at all (I don't mean just at the bar). Often had a sign saying children could only be in the garden.

Lifting my skirt up and showing motorists my knickers, aged 6.

I'd probably be on the sex offenders register if I did that today.

OMG OP even then that was neglect!

Never left DS under 18 for even 12 hours let alone several days & this was after the advent of mobile phones. I'd be terrified that he might have a party & wreck the house, set fire to the house while cooking.... Cripes all the problems that he could encounter! I don't even dare think about it.

I feel for you - sending you hugs. 😘

Yes, the scheduled blackouts, we used to play cards by candlelight. 🙂

Your poor cousin, I do hope they have received some sort of trauma therapy over the years!

Someone put some clips on my insta feed of Noels House Party, complete with Mr B and it was a bit of an eye opener how shoddy the whole thing was to what I remember it being. Hard to believe it was appointment TV at the time.

I also remember the decrepit Blobby Land photos and they certainly were creepy. Saying that, even in the 90s who on earth would think that a Blobby based theme park would be popular other than Noel Edmonds. Bet Alton Towers were bricking it when they heard about it!

Actually being a kid, don’t see much of it these days…

Collecting money at the end of the school year, to buy form teachers a present. We bought cigars for our nice form teacher, the year we were 13.

God I remember none of this. Absolutely no slapping or hitting at schools, no teachers forcing us to strip naked, no teachers smoking on school grounds, definitely no doctors smoking, my parents absolutely made us wear seatbelts and use booster seats. My parents didn’t smoke and didn’t have friends who did either.
The only thing I can remember is that our sixth form had a smoking area for students (few students smoked though) and there were smoking carriages on trains. Otherwise this is all alien to me and I don’t think my childhood was radically different to kids’ today.
Oh and I do remember the no showers thing and people using impulse instead. 🤢

We used to pull out strands of hair and burn them over the candles when the power was off. The hair all shrivelled up and smelled disgusting. I once suggested to my kids that we try it but they said no. They have no idea how hard it used to be to entertain yourself.

When I was about 14 I was asked to babysit for my parent's next door neighbour. My parents were next door so if I had a problem all well & good as there was an emergency they were there to help. I got to neighbour's house (who happened to be Dutch) she showed me where she kept her weed & told me to help myself to the gin. As a rather innocent 14 year-old I didn't partake of either.

I became their go-to baby sitter & about 2 years later, 6 year old daughter got up. I was reading Cosmopolitan mag & we sat down together to look at it. There's an advert for sanitary towels, little girl asks about it & I say 'that's something you need to talk to your mum about', a few pages & many questions later an advert for condoms, I hesitate before answering the question, little girl says 'Oh I know, that's something else that I need to ask mum about'. I stayed at their's that night as they were coming home late. I met the mum in the kitchen in the morning & she <laughingly> said 'You answered <name's> questions about periods and birth control really well, but I really didn't appreciate having to explain both when she climbed into my bed at 05:00 when I have a hangover'. 😂

Thats horribly neglectful and absolutely not the norm at the time. If your neighbours or school had called social services they would have taken you into care. There’s probably parents doing that shit today as well, it wasn’t the norm back then but you do get some bad parents.

Picnic lunches on days out and my mother always brought hard boiled eggs for us to eat. We had to crack and peel them. So 1970s.

I once got smacked for throwing one at another girl and hitting her on the head! My sister and I were in competition to see who had the best aim.

Absolutely. I'm a seventies child. My mum might have left DB and me in the house for an hour while she went shopping (our dad would have been at work) from age 7 or 8 (me) and 9 or 10 (DB). But always during the daytime. Younger than that, she took us out with her. And we were never left alone in the evening, there was always someone babysitting us.

Potted meat sandwiches at parties.

Going round knocking on the doors of random old people in the neighbourhood in the hope they’d invite you in for a beaker of squash and a biscuit in return for a chat.

a couple of years ago, when my husband was giving up smoking, he used to go to the newsagents and buy ‘a loosey’ for 75p - the transaction would ping up on the statement. It was a bone of contention for a long time because it cost more in petrol every week to keep buying the singles than a full pack 😂

My uncle had a fruit and veg shop, he had a flat bed lorry with little sides on, in the summer he’d throw a sofa on the back of the lorry and off we’d go into Derbyshire for the day, no one fell off, it was great fun.

Does anyone remember making crisp packet badges?

If you took an empty plastic bag of crisps and held it near the bars of an electric fire it would shrink down to 1/4 of the size. I had a really cool Frazzles badge.

I’m not sure this would be considered unacceptable now, just eccentric (sadly) but in the 70s my parents would have a couple over most Saturday evenings (they rotated three) and they would get so dressed up to receive them, and likewise their guests - my mum would spend ages getting ready like she was going to a party - fabulous make up, jewellery and maxi dresses (think Margo from The Good Life) and my dad would wear a suit. But all they’d do is chat for a few hours and get tipsy. I wish that still happened now!

I had a Ladybird book about the many uses for asbestos. The coal exploding in an open fire and showering myself and the dozing cat in sparks. Serving beer in my aunties pub aged around eight while she had lunch

Yes. Heaven knows why we wanted to wear them! 🤷‍♀️ 😅

Early 90's, aged 6, trotting off to the local shop with a fiver and a note from my mam to allow me to buy 20 fags 😂

Showers at high school were a walk through affair with a teacher at each end supervising. Why?!
Wearing leotards or gym knickers for PE. Putting a sporty stripe on something doesn’t change the fact it’s underwear.
The teachers decamping to the pub for ‘lunch’ every Friday.
At primary, coming home for lunch and going back to school for the afternoon.
Being off school ill but mum had to work, so left home alone in bed with the sick bowl, some Lucozade and the next door neighbour letting herself in occasionally to check on me.

I like one present at Christmas
Wish it was like that now