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. 😨

Our teachers (secondary) used to send a girl off to the loo to fetch a wad of Izal for the class to use as tracing paper. 😅 Needless to say, we all kept our own personal supply of soft toilet roll in our school bags. 😁

It was so like tracing paper. 😱Continued to be used in educational & Govt premises until at least 1983.

'89 in our case!

As a classmate sighed, sadly, "It doesn't absorb anything."

Oh just remembered the machine that used to burn sanitary towels - it was huge & stank the toilets out. The sanitary towel dispenser (don't remember how much they were as never used them) used to dispense 'Dr Whites' pads - huge pads of cotton wool with loops either end - which were, presumably, intended to be looped onto a sanitary belt which even in 1975 we didn't use. Our's had a notice on the back of the cubical doors saying 'please do not put sanitary towels in the toilet as it upsets the cleaners and there is a machine for this purpose' I got a detention for adding to every sign: 'please advise where the machine is to upset the cleaners'. 😂

Holding the baby in the back seat of the car.
sitting Infront of the calor gas heater.
being left at home and told not to answer the door to anyone.
Taking sweets from neighbours.

We used to be allowed Nutella on toast in breakfast club at school, then suddenly one day it stopped, and said it wasn’t allowed anymore

Male and female staff rooms at my grammar school in the late 60s/early 70s. We always dreaded being asked to take a 'message' from the office (which was next to the girls' cloakroom) to the men's staffroom. It was up a flight of rickety wooden stairs and when a teacher opened the door, the whole landing area would become a huge fog of blue/grey stinky smoke from all of the cigarettes and pipes being smoked.

Unfortunately not, I went to school in the 90's and tracing paper toilet roll was sadly, very much still a thing.

My dad used to hit the dog sometimes, in the same way he used to smack us when we were being naughty - rarely and for a fairly major (in his eyes) infraction. This was in the early 80s. I don’t think he’d dream of doing that these days.

‘Screwballs’ from the ice cream van - a cone-shaped plastic thing full of ice cream but had a ball at the bottom that was bubble gum.

Also ‘lager and lime flavour’ and ‘cherry brandy flavour’ ice lollies for kids.

Smoking on the plane. You could smoke in your seat in the first few rows or, if you had been seated elsewhere, you could walk to the back and stand near the loos to smoke.

Chelsea girl and those yellow drawstring bags

A belt to wear at school with three interlocking silver circles at the front and a little zip pocket for 2p for the phone

Oh screwball ice creams! We were also allowed ‘gobstoppers’ in a 10p mix, huge rock hard balls of sugar and colourings that would have literally killed us had we swallowed them accidentally whilst playing on the concrete playgrounds.

Sleeping in the boot of my parent's estate car with my cousins as we drive to my uncle's house in Germany.

I think it was the law in the UK until the late 80s that adults couldn’t have a photograph taken of them unless they were smoking. Especially if they were holding small children.

🤣

Being left in a hot car for hours on end whilst mum went shopping. A good hard slap round the face being a reasonable punishment for a minor misdemeanour. Sitting in a car without a seat belt let alone a car seat. Smoking in the same room as a child without even opening a window.

there’s so much that just isn’t acceptable now but was pretty common 30+ years ago.

When we were first married many years ago - we thought it would be nice to take my mum and dad and dh mum to Bakewell for a day trip . So 2 men in front and three women in back of car……..and my 3 little sons shared equally amongst female laps! We only had a little Talbot Horizon!

Pissing in a pot at nighttime because the toilet was outside.

Cant believe this happened really, but a few chosen friends and I when I was about 7 or 8 would gather rose petals off the garden bushes, and put in tap water and then into empty jam jars....and have the nerve to go house to house 'selling' them for pennies.

And some neighbours bought them ! This was just a sludgy decaying mixture that smelt faintly of the original contents of the jamjar! In recall my mum and granny who lived with us almost encouraging this - but we were told we cant beg for money and must not accept 'too much'.

I also recall liking to ring doorbells in the local part of the village I lived in - again with a friend

If anyone answered, we would hurriedly say we were collecting match boxes 'for charity' ! and again, I recall people scooting off to try to find us matchboxes whilst we giggled on the door step.

I know I was a little strange but I always had a couple of equally strange friends to join in. It certainly made us confident !!

Aw, we did the perfume thing too. Of course your neighbours "bought" it - you probably gave them a giggle and they wanted to give you a few pence to spend on sweeties. Nothing wrong with it at all!

When I was little, my mum and I were getting into the car.
I don’t remember any car seat - early 60s.
So I was 3 or 4 and standing right behind Mum and got the bright idea to stick my tongue out at her “because she can’t see me.” No other reason.
Pow! Right in the kisser.
That was the day I learned about rear-view mirrors.

To quote Bob Belcher on his own childhood, when his children complained about the stale smoke smell of a grotty casino in Atlantic City “It smelt like this everywhere… back then even if you didn’t smoke, you smoked.”

My friend and I used to walk to the church hall most evenings to brownies, girl guides, badminton, that sort of thing. It took about 15 minutes and went through an area at the back of some garages with no street lighting, so we took torches! What on earth were our parents thinking? We did this from about the age of 7 onwards, sometimes in the snow.

Going to fancy dress competition aged about 7 dressed a bunny girl (complete with cigarette tray) !!! ( I have the photo - couldn't believe it.)

I remember sitting in front of a paraffin heater wearing a brushed nylon nightdress during the power strikes ~ frightening to think about now!