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. 😨

I also remember the x-ray machines in shoe shops ~ my brother and I used to love playing on those whilst DM chatted to one of the shop assistants she knew

Does anyone remember the school nurses? They used to check our hair and nails and one told me off once for not wearing a petticoat!

I went to a convent school (in the 70s) and the nuns used to grab us by the shoulders and shake us and sometimes slap us around. I don't think that would be permitted today. Looking back on it they seemed unreasonably strict and sadistic - not all of them. We did have some nice nuns too. They hated my mother because she was French, well dressed and very much like Leslie Caron. I think they thought she was some frivolous bimbo. I wonder if that's why I was slapped so often.

In my first job we were allowed to smoke in the office after 5pm. Loads of us used to start at 10am in order to have an hour in the evening when we could smoke while working.
Also regularly having a skinful in the pub on Thursday and Friday lunchtimes and being really quite drunk in the afternoons.

Being smacked (not abusively but pretty often as I was quite feisty!).

Being left alone (having been put to bed) in holiday villas with my sibling while my parents went out to dinner in restaurants nearby. I don’t think anyone does that now post-Madeleine McCann, but it was reasonably common in the 1980s.

Oh yes and corporal punishment - the slipper or the ruler dished out by the teacher. The headmistress supposedly had a cane as well but I don’t recall it ever being used so maybe that was just a rumour. This was the 80s at prep school. It wasn’t a thing by the time I made it to year 1 of secondary school.

Also smoking.

Mum smoked
Dad smoked
Everyone smoked
We made ashtrays for our parents at school
everything stank, fag ends everywhere and I remember pulling my jumper over my face on car journeys as the smoke blew back into my face

Cropped tops with dodgy, inappropriate slogans that I used to wear when I was about 10.

In fact, looking back, I’m quite shocked at some of the really inappropriate, sexualised clothing that I was allowed to wear out around that age.

Oh gosh same.

I remember my parents buying me a cropped vest top with ‘cocaine’ written on it in the same style as the Coca Cola slogan.

Fuck knows why - I was 12, had never taken cocaine, and I seriously doubt they ever had.

I remember my cousin who lived next door but one, rushing into our house sobbing. Their cat had just had a litter of kittens and her dad was drowning them in a bucket of water. She said "One little kitten nearly climbed out, and Daddy pushed it back in!"

1970s - DM used to put down the back seat of the car, fill it with duvets and children and drive across Europe. We lived in the Netherlands, her cousin lived near Bordeaux .

That's just horrible. But even in the 70s I remember my fairly conservative parents criticizing such behavior. I'm fairly certain they one rescued a box of kittens left by the road too.

OMG that made me laugh!! What on earth were they thinking?!

My dad gave up his 60 a day habit just before he and my mum got married in '67. He figured the money would be better spent on housing and feeding his prospective family. My mum was a light smoker until about 1980. DB and I remember buying those banger things, like you get in Christmas crackers, from the jokes section in our local newsagent. We put them in Mum's cigs so one went BANG! when she lit it. 😅 Wouldn't be allowed today. She eventually had a particularly bad bout of flu, and couldn't face another fag either during or afterwards, so that was the end of that.

Ha, my parents didn't have a clue about drugs despite being in London during the swinging 60s, they wouldn't know what a joint looks like never mind a bag of coke or even a pun like on that t-shirt.

When I went to university, after my first term they randomly blurted out a question about drug use in that particular city - i can only assume one of their friends has mentioned recreational drug use amongst students and that was their way of asking me if I'd ever partaken 😅

My dad smoking with me as a 2 year old on my knee.
Pervy teacher telling me he’d love his daughter to be like me when she’s older, looking me up and down and basically being a perv.
Smoking in the shopping centre as a 16 year old.

The smoking, we must have all stank!

I've always thought this, too.

No seat belts.
Adults driving back from the pub having had any number of drinks.
Hitch-hiking.
Spending the whole summer in last year at juniors playing cricket on the field every afternoon (all afternoon).
Smoking on planes.
Being out all day with no adult supervision.
Being able to buy some sort of explosive powder (and the ensuing explosions) 🤣

"Being able to buy some sort of explosive powder (and the ensuing explosions)"

Yes, like I was saying in my pp about boobytrapping our mum's cigs with bangers. DB and I would have been about 10 and 8 at the time - can't imagine kids being sold stuff like that now. 😅

Tops that changed colour when you sweated. I can’t remember the brand, but have memories of neon yellow patches on tee shirts on the arm pits and back! Why?’

Global Hypercolor. Changed colour with body heat not sweat but yeah nasty.

@KIlliePieMyOhMy Gosh, yes!! I loved those. I used to take three a day 🤪🤪🤪

Being able to play games across the street that involved you running all over the road and dashing out. Early 1980’s.

There were so few cars parked (literally only 4 or 5 in our very long street) and so few cars in the road it wasn’t dangerous at all. I remember the cry of ‘CAR!!’ Was so infrequent and my mother (slightly overprotective) had no qualms about me running around out there.

Now there’s barely space to squeeze yourself in between the cars and cars come hurtling up the street frequently. So much more dangerous it’s unthinkable we could do that.

A male teacher exposed himself to a group of primary 7 (Scotland) girls in my school - there were so many witnesses. He was promptly removed but simply transferred to the school in the next town!! My primary 5 teacher was a raging alcoholic who used to drink whisky during the class from a hip flask, until he had a nervous breakdown one day in class and had to be physically removed. His brothers were gps and both stank of whisky the entire time.

This was late 60s/early 70s. These men were from the "good" families in the town, living in small mansions, and their behaviour was tolerated by everyone for some bizarre reason. My mother would never have dared utter a word against any of them.