Did you watch the soaps on TV when you were a child?

[CosyJanuary]

I was having a conversation with someone and I wondered if my experience was normal/typical of the times.

I was born in a he 80s and I always watched the soaps on TV in the evening right from when I was a young child probably age 6-7 and carried on until my teens.

It was a normal thing in my house to put the soaps on if an evening from 7.30pm and he allowed to sit and watch them with mum and dad.

They weren’t really suitable for children and my friend was horrified that I was allowed.

Def watched home and away and neighbours, we all did

also watched eastEnders a bit. Never Corrie. But I don’t recall any of them being not “allowed”.

I’m now 47

Born in 1966
Back in the dark ages we had BBC1 and ITV. You only got BBC2 if you got an extra ariel on the roof How I envied my friends who watched "Play Away"

Coronation Street , I hated the music , so depressing . But my mum watched it , I think it was twice a week
Childrens TV finished at 5pm them it was news/sport .

Mum watched The Cedar Tree , The Sullivans ,Paint With Nancy and Crown Court all at lunch time . House Party ( which was a group of women having a coffee morning giving house keeping tips )

Blasts from the past !

I was born in the 70s. I remember watching Eastenders but my parents didn’t really watch itv 😂
As a teen I watched home and away and neighbours.

Always was and still am a huge corrie fan

When I was pretty young I watched Dallas - I think I started when I was about 6 or 7 and watched every season til it finished. We (4 kids) all got really into it and when it came to an episode's cliffhanger ending we would all try and shout 'Philip Capice'! at the exact moment his name came up on the screen (he was the producer I think). No doubt to the unbridled delight of my parents trying to watch it. Also watched Dynasty and the Colbys a bit later though less enthusiasm across the family unit than for old Texas oil barons.

I remember watching the first episode of Eastenders when I was 11 and watched that all through my teenage years up to my early 20s. Also Brookside - that was me and my one brother mostly. No love for Corrie, Crossroads or Emmerdale in our household. Or Albion Market, lol. Watched Neighbours from when they started to broadcast it on BBC at teatime in 1988. I also abandoned that in my 20s. Late teens I watched Prisoner Cell Block H on ITV around 12 a.m. (and then wondered why I was tired at school/college) the next day. Christ, the power struggles over that laundry press!

Loathe soaps now 😆

I was virtually the only child in my junior school class who didn’t! My dad said soaps rotted your brain. My mum quietly watched Take the High Road at lunchtime when I was small and I had to promise not to tell him.

I had to watch ALL of them as a student because all of my flatmates did, including the omnibuses. I could see his point….

I am late 50s and my family didn't watch any soaps when I was younger. It wasn't until I was 19 and working away for a few months, where the owners of my digs watched Coronation Street. When I got back home I got my parents hooked on it. To be honest I think most of it would have gone over my head if it had been on when I was much younger.

90s kid here and watched Emmerdale, Corrie and Eastenders - LOVED them! Particularly Eastenders at the time.

I also loved watching Green Green Grass, Holby City and Casualty after In it to win it on a Saturday!

Crossroads when I was a child. I don't think there were any other soaps at the time.

ETA, there was Coronation Street, but I had homework to do at that time.

Actually I lie😃, my parents did watch Crossraods, but none of the soaps that aired in the evening.

Yes! Watched coronation street with my mum from about the age of 7 in the early 80s. Kevin meeting Sally is the earliest storyline I can remember. I also watched Eastenders from about a year after it started so I would have been 9. Watched Dallas and Dynasty from around that age as well.
It was normal then I think. I read a lot as well but 7-8.30 was tv watching time. I remember thinking when my children were younger that the idea of them watching soaps was bizarre!

Oh, I loved The Cedar Tree!

My parents didn’t watch soaps but I was definitely not allowed to watch anything unsuitable - e.g. Steptoe and Son. I remember them being really keen on the Forsyte Saga and the Onedin Line

There weren't many when I was a kid. I watched Crossroads for a bit, maybe a year, when I was 11. No idea why. Probably because it was more interesting than the news which was on the other side. Corrie I've never watched. Eastenders didn't start until I was an adult. I get what you mean though. I watched plenty of grown up programmes as a child: I Claudius sticks in the brain.

Born in ‘66. Watched Emmerdale, my favourite, and Corrie. A couple of years of Neighbours, hated East Enders.

Yes, vividly remember the you're not my mother, yes I am, Tiffany dying and Sonia having a suprise baby in the bathroom. We didn't watch corrie and I started watching Hollyoaks early teens. Don't watch them.anymore

yes, not that young but we were so excited when eastenders started as never really clicked with the northern ones, I was 11 when it started in secondary. Neighbour’s was a huge hit, we videoed it because we were at school, except we didn’t have a video - I went to my friends once a week to watch them until they changed the time to 5.35pm. I think it was completely normal from about 10 to watch more prewatershed tv as a family, and on keep fit night, the only day mum went out, I got to watch past 9pm, alas smith and Jones i remember and mash

Vividly remember watching neighbours with the childminder in the afternoon

From about age 10 I watched Corrie because other people at school did, my parents were never interested in soaps, mum was a teacher and was always shut away doing marking in the evenings and Dad was always pottering about. This was in the late 70s, Emmerdale was still Emmerdale Farm and was as far as I knew a dull programme about sheep farming that my grandma liked because of the scenery. I watched Brookside from launch till it went all gangsterish towards the end, EE on and off for the first 10 years or so, Emmerdale from around when they dropped the Farm bit. Don’t watch any of them now, it all got too much too keep up with when I had DC and they were all on every night of the week. Corrie was the last to go, the plots got more and more ludicrous and the takeover by the Connors ruined it for me. As did the Dingles in Emmerdale.

Yes same, from a young age too loved them all!

Yup. One of my earliest memories is when Alf in Corrie's wife he had before Audrey died. I would have only been 2 or 3.

I remember Billy and Sheila in Brookside and I must have been asking questions because my dad told me that Sheila had been married before.

Blew my mind I had no idea at age 6 that you could be married twice.

Didn't have any choice about it. The TV was on, so that was that.

No, never. None of the soaps were watched in our house. Neither of my parents watched them.

My parents didn’t watch the soaps but watched only fools, Frasier, have I got news for you, x files, men behaving badly, ER

watched neighbours and heartbeat with my nan though

90s kid and watched all these from birth.

At Nanna and Grandad's, yes, because there was one telly and they watched Corrie and Emmerdale. At home, no - but not because they weren't suitable, because my dad was a snob and we didn't watch them. He also didn't approve of any kids' TV presenters except for Andy Crane, who he decided was a cut above the rest. We still watched all the kids' TV though, my dad just tutted about what rubbish it was.

We watched loads of stuff that was completely unsuitable for kids (again, one telly and it was whatever my parents had on), and my dad actively encouraged me to watch comedy like Monty Python and The Mary Whitehouse Experience (I was eight or nine when that first started).