Did children in the 50s and 60s have more freedom?

[Hildegard25]

Hello everyone, this is my first post so I hope I've got things right.

I just wanted to compare my childhood to what you all might be experiencing today with your children, or indeed with your own childhood if you grew up in a different era to mine.

Or maybe your view of the 50's and 60's if you grew up then, concurs with mine, or not.

Us children in the 50's and '60s roamed freely — riding bikes across town, playing in parks, and staying out well past dark without parents tracking our every move.

There were no cell phones to check in with, and intense parenting had not been invented yet. We were expected to figure things out on our own.

That sense of community trust and outdoor freedom shaped our entire generation, or at least it did mine.

Many of us who grew up in the 50's and 60's describe those unstructured hours outside as the best part of our childhood.

Is that something today's kids rarely experience in quite the same way, or am I being nostalgic over my seemingly idyll childhood?.

They did in the 80's and 90's too.

yes. I used to roam over the fields and in the woods with my friends.
This was in the late 40' early 50's. Played out in the street roller skating and playing hopscotch etc. I had go to the shop which was some distance away or my parents and carry a heavy bag of shopping back. We played in the park which was also some distance from where we lived.

Im not sure female children in the 50s and 60s did. My Mum was told she wasnt allowed to finish high school, had to dress a certain way etc.

Sounds like mine except I grew up in London and this was 70s/80s. We might give our parents a rough idea of where we were/who with/when we’d be back though.

I was born in the early 70s. We had more freedom, but we were definitely left on our own too much, my sister and I are close in age and fought a lot. We were left alone in the house while we were still in primary school and did actually physically injure each other (accidentally)

My parents also hit us quite a lot, which was more normal then, so it definitely was not an idyllic childhood, despite being able to wander where we wanted on foot and on our bikes.

Sounds like my childhood in the 2000s and 2010s except staying out after dark would probably have worried my parents. No mobile until I was in Year 7.

Yes, in the early 70s, out on our bikes all day. Our parents were natural worriers but this never seemed to concern them at all.
We had road safety sessions organised by the school to teach us how to ride in traffic, signal etc.
We also went round strangers houses for Brownies bob-a-job week, going into houses to do small tasks, walking dogs etc!

No. No freedom at all, backed up by extreme physical punishment of any perceived transgression. 50s and 60s for older siblings, 70s and 80s for the younger ones.

We did, yes. Walking to school alone/ in a gang aged 6, wandering around the hills unsupervised from about the same age. But in my experience we had strong boundaries and although getting up to some mischief, we did NOT cheek adults or misbehave around adults as it would get back to your family and tarnish their reputation. Reputation was very important in my community.

yes and my children in the 90s and 00s did as well.

I did a lot more housework than modern children. I had a job to help support my family. I could not do anything after school which cost money.

But yes we roamed more. Another freedom than now but it's was all honey and milk.

I think it carried on until the 80s - I grew up in 80s and was walking to my friends' house about 10 mins from age 7 and doing things like taking the bus with a friend to go swimming aged 9 (I think most swimming pools don't let in unaccompanied kids under at least 14 these days). I never had the experience of 'being chucked out and told to come home for tea', but maybe was too middle class with a mostly stay-at-home mum for that. I also didn't go around knocking on doors to see neighbouring kids, but again, very middle class London suburb with detached houses so we weren't living in close quarters as much and it wasn't such a close-knit community as you'd get somewhere smaller. Some of that does still go on in some areas today because I have seen posters here talking about it, but it's now a rarity.

I would have happily let my kids rove sooner, but for the fact there were no other kids to rove with and the worry that some busybody would report me for 'neglect'. As it was I was a bit ahead of the curve letting them go to the corner shop aged 8, and aged 10 oldest DC did at least have one friend whose parents were also up for letting her walk over to ours or hang out in the park with DC.

I grew up in the 60's and 70's. We roamed freely all day during weekends and holidays. Our parents rarely knew where we were until we came in for dinner at night.
We all had boundaries and knew not to be disrespectable or cheek any adults. We would have been in a lot of trouble if we had as it would have got back to our parents.
After school we had homework, then could go out until dinner was ready.
My sister and I walked 3 miles each way to school on our own at 7 and 8 years old..

In some respects yes. Eg walked to school on our own from primary years but then it was nearby. No freedom of choice in any aspect of life eg what's for dinner, clothes and what to watch on telly. It wasn't quite the Victorian seen and not heard, but our wishes were mostly irrelevant to the decision making adults

I was born in the 60s and my childhood was pretty free, although we had to be indoors before dark, even in the summer. We would cycle for miles, build dens in the woods, swim in the river - I would have a nervous breakdown if I thought my children (born in the 1990s) were wild swimming unaccompanied. We had no sense of danger although everyone in my area knew the man that owned the sweet shop was a wrong 'un.

I was born in 60's but my Mum didn't let me wonder off. I could only go to park if my Mum or Dad went with me or my older sister who was 16 by the time I was 6.

My mum had lots of freedom in the 1960s.

Then again she did also get hit by a car crossing the road once so it’s swings and roundabouts.

Yes (I was a 70s kid) but it wasnt necessarily good for us. I look back in horror at some of the dangerous situations we often got ourselves into. And there were plenty of pedophiles and abusers around but no one ever talked about it then, we certainly weren't taught how to stay safe from them or how to speak up about it. There was lots of physical punishment too, at home and school. It wasnt such a "golden age" as people like to make out.

I was a child in the 60s and 70s. I was playing out on the street with the other children from age 4. I remember crossing the road to spend my pocket money in the sweet shop from about 5 or 6.

By 8, I had a bike. My best friend and I used to go off to the woods or parks all day, so long as we were home for tea time. Our mothers had no idea where we were, or what we were doing!

Mothers seemed preoccupied with housework or having coffees with each other. They never played with us, or took us to organised activities. From about age 9, my friends and I used to catch the bus to town for 2p.

Occasionally, I got the choice of what to have for dinner, which was always main course and a cooked pudding, because my father liked them. We were expected to behave properly, when going round to the extended family houses for tea. I was smacked occasionally, but didn’t think anything of it.

DH’s childhood was pretty much the same!

Neither of us had any conception that CSA even existed. First time, I heard of it, was Cleveland and that was a shock!

Yes.

There was no such thing as a school or parents taking you to after school club. You either walked, biked it or got the bus.
I walked to school when I was 5
We were chucked out after breakfast and didn't go home until hungry. We all had paper rounds or worked on the milk, on the farm, did bob a job week and did jobs like peoples garden and washing cars for pocket money. And we were all shit scared of the local bobby. I'm from the era that knew the world before social media, computers or the EU. Jobs were everywhere but so was poverty. School meals were meat and two veg followed by pudding and you sat there and ate it until allowed to leave your seat. Chairs in school were put on the desk and everything tidied away. I looked in a class room window last week and it looked like a hurricane had gone through there.
No Macdonald, or BK, Starbucks, Costa or KFC. There was Wimpy and cafe's with juke boxes in them and stunk of fags. Everyone smoked. Fish and chips came in proper newspaper,. Buses had conductors on them selling tickets and if anyone misbehaved they were thrown off at the next stop or he rang the bell three times and the bus would stop in the middle of nowhere and you got chucked off anyway. And upstairs on the bus was the smoking area.
Yes we had freedom The only time we didn't was in school or at home. Kids like dogs wee feral.

I was born in the early 70’s and had a lot of freedom. Made loads of friends with the children in neighbouring houses and streets and was always roaming the fields and streets with them. We were good kids, just making dens and playing together. Always in and out of each others houses. The naughtiness thing we did was play knock door ginger until we had a right bollocking from our parents.
We didn’t cheek our elders, mostly did as we were told, had firm boundaries didn’t go crying to our parents if another adult told us off.
I was lucky growing up until my Mum died when I was 8. All went downhill from there

Born in 62, loads of freedom, born and brought up in London, very central. Got on buses at 8, we went to swimming on our own, local parks, the shop. Streetwise and road aware essential, alongside knowing our local area and being stranger aware, but we knew neighbours, school friend parents and teachers knew our names. Definitely respect for adults, our environment and that we felt safe on the streets. No rose tinted glasses, but a very different London.

@ MissyB1

Yy. Free to roam vs unsupervised

Corporal punishment in schools was legal
The 3 day week
Cold winters and cold houses
Equal pay for women only became law in 1975
3 tv channels
Repetitive food (although I was lucky in that respect thanks to my parents)

There were some good sides to life though, but it certainly wasn't idyllic

My mum was born in ‘44. The stories she told, I often said to her that I am surprised she survived her childhood. As a child she saved her friend from drowning, something her friend talked to her about on this woman's deathbed. My mum couldn't swim as a child either.

I think these generations with significantly more freedom had that due to population numbers. Of course some children went missing and were killed. The risk to children from adults has always existed. But the overall population was significantly smaller than now

In terms of roaming, yes.

Was it utopian? No.