On this day 30 years ago I was...

[user1466795981]

Sunning myself in Stresa, Lago Maggiore ..

Now 'stress' would be a more accurate description...

6 days old!

Just finished second year of university and moved back with my paernts for the summer. I really felt the restraints of being under their roof and following the old rules.

BUT I had a day job, an evening job and my first serious relationship (which turned into a lhigh octane ong-distance one) so life was good.

Life's still good, but not in the same "lflying by the seat of your pants" way.

I was 7 years and 4 days old and yet to realise the true hell of my abusive childhood/ upbringing

10 years old. Probably climbing a tree or building a den.

Early 20s and angry with the world. I was living in London in a squat, working in a cleaning job at Wood Green Shopping City (oh the glamour) for very little money, and no idea at all what I wanted to do with my life.

9 yrs old. Camping with family in the IOW, the tent somehow surviving the tail end of a hurricane which had traveled over from France.. Dancing to Madonna in the family room at the camp site. Talking to the French exchange children who were uber cool (to me and my 9 yr old cousin). Being scared for my progression up to middle school at the beginning of sept.

Nearly 40, just about (in 3 days) to give birth to a third child which was not planned and which we certainly couldn't afford. Could see no light at the end of the tunnel.
So the most amazing of joys erupted into my life and has been totally wonderful ever since. Have spent the last few days wetting myself laughing at the comments from him and his siblings on our WhatsApp group about the Big Birthday on Monday and feel so HUGELY privileged to have these people in my life.

Enjoying my summer holiday following my first year of teaching - they haven't got any less enoyable!

Waiting to see where I would be studying for the next four years. Having my heart broken by a twit of a boy. Living in the gardeners lodge of a castle while my parents house hunted for a permanent home. That sounds posher than it was!

Binkermum29 - that's a lovely post.

I was 16 and on my "last" family holiday with my parents - I was determined to hate it and spent all my holiday money ringing my best friend from the red phone box outside our holiday cottage to find out what I was missing out on at home.

IT wasn't my last holiday with my parents though - I've been on several holidays with them since although didnt start again until I was in my 30's.

Age 7 spending the summer holidays fighting with my little brother and playing my little pony in the back garden 😊

Nearlyhadenough

I just watched Papa Don't Preach on YouTube and it's so poignant - I was in tears at the end....

18 years old and working as an au-pair on a farm in Normandy. I only went to improve my French but came back proficient in hand-milking goats & making goats cheese 😀

Helping my parents to pack as we moved abroad the following week. I was 9.

I can't believe that was 30 years ago....feels like yesterday in so many ways

14. I had my first summer job and thought I was minted earning the grand sum of £1.50 an hour. I think I had enough at the end of the summer to buy myself a Walkman.

4 and adorable

I was just coming up for 6, and I guess about to start Top Infants at school - as is my son now, even if they do call it Year 2 these days.

Omg. I was 16. I'd just come back from a holiday in the Bahamas (my BFF's parents lived there) and flew back via Miami on my own. I was madly in love with my first boyfriend (we lasted another year). I was probably very nervous for my O level results, which I was convinced I'd failed. I hadn't, I'd proved my teachers wrong.

I was in Pula in former Yugoslavia with 2 girlfriends. We'd bought flights only very cheaply and didn't have anywhere to stay, so we just mooched about until we found somewhere doing b&b. Turned out to be gorgeous and we had a brilliant holiday.

This was the occasion on which I left my favourite ever note on the kitchen table. I'd just finished a year working in a boarding school after uni, and came back to the family home before starting work in London. DPs happened to be out when I turned up so I had to leave a note saying "gone to Yugoslavia, back on....."

I was 19, totally in love and had just got engaged. Working in an office in Glasgow with not a care in the world.

I was 8 and on holiday in Teignmouth wearing my full football strip, including socks and boots 😊

A five year old!

I was at university - worked in a shop in Covent Garden during the summer. It was hot and I had a long commute. 1986 was also the first and last time I went to Glastonbury.

I had just turned 15 and I was facing my first summer holiday after my father had died 5 months previously. Very sad year.