Did anybody else's parents do this?

[Happyeverafter73]

Growing up in the late 70s/early 80s, I remember my mum dropping my brother and me off at the cinema with a McDonalds and collecting us at the end of the film. We would have been around 6 and 8.

AIBU to think that that was bloody irresponsible? Or was that normal for the times?

pretty normal here too.

I used to go out on my bike for hours on my own aged around 6-7. When I had a friend with a couple of horses aged around 9 we used to go out and ride in the forest all day. I was thinking about it a few years back actually and thought how odd.

DH is older than me and he remembers being sent out in the morning with a fishing rod on his parents farm and told to come back at dinner time. It was before he was sent away to school so he was under 7.

I walked him from school from 6

Yes totally normal for the time. Once when my mum had been away (v rare thing to happen) my dad dropped my 8 year old self and 3 year old brother off at cinema when he went to collect her from the train station. She was not impressed.

I worked in a cinema in 1995 and remember a particular set of parents did this while they went and watched something else. The children got upset (I remember the film was Long Way Home Yellow Dog) and left the screen in tears. I had to explain that I'd seen the film and it was a happy ending. Eventually the parents' film finished and they came out and just took their children and left without even thanking me for sitting with them. We also used to regularly have parents letting young children go to the toilet by themselves and the children wouldn't know what screen they'd been in (it was a 12 screen cinema) or even what film they'd been watching.

Irresponsible in my opinion.

I find this a really interesting thread. I guess the world has changed so much. As a child raised in the 50s, my brother and I went for miles on our own. We lived at the seaside so spent all day on the beach, on our own, from 5 and 7 upwards. We were given chip and ice cream money and left home with the words, 'look after each other'.

I think I gave my kids lots of freedom too. In the 70s, my 8 year old let himself into the house after school and was alone until 5. As young teens, 14 and 16 they looked after there little brother during school holidays while I did a part time job.

My brother and I cooked for ourselves, looked after a coal fire and did house hold jobs while my parents worked from when we were 8 and 10.

The changing world was brought home to me recently. My 5 year old GD was helping me prepare tea. I gave her a knife and asked her if she would like to butter the bread. She said, "I am not allowed Knives".

My brother and me used to go to the Saturday kids club at the cinema. There was a magician, a tv programme to watch (thunderbirds, Battlestar Galactica) sometimes a film, and other entertainment. There were "Aunties" in the cinema to keep an eye on us. We were about 8 & 6+ when we started going.

I also went swimming on my own because my mum couldn't swim (nor could I!) I think I was around 9 or 10 then.

We used to cycle for miles on our bikes too at a young age or go off into nearby woods to play for hours. Everyone did it though.

I wish my kids had has much freedom. It's not that I think there's a paedo round every corner, it's more the amount of traffic these days. The town I was brought up in now has a bypass all round it so you can't get to the countryside like we used to unless you cross a very busy dual carriageway.

A secondary school near us used to run a Saturday morning cinema club for young kids. Films shown were things like Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I don't remember any parents there, so maybe they were not allowed?
It was perfectly safe. So normal if a kids showing with no parents present, not normal if a showing with other adults present apart from staff. Staff were strict, so I don't remember being worried about bullying, and I was a shy kid.

Yep!

At eight I was dragging about five kids (ours and neighbours) around with me to pictures, park, cemetery etc

Yeah pretty normal. My mum used to drop me and my siblings off with food at the Saturday morning kid's club (where they basically showed anything that wasn't an 18!) and picked us up when it was finished. I remember her doing that from about the age of 6 (when I was with my older brothers).

My mother wouldn't have let me watch random movies unsupervised, but did let me walk to school accompanied only by other children at that age, so don't think it is irresponsible in terms of safety.

Watching movies for adults on the other hand ...

My mum did this every Saturday Morning..You could buy hot potatoes outside, but the staff wouldn't let you bring them in..We also went to school on our own at the age of 5..Over main roads too!..Mind you, it was in the 50s/60s so not much traffic about..thankfully!

Used to go to saturday morning pictures from age 8.

I started my first paper-round in North London (1977) - I was 8. Every morning 8 roads, 2 miles before school. On Sundays, a 'double round' - all for £1.75 per week.

At 12, moved to Surrey and started a paper-round there plus on Saturdays (including after school work as a server in the local greengrocer). This time, riding my bike in pitch black on a road that was surrounded by woodland. Never thought anything of it.

At 16, left school and started to work full time - 9 hours per day.

Never did me any harm and thoroughly enjoyed it TBH.

No but I was allowed...along with half the rest of the kids on our estate..to go with the "older kids" on the bus three miles to the swimming pool.

These older kids would have been ten or eleven tops!

We'd be told what day we were going by the older kids, then what time bus...where to meet on the estate...and off we'd go..about twenty of us!

Carrier bag with towel and swimming suit...20p to get in and 10p for crisps afterwards!

I couldn't even swim and was also about 6! How I didn't drown is beyond me! But those kids did look after us I remember.

Sorry - lost sight of the original thread. Worthing morning pictures when 7-10 - every Saturday when on school holidays. 2 hours in the pictures with same age friends then parents picked us up.

My mum says that they used to be given a pack lunch and her and her 3 sisters would go out and ride their bikes all day and her buses to other towns and as long as they were back when the street lights turned on, they were fine.

This was in the 70s. Back then it would have been normal.

Now days? Not a chance.

Normal here too (except no McDonalds yet!).

I used to get a bus to the cinema / swimming in north london, from when I was around 7. Me and my 4 years younger brother also used to sit on the wheel arches in the back of a white van, I remember being terrified I was going to fall out once because the door came open on a fast road

Mind you, when we moved to yorkshire when I was 11, I could go anywhere I wanted for however long I wanted as long as I was back by 10 / 11pm...

In the mid-sixties, myself, sister and small group of friends walked by ourselves to the cinema on Saturday mornings. We bought our own sweets, ice cream, etc. We were always warned about 'not speaking to strangers' (though we didn't really know why) and crossing the road safely. It was entirely normal for those times.

I remember once they were going to show E.T. at the kids' club but the film broke and they showed The Ten Commandments instead. Needless to say, 200 snotty little kids wanting to see an alien were not impressed!

Just googled the 2 films I remember going to see without parents, my brother and I would have been 7 & 9 at the time.

I probably started going with friends aged about 10.

whilst I won't be giving my children the freedom to cycle for miles / play out all day in the woods, I wouldn't have a problem dropping them at the cinema alone.

Nope, no chance! Growing up in the 70s and 80s, my parents wouldn't have left us alone at the cinema for quids.
However, I was allowed out on my bike from age 8 onwards, to go to my friends' houses and hang around on street corners and maybe cycle to the river and play there. But they wouldn't have left us alone in town.

It was normal for children to have much more freedom, I had permission in infants to walk home at lunch time to collect my dog for pets afternoon once.

There was less traffic so accidents rarer children did not get collected and older like 7 year old sibling might collect you and children went off to play for the day checking in when they were hungry or meal times.
Social media makes us more aware than we used to be and maybe gives us more anxiety. I think I had a much better childhood and it made me more confident and resilient then children today. Such a shame.

Yes we did this, but without the McDonalds as before that time.

Normal! We used to go to kids am cinema, swim with friends without parents from about 8 years old- think we used to walk down there ourselves too. We used to wander around butlins Skegness all holidays too, and their cinema used to be free so we would just go in and if the movie boring leave and wander around, and turn up back at the caravan later. Can't imagine doing that with my 9 and 7 year olds now but it was normal, and tbh probably good for us. No harm came to us and we must have learned independence and a bit of responsibility.