What did you do when you were a kid that is considered dangerous now?

[Karlwho]

Just out of interest.
When I was little (7-10), I'd play outside around the neighbourhood with no adults and not a mobile between my friends and I. We'd go home when we were hungry.

Broke thermometers with mercury in to play with the mercury

That's probably dangerous

And I did it a LOT

im late 30s and used to be out for hours up mountains,in fast flowing deep streams,riding bikes with out any protection and mostly in just a sleeveless vest and shorts with sandles on.same with skates

i used to leave early morning and come back when street lights went on or if i phoned to ask for a bit later it would be allowed as long as i wasnt on the streets at night and only in certain friends house.i would have food with who ever gave it to me or our local shop keeper and chippy(same shop)would alow a select few he trusted a tab,well our mother to pay i suppose as this was a estate where 99 % were on the dole and our mother would pay at the end of the week.

my mother always said as long as i didnt take the piss it was fine so if others didnt feed me it would be don from the fish shop and we learnt quickly that come 1pm he would chuck unsold food out(they didnt open nights them days)so we would have so much free(not all of us mind only the ones that paid their tab)

as a 13/14 y old i was in forests with boys older than me making dens and climbing trees.nothing sexual ever happened as we just played but imaging a 13 y old girls with 4-5 older boys today

I was born in the 1950’s. Going to the shops on my own from age 3. Walking to school alone age 4.
Being given a cigarette by a cousin at age 4.
Home alone (latchkey child) after school from age 7.
Home alone all day for the whole summer holidays from age 10.
Lighting the gas fire alone from age 7.
Babysitting for the neighbours’ kids at age 9.
Playing out all day at the park or woods from age 5, albeit with older kids present. Ditto football in the street.
Travelling in cars with no seatbelts. Riding drunk on the pillion of a motorbike age 17.
Not only did we not have mobile phones, we didn’t even have a landline. I had no way to contact my parents at work, and didn’t even know the number.
Modern MN parents would be pearl clutching in horror at the reality of children’s lives then!

Sitting on the parapet of Midland Road railway bridge in central Bristol, feet dangling over the Great Western main line. The friendly local police station at Braggs Lane/Trinity Road was only a few minutes' walk away.

Also, buying supplies for my chemistry set from a real chemist's shop in Easton Road to demonstrate what a clever cow I was by painting a concentrated solution of ammonium nitrate around the toilet rims in the outside toilet block of my junior school, letting it dry and putting the seats down very carefully. When someone plonked themselves down, there was a loud bang. Culprit and associates were found giggling in the bushes behind the block. I was threatened with being marched across the road to the police station (the one mentioned above) and being 'spoken to'. It's a high-security police station now, nothing to do with me, honest.

It's been many years since quite dangerous chemicals, including concentrated acids, could be bought over the counter, never mind by 10-year-olds without any parents present. The shop was close to our house and the owner knew my parents, but even so. My chemistry set was a Christmas present from Mum and Dad, the best present I ever had.

Playing on building sites (9=>)
'Finding our way' into empty houses and warehouses (never did any damage, we were 'just having a look round' (probably 11=>)
Going out on a horse on my own, aged 6/7
Spending time with friends and ponies in a paddock with no adult supervision, aged 13/14. Fell off, of course.
Cycling four miles to said paddock along narrow lanes with no cycle helmet. Riding hat in bike basket.
Making friends, aged 15/16, with a bloke twice my age. Nothing remotely dodgy ever happened, but I learned a lot from him about literature, history and assorted random stuff.
Swimming in the river with my mates, again unsupervised.
Finding WWII munitions by said river, and taking it home. My father called the police.

Walked to and from school alone at 5. Playing out all days in the summer from same kind of age. Sailing with 3 other 11 year olds out in a wee yacht in the open sea (well a firth but still). 'Helping' by sitting on top of a really high haycart whilst it was driven to the farm. Going on the bus swimming with friends to the big town about 10yo. Fantastic memories - feel sad that my own kids never do these things.

Ds (approx 13) abseiled me (10) out of a window via a yellow karate belt.

She tried to get me back up but couldn't so I had to knock the window and say I had ran past the tv when no one was looking and went out the french doors (which was behind the TV) and obviously no one beloved me... although I thought it was a convincing story at the time.

Now I realise it was terrible. Fun at the time though but gosh I could have been dropped on my head or back and been killed or broken or paralysed 🙈

Play on railway lines (we used to put pennies on the tracks and wait for them to be squashed flat), swim in rivers, sit on top of hay bales being carried by lorries, hitch hike, throw aerosol cans on fires to watch them explode, cycle without a helmet. I could go on... :)

Rode on the roof of my mum's car.
Played with knives, fire, homemade bows and arrows, electric drill.
Rode a bike that didn't have working brakes down a steep hill that crossed a main road at the bottom (on a number of occasions).
Climbed trees in wellies.
Built a zip wire ride from the top of one tree (higher than our house) down to the bottom of another tree.
Tried 'smoking' straw in pipes made out of (I think) acorn shells and drinking straws.
Had rock wars in the local quarry.

This was late 80s. My parents were probably laid back even by the standards of the time, but lots of kids in my area had a fair bit of freedom. Sadly, a couple did die in accidents.

There's a ridiculously steep hill we rode down on our bikes on, no helmets..... the thought of my kids riding down that hill makes me feel physically sick

the car had 2 seatbelts in the back but the middle seat didnt have one, so when a friend was having a lift, 2 people had seatbelts and 1 always didn't.

on going to high school at 11, you would walk into town during the lunch break and just randomly go around town with your friends, not a very posh area and a massive contrast to primary school which was in a village.

started going clubbing at 14/15 and would stay out overnight and get the first morning train back from places like birmingham and wolverhampton :/. i include this as we thought we were so grown up at the time but we were still kids.

going onto farmers land and getting shot at with air rifle

go down the stairs on a tray but unfortunately my friend went through the front glass door, she still has the scar on her scalp.

Oh, aged 16, smoking on the straw bales in a barn.

Oh, all the above was primary school age. I got the rope and pulley for the zip wire by walking 5 miles to the nearest town and buying them in a hardware store.

@Babdoc if I was a good girl on a Saturday shopping in town with Nan she would give me a few puffs on her ciggie as reward, imagine that outside Primark today she'd be shot

Walk to school without adults for most of the primary.
Being a passenger in the boot of a car.
No protective gear when on a bike or roller skates.
Being out all day.
Lots of second-hand smoke.
Using a chip pan.

Playing in the pond behind our house with the kids from our road. Getting on the train and just randomly deciding when we'd get off and exploring the area with walkie talkies. Roaming the town at 5am, our parents just gave us a key.

Climbing to the top of lampposts, sitting on cliff edges (gives me the heebie jeebies now thinking about it), off to the shops/park on my own age 5-6.

I don’t think it’s considered dangerous to play out is it? Especially age 7-10 that is definitely old enough. The argument about what is old enough where I live is usually 4-5ish. Younger if they have older siblings out too.

I know some of these aren't meant t o be funny but... Lol, I can just imagine the response if these were t o happen no w.
I let my youngest make me coffee with my coffee machine. It's a push button one, and the water is never that hot (need to look at that actually), and I thought that wa s a bit extreme.
I was messing around with a gas hob at her age

My dad used to take us to work with him in school hols and also when we were pre school. He was a delivery driver to newsagents and we helped him carry the stuff in. Sometimes we sat on boxes in the back of the van....none of it was secured and we had fun trying to cling on round corners etc. Once my 4 year old brother was left in the front seat while dad nipped into a shop, it was the town my great aunt lived in and she went past and saw my brother on the roof of the van as he had climbed out the window.
Also, like previous posters, I can remember setting off to Scotland at bedtime with 4 sleeping bags in back of car and we would sleep all the way there. One time dad hit a deer which woke us all up but we were all fine.
We had a building site to play on and a woods opposite with a derelict manor house. We used to play out all the time and mum had a big handbell which she rang at mealtimes for us to come home. That would have been the 70's for me. I have tried to give my kids freedom. From about year 4 they were allowed to walk home from school and they would then change and go back to the park and come home for tea. I would often be told by other parents who sat in the park supervising that my son was usually straight to top of tallest tree. He is now 14 and goes off with a rucksack of food and a first aid kit and does big cycles with his friends. I am always glad when he is home but love that he is out and about getting fit and healthy.

@namynom my youngest is 7, and last year she started playing out o n the green outside my house. We live in a pretty secure little close BUT we do get the odd idiot on a crossbike roaring across the green/front gardens. I let mine play out the front but I hover near the window/front porch. I got told off once by a neighbour for letting my kids 'loose'.

1970s - Aged 7 onwards
Climbed trees
Had backies and fronties (sat on handlebars)
played in a disused quarry
played in and around a lake
went roaming in the hills & woods alone
went out on my bike alone all day (10 onwards)

1980s - 13 and over
walked 5 miles to school and back alone
hitch hiked (lorry drivers were - fortunately - lovely
slept on the common when I’d been out with friends & missed the last bus home
Rode on the back of a motorbike sans helmet & leathers
walked home alone from clubs at night
spoke to strangers

God it was great.

Playing out with much younger children, unsupervised. Admittedly we stayed fairly close to home, but Mumsnet would have a collective fit at the idea of an 8 or 9 year old being responsible for a 3 or 4 year old.

I guess I was trusted to tire them out, give their parents some peace and not get them killed.

Funny isn’t it I think it’s different for different places. You quite often hear on mumsnet about children not playing out anymore but that’s definitely not the case where I live. Annoying about the angry neighbour but that isn’t so new, I know some of our neighbours loathed kids playing in the street but my parents just ignored them. I do think some of our worry over what’s okay for our children now comes from thinking other people will find us to be neglectful. I don’t remember my parents ever worrying about what other people thought of their parenting. But I know I’m constantly trying to find a balance between allowing dc the freedom I know is good for them and worrying that onlookers will judge my parenting!

I was born in 1980.
My parents were pretty strict and safety conscious for the time. I wasn't allowed to play out till dusk like some of my friends! Our TV use was strictly monitored and I wasn't allowed to go to the party of a friend of a friend as my mum didn't know them.
However: -
Our church had a youth club who wouldn't have known H&S if it had bitten them on their collective arses.
There was a minibus that was more rust than bus. It had a sticky label inside warning people not to poke the rust. Probably because your finger would go right through. It did not have seatbelts throughout and the few that were there tended not to be used.
We'd be taken camping and how we didn't all get food poisoning is beyond me. A kid got knocked out playing football and rather than get medical attention the leaders just gathered round to pray.
Ok, it's a Christian youth camp so praying is fine. But call a doctor for goodness sake!
We'd play huge wide games at night in the woods and kids regularly got lost. The game wasn't stopped in a thunderstorm and a power line nearby was struck by lightning.
It was all incredibly unsafe. Yet whenever I expressed to my mum that I didn't like the church youth group (I was bullied and excluded) I was told not to be silly!
I also worked out how to get past my dad's "security" on the modem and spent lots of time in chatrooms when my parents were out.

@namynom there was a study done on parenting now compared to 'before' and it took into account that today people's parenting is constantly in the public eye and under scrutiny, whereas before it was private etc. I think the study was called 'Childhood Lost' or something.