To ask you to remember a time when Health and Safety hadn't been invented (lighthearted)!

[CulturePigeon]

My work has always involved careful risk assessments for children doing a range of activities and of course, I've had my own children to bring up so I would like to emphasise that I'm not in favour of turning the clock back to a more reckless era!

But I'm horrified when I think of the things which I experienced as a child and the reaction they would get now. One example: I went to a schoolfriend's party (age 11) and her dad got 11 of us into the car by putting 3 girls, curled up in the foetal position, in the boot (not a hatchback boot - a big saloon where the boot was totally out of sight and sound contact with the rest of the car), 6 into the back seat, sitting on each other's knees, and 2 in the front seat. This was all long before seat belts were either compulsory or even commonly used. He then proceeded to drive at a good lick along some very hilly roads until we got to a local forest. I remember we were all helpless with laughter.

I think I knew this was not a good idea - and that my parents wouldn't have done it - but at the same time, I was happy to join in and didn't really question it. It makes me go weak at the knees now!

Any other horrific memories of hair-raising activities in those far-off days before H & S?

We had a 5 seater and 6 in the family. We went all the way to France with my sister on my mum's knee! This was in the early 90s and we must've gone through the passport check for the ferry and not raised any eyebrows!

Dad used to take us sledging by tying the sledge to the tow bar of the car. Not safe, but tremendously fun lol.

We also used to pile in the car on each others knees and in the boot. At one point we had a transit van - no seats in the back - and sometimes we'd travel in the van, rolling around on the floor like loons.

We went on holiday sat on cushions in the back of mum's boyfriends van. Not something big like a transit, but one of those small vans and completely separate from the main cabin where they were sat. We were balanced around his work gear - he didn't bother to clear it out so there were work tools and building materials sliding around with us My mum kept going on about fumes and would knock on the van interior with strict instructions that we had to knock back so she knew we were alive.

I know it was different times (late 80s) but what annoys me looking back was that in the same era she would go on and on about my dad using seat belts in the car when he came to pick us up for visits - I think from memory she stopped us seeing him until he bought a new car that had them!

We used to go to guide camp by throwing all the kit in the back of a lorry and then all the girls sat on the piles of tents and off we went by- great fun!

My primary school was next to the public rec. In the summer, the school gate was opened and we were allowed to go and play in the rec along with all the public wandering around!

Put out to play everyday from about 5. No enclosed garden, think flat with a bit of grass around. Everyone did it. This was also the days where folk put their dogs out to roam as well.

We used to "help" the milkman on his collection round by riding on the back of the float holding on to poles for support.

Those pile ins to the car while the dad drove us home after the party were some of the best bits of the birthday, with our piece of cake grasped in our hand. That was back in the 60s. Ah, life was a simpler time then.

For those of you who are too young to know what a milk float looks like img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/76757310-0420-40c7-9705-1d5dfbbd78d0/d1c9b0af-4c7d-4c49-97fb-0df31d1f120f.JPG/:/rs=w:1300,h:800

Lots of people in the car was my first thought. It was always a treat who was going to sit on your mums lap in the front.

My brownie and guide pack used to have a float every year in the local carnival. We would all sit on the back of a lorry - no safety rails, etc. Anyone could have fallen off.

In a nearby park, was a playground which evolved. People would add to it - tyres to swing on, structures added etc. it was all rough and ready, and great fun.

Playgrounds had concrete/tarmac floors, not the padded stuff you have now.

I used to sleep on the back shelf of our car.
There were no seatbelts and certainly no baby seats so you just had your baby in your lap (I don't mean the driver, though what did they do - maybe had the baby in a Moses basket in the back)?

My school didn’t have a fence. At all. Or any type of gate / entrance to the school grounds. It backed into a forest, some rocky hills and a residential area. It was perfectly normal to go say hi to the ‘neighbours’ during break, or climb trees / rocks in the forest at lunch.

Disclaimer - I’m in my 20s, so at school late 2000s/2010s. Not in the UK, but in what you’d consider a civilised European country, and this was next to a major city. We loved that freedom. Younger siblings attended until just a couple of years ago and they’ve ‘sadly’ now fenced it off. Forest trips happen together with teachers and parents are asked for permission first.

Who are you writing an article for?

We used to go along on the milk float too. And help the bin men Chuck stuff in the lorry.

My childminder looked after 4 kids (me, my brother and 2 smaller kids) she also had her daughter (and a teenage son we rarely saw) She had a Ford Capri. We all went out in it.

Some kids got taxis to and from school if they lived over the other side of town. They'd all get in, with some in the boot.

I used to walk home from school from age 8ish, with my brother, who was 2 years younger than me - 1.5miles away. We'd also go for bike rides for miles, stay out most of the day.

No compulsory seatbelts in a car - front or back

Parents going for a drink or two and then a drive - does that count as health and safety?

Overloaded sockets as no one really seemed to care about those plugs where you didn't have extension leads, they just came off a single plug. Wonder how many fires they caused?

Smoking in pubs and restaurants - don't miss that

I can certainly think of some work practices that we did that would be banned now - and I shudder to think that they were accepted back then.

When I was a child I went away with a local youth group for a residential trip. One night we completed a task which was a bit like an army boot camp thing. We were blind folded and only had a rope to guide is. We slid down into tenches with thick muck up to our waists, crawled under nets and things in muck, walked through a dark forest and crawled through a low level lake all whilst telling us scary stories about the land. When we got back they hosed us down in the yard followed by toasted marshmallows and hot chocolate.

Another time we walked for about 4 hours in the wilderness and camped in a field, found wild mushrooms and had them for breakfast, to this day they were the nicest fried mushrooms I've ever had.

It was the funniest experience of my life with my friends and we had the best time I was about 10 years old, no chance they would get away with this now.

We’d have fold up garden chairs in the back of the one we all piled into. We’d pits in them in proper rows and all that was missing was a tv to watch in between the two front seats.

I don't look back at most it with horror though. Stuff like piling in the car, yes. But the stuff like walking home from school, and staying out all day, I more feel sad that kids these days don't get to do that.

Where I used to live used to be next to the countryside, now it has a bypass round it so you can't get to the countryside without crossing it. Far too much traffic, and dangerous even for adults. They've just built a bridge over part of it, but only because they're building more houses there, so it won't be countryside anymore.

At my school they took a van load of us off, aged 11, dropped us off somewhere with camping stuff, ration packs and no adults and told us to be back at school by Sunday

These are bringing back some dodgy memories!

I know children can always get up to dangerous things without adult supervision, but often adults were fine with some very dangerous situations. I remember playing on a high haystack at my friend's farm with a row of sharp iron spiked railings just below. We saw them and just didn't worry - incredible.

Plus, at my primary school, the Head would send someone out with a bit of change to walk the half-mile into town to buy odd bits of stationery - at the age of 8/0. Different times!

I grew up on a poor northern council estate. Not everyone could afford a lawn mower so there was a goat, not even sure who owned it, who would live in your garden for a week and eat your grass. Trying to leave the house to go to school without getting butted by it was a nightmare!!

My dad used to dangle me from my ankles, over our balcony... we lived in a flat in London on the 3rd floor, and i loved it! (neighbours never said anything)

Another was hopping on and off double deckers while they were still going, and sticking our heads out of travelling train windows, great fun...

Also at the same school you could volunteer to look after old people and they gave you a little id card so you could buy them fags

Nothing that hasn't been said here but I do wish I could just stand on a chair to change a lightbulb at work without consulting 5 interlinking risk assessments and seeking out a fiberglass ladder and and safety harness.

Our playground had jagged tarmac under the insanely long, high-swinging swings and at the end of the tall, narrow, steep steel slide so if you overshot you ended up with grazes that were full of gravel and looked like you'd been attacked with a cheese grater.

Remember running for a train. It had just started so we opened the door, jumped in and got on. Whilst it was moving.

And jumping on and off London Double Deckers - those were the days