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 were at the beach and my baby was only a couple of weeks old when I let one handle of his Moses basket go and he rolled out on to the sand.

@nildesparandum

I was the child on the seat…my brother was the baby in the pram….mum and I walked home hand in hand and when we got there she remembered she’d left him in the pram outside the shop!

Been let out to play and only coming home to get fed. No one hovering over us when we were playing. Roaming through the back courts accompanied by the odd dog or three. Coming home when the street lights came on. Freedom and being allowed to take risks. No stupid knee pads. Hurting ourselves and learning our lesson. Happy days😃

On a recent episode of "The Repair Shop", a lady brought in a miniature stove, with utensils, for a child to cook on; the heat source was a metal tray with wicks and methylated spirits to light up. The experts duly restored it, to the owner's delight, while making it clear that this was by no means a toy, and far too dangerous for a child to use.

That reminds me of the wooden garage my father lovingly made for my brother, as he'd made a dolls house for me. The garage was lit by a full size light bulb powered from a plug socket. First thing my brother did was unscrew the light bulb and stick his finger in the handy child height light socket and electrocute himself. That was a hospital job.

The primary school had a large wire fence, probably almost 10 foot that led down to a small stream. Only the boys were allowed to climb it to retrieve a ball that went over. One boy broke his arm and received an award in assembly for his 'bravery'.

In p1, I and a neighbour boy would pretend to be at each others houses. When actually we would walk about a mile to the train station, get on the train for a few stops and come back again. Then repeat for as long as we thought we could keep it up for without being missed.

Noone ever asked us for a ticket. I only told my DM this year when she was being annoyingly precious over my DS, so I hit back with you didn't even know your daughter spent about 6 months skipping fares on unnecessary train fares aged 4

My poor late Mum nearly finished me off when I was about 4 - we’d moved from living with my Nana in her big Victorian draughty flat into a council flat, which by comparison was almost hermetically sealed (in the early 70s).

However, it had no heating other than a gas fire in the living room, so come Winter my tiny bedroom was freezing. Mum put a parrafin heater in with me and shut the door.

A little while later she checked in on me and her eyes were stinging from the fumes….. I was a notoriously bad sleeper and she said it was the first time she was ever glad I woke up screaming from robust shaking she gave me to make sure I was still alive.

She was a very conscientious and protective mother and just didn’t think…..

twoshedsjackson; when I was about 13, I was given a chemistry set. It had all sorts of chemicals, and a small meths burner for heating up experiments. That was in the late 60's.

I had a chemistry set when I was about 14, so would have been the late 1980s. I remember it had things like potassium permanganate, copper sulphate, magnesium metal to set fire to, lots of other 'real' chemicals.

I've just had a look at what's available today, and I'm actually quite surprised how much they've changed. Surely they could think of some chemicals that are reasonably safe for home use but are more interesting than lemon juice and baking soda?

But going back to the 1950s it was even more alarming. Home Atomic Energy Lab anyone?

When I was growing up all the buses had an open back end. One day we were going in Liverpool City centre when the bus stopped at traffic lights o London Rd. My mum was helping us off the bus, but only got as far as my little brother, when the lights changed and the bus drove off, leaving him at the corner of two main roads. Luckily enough the bus stop was just around the corner and we raced back to find him standing there looking very puzzled.

This was constantly banned at my primary school. We all used to play it anyway and at least once a term we would have a special British bulldog assembly in which we would all get a bollocking and whoever had received the most recent injury (usually a broken arm) would be dragged to the front and put on display as an example to us all

At my primary school (Caribbean, 4-11) parents dropped us off at the gates and waved us goodbye. We were completely unsupervised until the school day started; they'd ring the bell and we'd line up outside our classrooms.

Ditto for break and lunch, students from the oldest school year volunteered to supervise kids eating in class, and got them into class after the bell until teachers appeared.

If you fell over in the playground you wobbled to the staff room and got a plaster 😂

I'd say there were about 350/400 students. There were never any major incidents/scandals.

One thing really stands out to me now: there was a 'guard' employed to man the gates, a lovely older man, and another male caretaker. We'd go up to the guard and sit and talk to him sometimes, I remember even sitting on his lap, he was very grandfatherly. The caretaker lived on site and we could go past his room and look in. Neither of those things were really on, it was a big school spread across a lot of land, lots of opportunity for a child to be taken off somewhere. Shudder.

I think this is the most shocking thing I've read on the thread so far

I'm intrigued by this and am now googling. Was it something like this?

When visiting friends abroad us four kids sat on the back of an open topped pick up truck for our journeys across Malta.

Not exactly the same but my grandmother had a tenant who rented a flat on her property. Older single man, we loved going to his house to play because he had a computer he'd let us use (many households didn't still in the early 90s) and he'd give us these nice salted crackers (he was American and I think they were from there). He was so nice, but again, I wouldn't want my little girls playing in a man's house just hanging out

Oh yes loads. I remember babies parked outside shops in the 80s, I was definitely left outside shops as a child of the 70s.
The big apparatus in the hall, infants climbing to the top with just a thin rubber mat on the wooden floor.
Climbing frame in school playground on concrete surface.
Smoking in cinemas, restaurants and on public transport.
Jumping on and off moving trains and buses in London.

Swinging round lampposts! We would tie a double rope high up a lamppost and sit in the loop. We then propelled ourselves around the post. All seemingly approved of by parents, who often had to secure the rope for us! In fact, my dad used to bring rope home from the shipyard for us to use. We had a lamppost right outside our house and it was a magnet for kids in the neighbourhood - mostly girls! It shook like mad as we hurtled round, swinging right out onto the road. Sometimes we sneaked a cushion out to avoid rope burn. If I saw children doing it now, I'd be horrified😬

Oh we had a slide like that, we used to hang on the wire on the outside and slide down the supporting poles. It was a great slide down.

I remember building the bonfires they were huge and every one climbed all over them.

I was allowed until I stood on a nail

DM did that with me. Took me to the shop in the pram. Went inside and did her shopping. Went home and packed it all away. Remembered she had a baby and sprinted back to the shops. Luckily I was still there. I’m her defence she was pretty sleep deprived.

We used to climb down to the bottom of a disused water-filled quarry to play.

I was born mid 80s, right at the end of the year in a snow storm. Parents drive me home in a carry cot placed across the back seat. Makes me smile to think of that when they're so diligent about getting car seats with all the bells and whistles now correctly installed for their grandchildren!

When I was born mums stayed several days in hospital and all went to the canteen for meals, leaving their babies alone on the ward. They were all having breakfast when a midwife came down with one of the babies, asking who's it was because it was crying and none of them recognised if it was their baby or not Apparently mum only knew it wasn't me because she'd put me in a distinctive hand knitted cardigan that morning!

My best friend and I went to London unaccompanied for the first time, including train to Marylebone and then all Tubes plus a full day of shopping and home again, totally alone at the age of 11. This would have been mid 90s. I mean we were fine and very sensible girls but hardly streetwise and I can't quite believe our parents let us do it!

The school I went to sixth form to (2012 onwards), all the teachers who were smokers were assigned a particular staff room (there were several) because there was a balcony leading off it where they were allowed to go and smoke. This was on school property and in full view of all pupils.

When I was around 3/4 my mum used to leave me and my 5/6 year old brother playing with the big toys outside the ELC in our city centre to go and do the ‘boring’ shopping. My mum was a primary school teacher!

No idea what the staff must have thought but we both remember there being other children left there too. No idea how long we were left for, mum always says it was no longer than ten minutes but we always argue that it was more like an hour! My fiancé grew up in a different town and remembers his mum doing the same.

@NippyWoowoo

Yes, yours looks like the pushchair version. We had something like this.