70's -80's children how many remember getting sunburn.

[Sunflowerkeep]

I barely remember them putting suncream on me always dark, sometimes burnt i certain areas and parents are like ahh you got a nice tan even when I was clearly burnt and must have had sun stroke as remember feeling bit chilly in 35c yeah really. Loads of my friends remember the same from that generation. Weird hey. I've got olive skin but my brother I remember burnt to a crisp one year. Poor thing

I was born in the mid-60s, and every year us kids would burn because if it was sunny we would spend all day on the beach. My Mum smothered herself in Ambre Solaire and Dad covered up.

It was agony - and just one aspect of the neglect we went through - it wasn't a sad one-off, it was callous disregard. I cannot contemplate putting my son through the pain we went through every year.

When I was about 11 I began buying sun cream for me and my sister with my pocket money, so it happened less often. But I didn't always have enough saved, so there were still times.

I'm a child of the sixties. No suncream of any sort, and always remember my parents saying we were as 'brown as a berry' after our summer holiday. What I do remember is my mother covering us in Calamine lotion at night and picking it off in bed

It seems like my parents were unusually good about this for the era. I was born in 84 and we always had to wear at least factor 30 on holiday, and if it was very hot, my mother wouldn't let my brother and me go into the pool without wearing a t-shirt over our swimming gear, as she didn't trust the longevity of sunscreen that claims to be water resistant.

That said, I did get burned a few times as a child and tween, usually when at school, when I couldn't be bothered to apply sunscreen myself.

I personally wised up in my very early 20s, when I started wearing wide brimmed hats and religiously reapplying factor 50 in hot weather (I am deathly pale). Now that I am approaching 40, I am definitely reaping the benefits, in terms of not having a decolletage riddled with lines and sun spots.

Yes, I remember crying from sunburn at least once as a 70s kid. Sunscreen, if any, was low SPF back then.

I remember whiling away a long car journey from cornwall peeling sunburn off my thighs.

My Mum was the same. She had my brother and me wearing hats, sunglasses and covered in sunscreen and zinc from when we were born (1969 and 1970). We lived across the road from the beach, so we spent most days there. I used to hate being slathered in stuff and boycotted the routine when I was in my mid-teens, ended up getting very badly burned a couple of times. I came to the conclusion that Mum had the right idea and have protected myself ever since. These days I stay out of the sun as much as I can, except when I'm gardening.

I never did, but my skin tans rather than burns . Defo no sun cream though

It's so weird because my parents were very safety conscious in other aspects of our lives. My sister and I were strapped into the car with harnesses which were bolted into the chassis of the car throughout the 70s when child car seats weren't a legal requirement. They were shit hot on teaching us to swim, and proper life preservation skills in case we fell into water. Lifejackets compulsory for going in boats etc.

But sun safety just was not a thing.

My mum was really good with sun cream (I’m 1980), but I don’t ever being told to drink etc, like a day at the beach without water was usual. Looking back it’s really weird.

When we holidayed in Spain (80s, teenager) I’d accept that I’d burn first (even with sun cream) then it would eventually become a tan and I’d use a lower factor. Luckily for my skin we usually holidayed in the U.K.

I think our sun cream was factor 4, 8 or 16. I’m very fair.

In our house now we only have factor 30 and 50. We usually use 30, although my DS (not as fair as me) burnt this week in U.K. with factor 30.

Oh and my DParents just didn't wear sunglasses ever, and as kids or teens we bought our own with pocket money or paper round wages etc.

I burnt to a crisp often and had sun stroke a few times too. Went to Florida at around age 5, no sunscreen. Had such horrible sun burnt face it required hospital treatment, particularly for my nose. Not even a hat or sunglasses. What were they thinking!?!

I’m nearly 60. I have always hated being in the hot sun and even heat. Have always sat in the shade

i have been burnt twice. Once when I was around 7 and a suddenly unexpectedly hot day on the beech. Mum did have suncream but it was about 90 degrees and I guess factor 15 or 20 back then.

andcthen agian in Hungary when I was 19 and interrailing. I was sitting under about the only tree for miles but got heat exhaustion and start of heat stroke that evening. I also burnt top of my head

5 years ago I was diagnosed with the less invasive forms of skin cancer- top of my head. Removed but needed a small graft which doesn’t grow hair. And then 1 year later 3 growths below my eye and near nose . I have a 2 inch scar down my face- luckily my glasses (which have biggish frames) covers it mostly.

so it doesn’t need much to damage the skin. I have literally not sat out in the sun at all this summer. I stick to inside or the shade.

I was also coated in the stuff until I rebelled in my teens. Bloody streaks of the stuff Sunblock didn’t exist when I was a young child, perhaps factor 30 was the highest.

I was only thinking about this the other day. I slap suncream on my 3 year old but we only ever put it on as children (80s) when we went abroad. Same goes for sun hats.

I remember burning a lot in hot summers but suncream only seemed to be considered something one applies on holiday, and it was generally quite a low spf.

Yes got burned but I don't remember sun cream being on mass sale or the dangers realised

I remember getting a little burnt but my dad always made us use factor 50. I think I had heat stroke in Spain one year, no sympathy from my mother who made me walk back to the apartment when I was almost passing out. She was shoving me and telling me I was a fucking idiot for falling asleep in the sun ( was under a towel).

I don't remember getting sunburned as a child as my DM was always cautious especially with her being a redhead. However despite being cautious in the sun she had a melanoma on her head removed last year.

Oh god, yes - the lack of drinking water!

We carry water everywhere for our child even on cool days but i just do not remember drinks of any kind featuring prominently in my 80s childhood.

Born in the 60s. Got terribly burned on a Sunday School trip to Littlehampton when I was about 8. I was sitting with one of the adults on the trip who was a district nurse! My back was so tight I literally couldn't bend in the middle. Awful blistering and then I recall my family gleefully peeling me a few days later 😁

I never went on any Sunday School Trips after that and took it upon myself to take care after that. Fingers crossed I've got away with it.

Sorry, that last comment should have quoted @AceSpades54321

Child of the early 1970s. in 1976 we were in Wales. I was made to wear a huge amount of suncream and wear a sort of fringed towel get up without sleeves that my mother made. it had a very tasteful fringe.

There was definitely suncream then that did something not just the stuff to make you fry. I got a strange itchy thing in too much heat that had no rash. My mother took me to a doctor who was just seeing a stream of burnt children and was in a huge rage about people who let their children burn. I remember him shouting at my mother for letting me burn, i took my top off to show him my back and there wasn't a mark on me. Then he apologised and I can't remember what happened next but I do remember the roads melting.

I am weirdly reminded of the bit in ‘Claudine at St Clare’s’ where Claudine (mam’zelle’s niece, I think?) was derided by the other girls for staying in the shade, thus avoiding becoming ‘brown as a berry’ like the twins and Bobby/Roberta!

Claudine had the right idea I think!

I grew up in the north of Scotland in the 70s and I got burnt regularly as a child (only in Scotland, I didn't go abroad as a child and only went to England once). We did have suncream but it was very low factor and we had the same bottle for years. I remember my freckles looking green because they were surrounded by burnt skin.

As an adult I have always worn sunblock and have never burnt on holiday abroad but do still sometimes burn in Scotland because it's cloudy and I don't think to put on sunblock. I am much more likely to be at a beach in Scotland as well, holidays abroad aren't about sunbathing.

As a pale ginger in a family of lovely dark skinned folk, I was always burnt as a child especially in the UK when we went abroad I'd have factor 20 on and kept a t-shirt on in the pool. I remember getting massive blisters on my shoulders in Blackpool in 1984 my dad burst them with a sewing needle and put calamine lotion on.