Things that were normal but wouldn't fly these days

[ChopSuey2]

Not really an AIBU but we totally derailed another thread. Following on from the thread about TV programmes that may or may not have been appropriate for young children, I'm wondering what things were totally normal in your childhood but would not be considered acceptable today.

Some of the ones I have been reminded of from the other thread include

• travelling without a seatbelt, in the footwell, in the boot, in the back of a van on a cardboard box
• graphic public safety videos at primary school
• watching graphic true crime under the age of 10
• smoking in cars and homes with kids, smoking in pubs and taking kids to pubs late at night
• playing out under the age of 10 with parents not knowing where their kids are precisely

Being left alone at home for the whole day during the school holidays from the age of 5 with TV as my babysitter and sandwiches left out for lunch!

Okay, I think that was unusual even back in the day!

My mother taking me to the doctor for severe earache / partial deafness and them sitting there together smoking after he examined me - he offered her a cigarette and even lit it for her!!!

Those old fashioned women with the uteruses. Bloody ridiculous

Buying poisons from the local chemist and just having to sign the Poisons Book

My primary school teacher bending you over his lap on your birthday, and slapping your butt an equal number to your age!

I remember the endless summer holidays where you'd be kicked out for the day. A group of us out in the fields, or all over the estate. No drinks or snacks all day long! But sometimes begging your Mum for 5/10p for an ice pop from the shop. Playing in the street and there just being no cars parked up, and when the rare car did come along shouting 'CAR!!!' to each other. Mum's standing at the door shouting their child's name in for tea, you'd get annoyed and wolf your tea down very fast so you could get back out for the game being played.

I do think it'a shame kids don't 'play out' like they used to. Older siblings being 'in charge' of making sure the younger ones were OK.

The endless farmers fields I used to play on as a child are now all new housing estates, and the streets are so rammed with on street parking now there'd be no hop skotch or curby!

They just about got away with it as she was, IIRC, "17 and 3 quarters actually and just got 98% on her theory test". So it was legal, but they also had her competing in gymkhanas, being grounded for having B&H in her bag and doing a DoE award so implied she was younger.

WTF?!?! Jesus Christ.

What the actual fuck. When was that?

Police officer in a hospital waiting to arrest someone after a failed suicide attempt. Always seemed bizarre.

What!!?

I certainly remember going out to clubs and bars and coming back stinking of cigarette smoke…your hair, underwear everything. Foul. God knows how we just accepted it!
Reading this thread, it’s also pretty amazing that some of us of a certain age are still alive to be honest! 😬

I'm a child of the 70s and that wasn't acceptable even then.

My mother was given a cigarette in the ambulance by the paramedic on the way to have me.

And accepted. She smoked through the pregnancy and this wasn't unusual. 70s.

Parents knew we were out with grandparents who took us to the pub in summer to be in the beer garden then drink driving us home!

PE in your knickers if you forgot your kit.

Just being left to play out, no food/drink/money & parents didn't know where you were in all weathers. Crap parenting back then.
Just used to say come back when it gets dark.

Always jumped off the old buses as there was no back door just a rail and so you hung onto the rail and then jumped off and sometimes grabbed the rail to jump on
No risk assessment for school trips or consent. Teacher drove 3 of us girls aged 9 into town' no seat belts, to choose netball kit for the team. Was fab.
Teacher smoking in our classroom during lessons
Bring smacked by teachers, park keepers and any random adult.

Yeah, going out mid 90s i can remember my eyes would nearly always water and sting so badly from cig smoke in the pubs that my make up would just slide down my face.

Many times i'd have to go and stand outside just to stop the sting and breathe!

Friends would sympathise. Blokes would take the piss.

I didn’t know this 😔

Pressing people to have "one for the road" before going home from the pub or a party or similar.

Being told I couldn't wear smart trousers to work (in an office) unless I was pregnant. Really.

Going to the school staffroom and reeling back from the cloud of smoke whenever they opened the door.

Mmmm you can say it was crap parenting back then or you can say some things were much better for kids snd some not.

Going to house parties/ local social club weekly with my mum and sleeping under a pile of coats when tired… or putting a few chair together 😂 thereby hanging around with loads of drunk grown ups at the age of 8ish

DS got a goldfish from a fair when he was 7 - he is only 14 now. It was a very hardy fish! I would have drawn the line at a St Bernard though!