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

All of the above plus-
Sitting on my dads lap and steering the car
Nipping to the corner shop to get his fags, then lighting them for him from 7yrs old
Listening to records alone with my Art teacher during lunchtimes (in his 'cupboard')
Dad dangling me over our balcony by my ankles (which i loved)
Jumping on and off Double Deckers while they were still driving along

Naughty, but nice!

Flies everywhere say a silent prayer of thanks for today's improved aerodynamics.

My parents were pretty strict about health and safety stuff, but I can remember as many kids as possible being stuffed in the back of my Mum's mini (this is in the 1970s and early 80s). Also, many kids sitting in the boot of a hatchback (i.e. the crumple zone) after a muddy dog walk. Plus lots of us kids being driven by our neighbour to gymnastics in their MG, not even sitting on the back seat but up on the boot, with our feet on the back seat!

Plus a dad from school bundling many kids into his Dormobile and weaving all over the roads of the estate where we lived (we all knew eachother) with the doors open, dropping us at home (I thought he was so cool...now I just think "Disney dad").

Gollywogs on the label of Roberton's jam. Why????!

13, 14, 15 year old girls going out with men in their early 20s <shudder>

Whilst smoking indoors is no longer ok it seems we are heading to a new era where vaping indoors is ok. Drove past a barber shop the other day where the barber was vaping whilst cutting his clients hair.

"Jumping on and off Double Deckers while they were still driving along"

I first read that as jumping from the roof of one bus to another, Buster Keaton style. I certainly don't remember that. 😲 😅

This is still totally normal in the city I live in! I've been quite taken aback by it. Totally common to see people cycling with no helmet. And at night with no lights and wearing dark clothes! I'm a cyclist and I think this is utterly mad!

We sang a song at first school that went ‘The ink is black, the ink is white, together we learn to read and write’

We lived in an almost exclusively white area, and one day we were told we’d be getting some children who were ‘different’, and were taught a different verse of the song ‘to welcome them’. It went ‘you are black, we are white’ with gesturing arm movements. I’m still fucking ashamed now and I’m 50. I was about 7 at the time

Commuter trains where doors opened with a handle, and as the train approached the station, people would open the doors and jump off before it fully stopped. The trains had signs above the windows which warned you not to put your head out of the window when the train was moving. Also, the trains had a baggage/goods carriage which everyone would pile into in busy periods. Also, the London buses had the open back where passengers could to hop and off whilst the buses were moving!

Smoking in maternity wards, when I had my baby several in ward were smoking, one kept dropping fag ash down on baby and no connection was made between that babys breathing problems and the smoker a foot away from him!

Not being allowed to wear trousers at work.
Girly calendars of topless women being put up in mixed offices by men
smoking or non smoking post natal wards the babies were kept in there.
black face. Note we still have woman face!

Oh my god!

Snap!

So many parents now micro-manage their children's lives and think it makes them better parents, their dear child must be doing more after school activities, more classes at the weekend etc. I have always been amazed at the number of toys children have but are rarely left alone to play with them.

Schoolgirls getting into the cars of strange men. This was pretty much a hobby for some girls at my school. You'd walk a certain road and hope a car with young men in it would stop and pick you up and take you out.

Where I lived was very, very boring.

Teenage pregnancy rates. By the time of our final year at school (age 16, my school had no sixth form) there were several girls who were heavily pregnant and one who had had her baby aged 14.

Jellykat ·
Dad dangling me over our balcony by my ankles (which i loved)

Was your Dad Michael Jackson?!

Jumping on and off Double Deckers while they were still driving along

Yes! My nan (fit as a fiddle) used grab my hand and leap on and off the 65 to Richmond with me just sort of flying out behind her !* *😂😳

I haven't RTFT, but the first thing that came to mind was being left alone on holiday, with the "chalet patrol" patrolling outside.

My parents would go to reception and request the chalet patrol for the nights they wanted. They would toddle off to "the club" and if the teenager with the walkie talkie heard us crying (through our open window 😲) they would message the club and the chalet number would be broadcast on a sort of dot matrix board above the stage.

I was telling DS (18) this a while ago and he flat out refused to believe it was a thing 😆

Smoking sections in restaurants too.

There was rarely a huge divide between the 2 sections, so you would ask for non smoking - but the next table would be smoking.

Drinking underage in pubs from about 16, realising your teachers were in the same pub (small rural town) and going up and chatting to them. Not a bad thing. These days teenagers have to be introduced to drinking by necking cheap vodka with other teenagers, because places are so hot on checking ID. Drinking in a more civilised atmosphere, when you knew that your teachers and people your parents knew were in the same pub, possibly made for a more sensible initiation.

Unsafe car travel. We had a Morris Estate, and if we had relatives visiting one of us kids would be sitting in the boot part on a rubber mattress with only a flimsy lock between us and the road. God only knows what would have happened if we had been hit from the back.

Smelling of smoke after a night out. Don't miss that.

Lunchtime drinking, and this was in the 90s. Quite normal to have two or three drinks at lunch, then go back to work. This was sales and marketing by the way-I wasn't doing it when I was operating dangerous machinery or driving small children around!

I remember going to Butlins as a kid. They had a service where they would keep an eye on kids left back in the chalets when parents went for a drink! Certainly would not happen now.

School gates and buildings being wide open to the public all day.

50 years ago the school I went to didn’t have gates or a fence around it. It still doesn’t.

We sang that in the 90s but the lyrics were "a child is black, a child is white, together we learn to read and write".

We had ''ink is black, page is white, together we learn to read and write''.

I used to think like this but I now realise its because your kids don't have anyone to play with if you don't take them to activities because (a) kids don't call on each other like they used to and (b) even if you try to arrange a play date the other kids are not free as they are all at activities.
Its just harder for kids to socialise outside of organised activities now. I sent my my young kids off the other weekend to call on the kids they know who live on the street - none of them were in - they were all out with their parents.

Its harder for kids to 'entertain' themselves. We used to be able to do that because we had lots of friends to play with, and we could take ourselves off free range. Very few kids have that now.

Its a real cultural shift and its not a good one.