Things you remember from your childhood that would not be ok today!

[Starlight1984]

Light-hearted and inspired by the comments on the baby in the pub thread (and TikTok!)😀

But what are things you remember from your childhood that people would be absolutely outraged at today?!

I remember being babysat by our neighbours child when I was 4/5 and she was about 12/13. God knows what she would have done if anything went wrong as there were no mobile phones to get hold of our parents?! 🤔

Also remember going to the pub in the summer but kids weren't allowed inside so we sat in the beer garden with a coca cola and bag of crisps whilst the adults were inside 😂

Being naughty and then being chased round the house with a slipper! There was also a stick but rarely used. My bum would be so sore at times I found it difficult to sit down.

She is about 70 and did her nurse training in the 70s. She isn't a liar btw!

Primary school, 1980s. We had a slightly nutty teacher. If any boy was naughty she'd make him stand in the bin and hit him across the back of the knees with a ruler. She never did it to the girls. She left at the end of the summer term unannounced.

I remember this happening with my friends who’d just qualified as drs in the early 2000s! They even had drops set up and would go straight to work after an all nighter. I remember all the cardiologists doing coke and once a pt noticed some white stuff under his nose and asked what it was! Don’t know what he said.

😂thank you! It is well known that people in healthcare like a good time. They have to deal with all that stress. I'm not condoning it but it definitely happens!

Exploring an old underground air raid shelter in the grounds of a local orthopedic hospital when I was about 8 or 9. Playing on a building site.

We did it in the 80s , trips out with neighbours we were small so sat in the boot

Dad nipping in to the local for a sneaky pint and leaving me in the car and bringing out a coke and packet of crisps for me and neither of us telling my mum about it 😂

I’m a retired nurse from the same era as your mum. At Christmas we had an empty side room set up as a buffet area containing loads of food and drink so we could celebrate Christmas while at work. Every ward did the same and we and the doctors used to visit each others wards. I don’t recall anyone ever getting drunk while on duty.

Getting served vodka and black at 14 down the local labour club

Our local church used to lock the gates whilst the marriage ceremony was happening. The bride and groom had to pay to get out. Maybe a Yorkshire (Menston) village thing?

@thenightsky I was in the north east of Scotland!

I was taking my neighbour’s baby for a walk when I was like 9-10! That was back in 1990. The mother was always so grateful. I’m still good friends with “the baby” 😀 amazing how much trust people had in kids back in the days.
swimming in the river since age of 7 - I went with another neighbour who had 5 kids herself to watch and she couldn’t even swim 🤦🏻‍♀️
driving on my mums lap, although went to Caribbean recently and it’s still like that over there.

My DP remembers being sat in his parents car with his brother/cousins, a bottle of pop and a packet of crisps

I was raised by my mum as a single parent and had help from my nan.

I remember being force fed.
I remember foods where the smell made me nauseous and being told I had to eat it and would eat it cold if I was at the table long enough. Once, my mum replaced dinner with a jam sandwich. I didn't like jam. I was labelled as a fussy eater. Actually I was living with ADHD and that I had sensory issues.

I asked my mum if she thought I was pretty and she said pretty ugly.
At 7 years old with wonky brown hair and a wonky eye when I smiled and with the ideation that the epitome ofa pretty girl child was blonde curly hair and blue eyes which obviously I was not..... I didn't know my mum was joking.
I've had self esteem issues for most of my life and have been working on my inner child and issues from in my head and I had a conversation with my mum about things she said and did that weren't ok. I don't blame her. Not one little bit. She was trying to get me fed like her mum had done to her (I thank god I didn't have to eat tripe 🤮). And she was joking when she said pretty ugly. I know she did her absolute best for me and I wasn't a particular easy child/teen/young adults.
I had other rejection issues by the time I was 12 and the voice in my head (nasty Nancy) was beginning to establish herself.*
I rebelled by the time I was 14.

Now I have a child who will only eat certain foods and will not try anything else. I did think shall I just give him what I've made and tell him it's that or nothing, but I know how emotional it will get for him and I can't put my children through what I went through. I'm so aware and anxious of them growing up and being traumatised by something I've said or done.

*I've fucked her off completely now thanks to my therapist

I was 15 dating a 21 year old (90’s), my dm remembers having a bf with a car at age 14 (60’s). Both would - rightly - be considered safeguarding concerns now.

sitting in the back of an open pickup truck for short journeys
I’d never let my children do such a thing!

It was commonly assumed in some circles that I was dating an older man - I wasn’t, he was a friend. However, I don’t think that friendship would be considered so innocent today.

Our science teacher used to slap people across the face. Proper hard slaps. 1988.

My best scramble was early 70s outside my grans,I was the only kid there.
That was only bonus,it was devoid of other kids during school holidays so no one to play with when I was minded whilst parents were at work.

I'm a 70s kid ,some teachers were brutal in their treatment of children.
The belt was used I remember both hands being so bruised I couldn't hold a pen.
Some of them should've been nowhere near children.

Corporal punishment wasn't banned in state schools until 1987. 1999 for private ones. I was in a private school in the 90s and can remember the cane being used four times while I was there (for drug dealing, sexually assaulting another pupil etc - only serious stuff).

I remember boredom. I don't think kids expect to cope with a moment of it, ever, these days. And a lot of their parents don't seem to think they should have to, ever. I remember having to wait if I wanted attention and my parents were occupied, and not being allowed to interrupt when adults were talking. Not ideas that seem to exist much now. I remember not being allowed to wake my parents - no noise to be made if I was up before them, even aged 2 or 3. Nobody ever believes me when I say that now - they seem to think it's literally impossible to give an instruction like that to a toddler and have it obeyed (it would never have crossed my mind that disobeying my father was an option). I didn't know other people did things any differently. I remember being effectively alone in the day quite a lot (again, at 2 or 3) because mum was at work and dad had been on night shift and was asleep.

Snap on the seatbelts, and the smoking. Has anything changed with smoking, though? I don't know a lot of smokers, but don't they usually smoke in their own homes / cars, regardless of whether the kids are about? Or are people really going outside to smoke, in their own houses...?

That’s so true about boredom. Kids (and adults) are addicted to screens nowadays. Was at the theatre recently, and in the queue for the toilet, many people immediately got their phones out. It hit me then how addicted everyone was.

1. sitting in the boot of the car going down the motorway if we were going on holiday with grandparents. All in all seven of us in the car.
2. being allowed to sit on the floor of the caravan while it was towed.
3. being pulled around a field on a tractor tyre tied to the tow hitch of a tractor with a rope.
4. Giving "backies" to your mates for miles on country lanes to give them a lift home.
5. looking after four children on a regular basis at age 12- saved my auntie a fortune in childcare.
6. being allowed to take four kids out for a full day. 7)no bike helmets.
7. climbing up a tree with a rope and jumping out of it hanging onto the end.
8. camping out in a field with friends age 11.
9. taking jam butties to school each day it'd cause uproar now.
10. picking up four year old kid sister from reception age 7 and walking home on our own. God I loved my childhood or maybe I was just very neglected.

We had 7 of us in the car too but at some point my parents got boot seats installed in the boot (volvo estate) with seatbelts so it was safe. I loved sitting in the boot on long trips on motorways, me and my brother would wave at the cars behind us and count and how many waved back at us - one trip home from Scotland we counted over 500 people waved at us!