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 😂

I am a mid 70s child and I remember the same ! I used to sit in the boot of our estate car for many years as the car was too small to fit my mum, dad, grandma and my little sister and me ! I remember the same as others where my dad would have to drive around for hours trying to find a family friendly pub as most didnt allow kids. (do you remember the family rooms?). I recall playing with my sister and friends on my street with "cap" guns as we played cops and robbers. No mobile phones yet me and my cousins would go out all day - as long as we were back in time for tea or dusk then no problem. I used to go into Rochdale and Manchester shopping on a bus (age 10) - no way that would happen in 2025. I love planes and when i was 10-12 I used to go into Manchester and get the airport bus and watch the planes (used to be able to wander around the terminal and sit by the windows). I did once get told off my a police officer and got thrown out of the airport!

My husband has always smoked outside in our house. When he started vaping instead he had the crazy idea he'd be allowed to do that in the house. Hahaha! Silly boy. It's bad enough when he fills his vape up instead.

One of his family members just lights up in people's homes. He knows my husband vapes ourside so why he thought smoking in our house would be ok is bizarre. He doesn't come round ours very often but when he did start smoking inside I was too surprised to say anything and annoyed with my husband for not saying anything. I'll ask him to go outside if he tries it again.

The smokers I know go outside their house to smoke. They don't want smells and nicotine stained ceilings

Huh, interesting. The ones I know insist it can't be smelt at all and the rest of us would never know they were smokers if we hadn't seen them - because they shower and change clothes daily etc. They are mistaken.

This was in 1994 so at a time when it definitely shouldn’t have been allowed, our teacher used lots of cruel punishments (we were 10/11 last year of primary) for minor misbehaviours or even just not knowing the answers to questions. Some of them included getting some of the children who where small height wise to stand on chairs and flick lights on and off, getting us to kneel on concrete floor outside and do lines using chairs as desks, hitting us, throwing one child from one end of the hall to another and he would threaten us to not tell our parents-which none of us did as we were all petrified of him! It was only a few years later we all realised how wrong it was.

Used to be out in our bikes in the forest with a picnic lunch. aged 8 and 9
being left at the local outdoor pool to play for hours while mum visited my brother in hospital aged 10.

going to guide camp in the back of a lorry sat on our bedding rolls.

This is visiting family in a foreign country but getting to drive a car and fire a gun aged 10! Didn't want to leave.

Travelling to and around London from Hertfordshire on a Red Bus Rover ticket with a friend when we were both just 12. Had a great time until I remember being on Oxford Street lost not knowing how to get home, then seeing a bus to East Ham where my grandparents lived. Made it to them, but my father had to come and bring us home.

My friends lived in Spain. Their 6 year went on summer camp ( overnight) did shooting and sailing etc. Had a wonderful time.

We had an elderly male neighbour, he lived alone and I'm guessing he was in his late 70s/early 80s and we would knock on his door and sit in his front room with him eating boiled sweets. I don't think our parents knew him or where we were.
He didn't do anything to us apart from ply us with sugar.

Mini pops. Tv series that dressed kids as pop stars, make up, heels this was mid 80s. Things that are now classified as crimes - hate crimes. Aka using ablist etc language. On a lighter note - concrete play equipment abd witches hats - banned rightly now

Oxford Street to East Ham. The number 15. I remember Red Rovers. We used to be out and about with them in the school holidays when I was eleven/twelve. I’m glad I grew up in an age in which independence was encouraged. It makes you much better prepared for life.

We called this scrambles in Scotland. I so wanted to do it when I got married 6 years ago but there's just no kids hanging around the streets any more to collect them and when I suggested doing it on my wedding forum and asked if anyone else was doing it, people responded like I was a total wierdo.

Practical joke items were popular at junior school: one of them was a trick dagger with a retractable blade, which looked alarmingly realistic, with a very shiny blade. One child brought one to school, nobody batted an eyelid. No way could that happen today. When I had one, my grandad told me to pretend to be a burglar, and approach him with it, so that he could demonstrate defending himself with a dining chair.

Prams outside shops.

I only had the belt once, but the ruler across the hands umpteen times - all the same teacher, academic year '69-'70. Old witch.

The belt was administered after she'd said "The next one to talk gets the belt."

The girl next to me asked "Can I get a loan of your rubber?'

"Yes."

That was enough for the belt.

Corporal punishment still existed when I was a student teacher 14 yrs later. That was when I discovered that - according to the rule book - it could only be administed as a last resort. (There were gasps all round the lecture hall when we heard that one!)

It was a "scoor oot" in Fife. I had one at the house and at the church when I got married in '94.

My year one teacher openly said that she would rather just teach girls. On our birthdays we could choose 6 claps or 6 smacks. The girls always chose claps apart from one. The boys would always choose smacks, they would be teased if they didn't. One boy in our class was a bit of a nightmare and the teacher used to say she was looking forward to his birthday so she could smack him!

My PE teacher married a student who had just graduated. (Late 80s).

In the late 70s/early 80s, we had a car with a roomy back space and windows. My dad put a mattress there and because I often became carsick, I would just spend long trips just sleeping there.

@Couleur Yes, it was not unusual for teachers to have relationships with pupils. Admittedly, the relationship often (officially) started after the pupil had left school, but as I’m typing this, I can think of three teachers who married ex-students (1980s).

Our art teacher got engaged to a girl in the sixth form (late 1970s).

Wow.

My OH's uncle was a headteacher at a school in the 60s. He regularly had to give the cane to the pupils including his own sons who went to the school. He's a lovely bloke & hated doing it

My OH's uncle was a headteacher at a school in the 60s. He regularly had to give the cane to the pupils including his own sons who went to the school. He's a lovely bloke & hated doing it

Someone else touched on this. But girls of 14-15 having relationships with men well into their twenties. Amazing how blase teachers and parents seemed about it. Especially how boastful the girls were about it. The worst part is, a lot of them looked and acted their age. So no excuse.