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 😂

Wow.
My mum came with me to some of my open days but I went to at least one alone, staying overnight too. My parents did not involve themselves at all after that except my mum dropping me off with my things.

It's lovely to be able to let them off on their own , 2 of mine drive now so they are more than able to get around but the road is so dangerous with trucks and farm equipment walking and cycling certain patches are terrible . There's no where to stand in

This raises an interesting point. In secondary school, we did French exchange. Kids went to another country and stayed with random families nobody knew anything about. I never went, myself, Mum worked and didn't want an extra child as her responsibility when nobody would be at home immediately after school, but as far as I know, no background checks were done on host families on either side of the channel. All we had to do was get a form signed giving permission and agreeing to host.

I don't have DC so I don't know how it works now, but I am guessing that if French Exchange is still a thing, there must be some sort of vetting.

My parents had an estate car and my sister and I often sat in the boot!!!

Rural areas are much more dangerous I think. I drive through a village every day and I always think if I lived there I wouldn't feel comfortable letting my children walk or bike anywhere until teenagers at least because the cars go so fast and there's no pavements, just ditches on either side of the road so can't stand on the verge either.

I'm going to practice the walk to school with him this summer as he'll have to walk it alone (or with friends) in the autumn, not too far, only 20 minutes, but some of it has no pavements so he needs to practice safely walking on the side of the road, and on the correct side.

My daughter is doing a German exchange and I have no idea yet how it'll work (not for another 2 years though, this year they chose their penpals and started exchanging letters)

That's already a change, if it's planned that far in advance. We used to get asked if we wanted to do it at the start of term and it would be happening the next term.

They do it as a 3 year project with letters the first year, increased interaction in the 2nd and the exchange itself in the final year. But we weren't asked about taking part, they just picked one class from the year group (DD was so happy her class was picked!). I suppose permission for the actual exchange will be sought closer to the time.

Going to Northern soul niters 700 miles round trips from our home city in NE Scotland aged 17.

My uncle had a car with a padded space between the two front seats. When he and my dad took me out places, I sat on it so that I was 'in the front'. Couple of hours down to my nan's on A-roads. One sharp brake and I'd've gone straight through the windscreen.

Do they not still do that??? (university interview by yourself, I mean!)

Are parents expected to go
too now?

My DC has done a Spanish exchange. I had to do a DBS check, but there was no equivalent vetting of the parents of their exchange student, because the DBS system doesn't apply in Spain.

Wow, that does feel like mollycoddling and not a helpful start to living more independently as a student! (except those who need extra support, obviously) I was on my own with my uni applications! (mid-80s)

We lived in Kuwait, on the edge of town with the desert just yards away.
My brother would regularly go out looking for snakes and insects. He was actually bitten on the hand by a snake, a horned viper I think, and another time my mother was rinsing out a pair of his shorts and sound a live scorpion in the pockets. And yet another time a small centipede.
God knows how he survived but he's actually a very sensible adult now, although still a bit of a petrol head, as was our Dad.
I just used to sneak out into the desert at night to meet boys...

I have fond memories of travelling in my friends empty horse trailer home from the stables when I was a young teen. I can't believe her dad just let us travel in there!
I've just purchased my own horse trailer and simply can't even contemplate allowing a child or two to ride in there 😂

Me, siblings and cousins used to ride in the boot of my family members estate car with zero seatbelts at all. Great fun back then but doesn’t feel safe now thinking back. Good times though.

Aged 3yrs I sat on a tyre between the two front seats in my dad's mini van, I learnt to hold on tightly as otherwise I would slide to the back and hit the doors. Mum had my baby sister on her lap on the front seat, no seat belt.

Aged 3yrs I sat on a tyre between the two front seats in my dad's mini van, I learnt to hold on tightly as otherwise I would slide to the back and hit the doors. Mum had my baby sister on her lap on the front seat, no seat belt.

In primary school, the teachers used to lead all of the kids to the big hall and we would watch "food and drink" everyday. Half of it was about wine and what foods it goes well with and the flavour of wine.

Another car one... Normal size car, myself plus 2 cousins in the front passenger seat
(all teenagers), & all our mum's plus another aunty in the back (so 4 in the back) - my poor Uncle, (the only male) who was driving did get a few 'hoots' driving us round Glasgow .... no seat belts or air bags back then....we did live to tell the tale. 🤫. (I don't actually think that would have been illegal at the time).

• Smoking sections on planes / trains
• being smacked with “The Wooden Spoon” (for some reason there was a specific, designated spoon..
• Hearing that “children should be seen and not heard” (or the spoon would come out)
• at any BBQ with family friends, all small children were guaranteed to be chasing each other in the dark brandishing long, flaming sticks

We regularly travelled with 3 in the back and 2 in the boot and if anyone wanted a lift they crouched in the footwell.

Buying ten Benson and hedges with coppers ,they cost about 32p when I was ten or eleven oh and they were for my pals and me to puff.

Took the bus to and from school on my own from the age of 5. Mum put me on the bus and met me off the bus but I had to negotiate getting myself into school and out again to the bus stop completely on my own.
Going out in the school lunch hour at the age of 7 to go to the newsagent for my teacher to get his cigarettes.
Most of my childhood was one huge health and safety risk by present standards.

Back in the early 90’s, my nursery nurse colleague 😳 had a wooden spoon named ‘Woody’ that she used to hit her children with.