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 😂

Oh we did that....I thought it was the legacy of Irish parents!!!

The casual violence and the ever-present threat of more violence. Your mum hit you with a wooden spoon or other kitchen implement. Your father hit you with bare hands/fist. The primary teachers hit everyone with leather straps or a cane or slipper, e.g. being strapped for not finishing your lunch in the school canteen. And you couldn't tell your parents you'd been strapped or they might hit you again. This was early 80's, continuing to 1985. And naturally, the kids all hit each other, because what other example had they ever been set. You'd see someone beaten up, or strapped, and hope you wouldn't be next.
In secondary the tone shifted from violence to verbal abuse and belittling. And we were told, for example, that masturbation and contraception were both sins, and the best you could hope for was a long stretch in purgatory. And lets not forget that six-monthly highlight - confessing your sins to the creepy old guy in the dark room and him telling you what punishment you deserved.

10 adults and kids crammed in a car coming back from the seaside.
No seat belts of kids' car seats.

One of the play activities on offer at my infant school was a sort of woodwork area in a little courtyard where kids aged 4 were allowed to use hammers, nails, saws and chisels entirely unsupervised on random wood offcuts

My son's nursery allowed them to do this. And that was only 8 years ago. I thought it was bloody brilliant and still do.

Kids are capable of more than we think. We just don't let them learn to be capable anymore. We assume they are incapable.

Slept under table in the pub every Friday night.

This is the best @GettingMySpringOn

I remember sleeping across chairs in the pub and being covered in a coat until it was time for my dad to drive us all home (pissed).

Red wine with a bit of lemonade at my granny’s Sunday lunch from a young age, tapping down the tobacco in my dad’s pipe, my mum sending me on school trips with salad cream or lettuce sandwiches (not a money thing, she was just relatively ambivalent about appropriate sandwich fillings), and being driven to primary school on a snow day bouncing round in the trailer of a tractor. Ah, halcyon days!

Being 5/6 at school and a little girl wetting her self in assembly. We were all sat cross legged so the puddle spread. Our teacher (Mrs Adam’s) picked her up by one arm and whipped her arse physically pushing her out of the sea of children as she did so.

it would’ve only been 1985 ish. Corporal punishment wasn’t allowed, obviously. Amazing what teachers got away with

Kids were just kicked out of school from infant school age upwards, en masse and the teachers stayed in the school and shut the door behind you. No one checked if your parents collected you. It was just trusted that you got home safely.

My Dad played a sport in the summer so me & my friends who went with their dad's had to amuse ourselves. We used to go play in the next field, quite a way away from any adults. We weren't allowed to walk around to the nearby playground because we had to cross several roads so we used to gp over the stream by climbing on the outside of the ralings over the pedestrian bridge (to get to the main part of the bridge we'd need to go the way we weren't allowed to) and get to the playground that way! My Mum only found this out recently too....

Haha we're not Irish but maybe it was a generation thing?! I don't remember my Gran's dog ever being fed dog food either?! I'm sure he just ate whatever we were all eating! He also never got walked (or even had a lead). My gran just used to open the front door and off he would run and come back at some point 😂

In a sleeping bag on the parcel shelf as my brothers and cousin took up the back seats late at night on the way back from a day out to see Blackpool illuminations.

My parents worked overseas so I boarded in the UK. From age 10 I flew long hual unaccompanied sometimes with connections to other airlines along the way.

We had a teacher who would invite us over to his house and give us brandy and cigars. This was known by other teachers and was considered fine.

Mum and Dad used to keep us up til midnight/1am when we went the caravan at weekends. They'd be getting drunk and we'd all be in a smoky nightclub/pub.

I remember this too. On the M62 to Leeds so we could fit nanna and auntie in the car. I travelled in the boot waving to passing cars. I loved it 😂

Going from Essex into London to the National Army Museum summer school every day on my own by train and tube aged 7,8,9,10

Going to visit my German penpal on my own by plane & train at age 13

Corporal punishment at school ranging from the most minor of infractions from one vile bully of a teacher, through to just about never ages 5-18

My son's nursery also do this, and were specifically praised for it by Ofsted last year! To be fair they are very much not unsupervised with the tools, though I suspect many of the kids think they are.

Omg we did red wine and lemonade too. And snowballs (avocat and lemonade) was thd children's Christmas drink 😂

Ah I am so glad I started this thread. It's made me feel all warm and nostalgic 😊I can't decide whether these things were actually dangerous or whether we're just ridiculously OTT on health and safety these days?!

But regardless, they bring back really happy memories from good times ❤

Three of us on one bike.........one on the seat pedalling, one on the handlebars and one on the rack over the rear mudguard.........and in the dark too.

True. But I was only around 10!

My cousins & I used to also play a game of 'who can run the closest across the road infront of a vehicle without getting run over'

Oh yes... that was the highlight of the year for us!!!

Oh yes, the shots of alcohol as remedies! If we came in cold after riding our ponies, the Irish yard manager would give us tots of brandy to warm up. We'd cycle home afterwards as well. Surprised we didn't wobble off.

My husband and his SEN sister sat on deckchairs in the back of their dad’s van.

Teachers digging for splinters with a rusty old pin !

I got caught in a drugs raid in a pub at 15 in the 70's. Fortunately my glass had just been taken from the table. Underage drinking was rife