To ask for your 80s/90s childhood memories

[Taptaptapster]

I've been reading the current thread about things that were different about childhood in the past, but most of the posters are talking about the 60s and 70s (I guess the Mumsnet demographic skews older than I imagine it!).

I was born in the 80s, and while some stuff about my childhood was different, it was nothing like as extreme as the posts on that thread.

For example

• we played out, but not far from home and my parents always knew where we were
• we had child car seats and always used seatbelts
• nobody in my family smoked. At primary, I think teachers smoked in the staffroom, but never in front of the kids. By secondary , they had to hide somewhere off site.
• I was smacked if I was naughty, but never experienced any of the crazy violence described on the other thread.

So, tell me your 80s and 90s childhood memories. AIBU to think we were the luckiest generation of all??

Home from school and switching on the broom cupboard. Watched all the programmes and then when the Flintstines finished we played out. Tea was crispy pancakes, grill steaks or shepherds pie. Chips made in the chip pan until mum upgraded to the deep fat fryer. Instant whip was a popular pudding or arctic roll. Special occasions we had vianetta or Sarah Lee.
We played out and just had a set time to be home by. We could use the phone but had to put 10p in a tin. The phone was on a special telephone table in the hall.
Sunday could be quite boring. Not much on TV so I read a lot or did crafts.
On a Saturday we’d go to town and spend all day there. We would go to Etam, Tammy girl, C and A etc and Athena for posters.
Most people in my family smoked. Teachers definitely did. I was smacked occasionally and as a consequence never smacked my own.
We had no child car seats and didn’t really think anything of that. We didn’t have seatbelts in the back of the car at all.
Mum got most of our clothes from the Grattan catalogue. When a new one arrived we would be very excited to look through it.
School was rubbish. Never did practice questions for our exams or extra revision sessions - you just got on with it. Many teachers couldn’t care less. Lessons were mainly read a textbook then answer the questions.
Summer holidays my parents worked so we were left on our own with a plate of sandwiches and a jug of squash and strict instructions to not answer door or phone. This was from a very young age and would most definitely be a problem today.

Born in the early 90s. Always played out with friends, went home to eat, no phones, walked to and from school from a young age. Parents smoked, I used to get sent to the shop to buy them! Smacked if I was naughty. Vivid memories of going on holiday and sitting in the footwell of the car! I have extremely fond memories of my childhood and would love to go back and do it all again.

Born very early 80s. I sat in the middle seat without a seatbelt so I could lean into the front and see out better. I remember when seatbelts started being used in the back. Late 80s? I was desperate for a boggle. Had a cabbage patch kid and later loved garbage pail kids cards. Roamed freely around neighbouring villages. Got smacked a lot. In the 90s, used to get a babycham in my xmas stocking. Spent hours on the landline. Parents never knew where I was (and I mostly didn't know where they were either).

Born early 80s. Lived in a village surrounded by woods. Roamed everywhere, often a few miles from home deep into the woods. Made bow and arrows out of sticks, made walking sticks and varnished them, built things, dens, go karts, played imaginary games pretending to be in different worlds (inspired by dungeons and dragons cartoon), took all the cushions off the sofa to play, slid down the stairs on them, stacked them and ran and jumped on them, watching Crossroads in the afternoons with my dad when he was on late shift, being home alone with my brother, Saturday night television - gladiators, Baywatch, blind date, Sunday roast at the table every Sunday, had the BEST headteacher at primary school. If it was sunny he would always abandon lessons and take us outside for games/sports, he would start a snowball fight on the rare occasion it snowed, he would pretend to be a terrible loser and would always try and cheat in games. When we had school discos the games would involve things like rolled up newspaper batons, one person blind folded sat in the middle of the room, the school bell underneath. Everyone else had to try and ring the bell while they were wildly smashing the shit out of us with the newspaper baton. Trying to eat a chocolate bar with a knife and fork whilst wearing gloves, hat and scarf, paper fish trying to get them across the floor with out touching them. Indoor hockey, with all the tables pushed back. Outdoor toilets at school, in stormy weather and older kid had to escort a younger kid outside and round to the toilet ‘block’, tracing paper toilet paper.

Loving reading all these memories! I had a more sheltered childhood than lots being described on here, but still more independence from a younger age than my own kids will likely have. It's fascinating.

Cycled or walked everywhere even though we lived rurally but the buses were crap. Parents never knew where we were but we roamed the fields and common as a group getting up to no good from about 9 years onwards.

watched Baywatch and The Goonies on repeat (vhs)

got the train to the nearest big city to go swimming on Saturdays of roller skating. My friend and I caused as whole city bomb scare there once because we couldn’t be bothered to carry our swim kits around the shops so ‘hid’ them in a car park and the bomb squad was dispatched

when our parents went out they’d get a load of us kids (maybe 3/4 families worth of kids) to sleep in one house and only pay for ONE babysitter between them all. They’d be 10 kids going bananas all night
it was a lot of fun but I cannot believe my parents thought it was ok for some poor 16 yr old babysitter to look after us.

no one smoked but my parents were vegetarian and all my friends thought it was the weirdest thing and teased me about it

Not knowing that there was telly on Saturday mornings until I was 8 (1978). We were out and it was raining, so a couple of kids asked us back to theirs; I mean I'd heard of colour telly!

Roaming the streets, woody areas, playing fields from about 6 or 7. Everyone smoking and feeling sick in the car from it. I remember my dad getting a new car and my mam moaning because she had to wear a seat belt - 1975.

Getting belted for minor things.

Asking my mother if we could watch telly the next Saturday and being told,

"Ah, no. You can't get Saturday morning telly on a black and white." It made perfect sense, because ours was a dial tuner, but the Kilby's colour set had buttons!

@PineappleChicken I remember games like that. There was also a game at home I remember fondly, for which I was sat in a chair outside, which was lifted into the air and I was told I was flying, with the tiny scenery below described. I was only a few inches up, but I was blindfolded, so it felt like I was a long way up. A book would be gently lowered on to my head, and I was told it was the sky. If I was feeling really brave, the adults would get me to stand on the chair before it was lifted, then to jump off, on to the lawn: and it would feel like I was jumping miles.

There was a squicky game that sometimes came up at parties: each child was blindfolded in turn, and taken into a room to feel Nelson's coat and hat, and then Nelson's eye... which would be poking their finger into jelly, or the centre of a cucumber.

Less light hearted, and I mentioned it on the other thread: going on a residential trip with a youth group when I was six, and my dad went as a helper, and slept in one of the boys' dormitories (unthinkable now). We left after only one night; and many years later, he told me that the teenage helpers were having sex with each other in the children's dormitories in the daytime, and some of the children knew this.

Police visiting our primary school, demonstrating the police dog catching a robber, handcuffing the teacher, and passing round the truncheon for us to have a feel.

In the early 90's I lived on a kind of big cul de sac with a large green in the middle. There were more than 100 houses and a group of around 20 of us kids aged between 10 and 16 who all hung out together. I remember huge water fights, playing manhunt and hiding in bushes, giggling for hours, camping out overnight on the green in sight of our parents front windows (but with just enough privacy for spin the bottle!) and spending whole days in the local woods building dens.

I'm so glad I grew up in the 80's and 90's and didn't get a mobile till I was 18, I dread to think of all the embarrassing photos or videos that would be floating around the internet if I'd been born even a few years later.

I remember playing in the back garden with siblings. We used to make ramps and yse my dads wheel barrow to ride up and down them.

Used to ride my bike up and down when my dad was out the front /gardening.

Around the age of 10/11 me and friends used to go over the sports club and get chased of by the grounds man in his car . We used to hide under weeping willows . Climb trees. Play tennis in the tennis court . Till we got caught by the groundsman. Sneak past my house with friends to ride scramblers up the green.

Home when the lights came on. Or in a friends house. And then the parents would watch me up the risk to make sure i got in the house.

Doing paper round for older siblings. Car washing for a few pounds.

Oh and when parents were at work and we were looked after by older siblings. We would play games where we would climb in the downstairs window. Jump on the arm chair and tip it backwards run up stairs . Climb out the window into the balcony thingy . And jump down.

Oh and nattress ot sleeping bag and pulled down the stairs.

Also going to a common to play rounders/cricket with cousins in their car and sitting in the boot.

Me too!! (born 1973)

I've been reading the current thread about things that were different about childhood in the past, but most of the posters are talking about the 60s and 70s (I guess the Mumsnet demographic skews older than I imagine it!).

It definitely does, there was a thread saying similar the other day. do you think other people our age use different platforms?

Mid 80s - inner London

Played out with neighbours kids but stuck to front gardens/our road.
Woolworths on the high street - loved it.
I remember seatbelts and youngest sibling had a booster. Also remember quashing with other dc for rides/lying down in the boot.
Parents were social smokers but I never saw it. Isn't it weird that it was so normal to see people smoking in the street & now I hardly ever see it?
Having to wait to use the phone if someone was on the internet.
Loved after school cartoons - gummi bears, dungeons & dragons etc.
Parents are immigrants - smacking was normal. Didn't harm me in the slightest.
Flying to Europe for cheap late 90s.

A massive change today for me is just how much time mothers are in particular meant to spend with & entertaining their dc. My mum didn't work for years but she wasn't crafting & baking with us daily!

Doing PE in vests & knickers at primary school!

I think I had a wonderful childhood & despite it being a bit rough in my area (saw drugs, prostitution, etc) I actually feel I was pretty sheltered compared to my dc.

In summer, lots of us wore trainers without socks, as children and teenagers.

Yeah, they probably do. Anyone with 60s/70s childhood memories is is in their 50s or 60s now, so maybe these people had young kids when it first started and kept using it?

Millennial parents are probably mostly on Instagram getting terrified about traumatising their kids by doing stuff out parents thought was totally normal.

I was born in the 70s. I was never smacked. Never saw a teacher smoke, we had a very healthy diet (with no E numbers!) and we grew a lot of our own food. My mum worked. We did spend most of the day playing outdoors though and would often range for miles. Everyone’s upbringing varies and can’t be homogenised into eras.

Oh, and my youngest is 12. I’ve been using Mumsnet on and off for 15 years. It’s lovely that newer mums are still discovering the old nest of vipers 😉

I was born in the late 70s. The Charles & Di wedding is one of my first memories. I remember big hair and my mums bedroom stinking of hairspray and mousse.
Jumpsuits were a thing in the 80s, alongside people trying to be the opposite sex.
Neon socks.
Leg warmers.
The dial phone on a shelf in the hallway.
Noel bloody Edmonds and Mr sodding blobby.
My gran loved Jim'll Fix it and Wrestling. Giant Haystacks! Also snooker and darts on tbe telly. (?)
Blackboards! Then...Whiteboards!
The telly on a trolley being brought out at school
Maggie bloody Thatcher.
Holidays in the UK because we couldn't afford one abroad. Then.. waterlogged tents and playing cards in cold caravans.
I had a pager!
You came in from playing when then street lights went out.
If your mum didn't know where you were she had a phone book full of numbers to call and eventually you were found. Damn the community!
Cash was the primary way to buy things.
Mum made a lot of my clothes in the 80s. She still knits for her grown up grandkids now. You only bought clothes if you had money put away.
Boys who wore an earring in the wrong ear were gay.
Push pops. Apple Cubes. Nerds!
Fashions come back. In 1994 I was in DM boots, lots of tartan, baggy shirts, very baggy jeans, wore skirts with boots, stuff off Camden market, basically. Guess what my 18 year old is wearing??

I love how everyone here (me too, I'm a child of the 80s/90s) is listing off outdoor, social, nature-based activities, with cute little toys, events, etc...

But if you asked people in 2035 how they spent their 2025 time, it would be "sat on a couch, scrolled..."

To be fair, the game boy came out in 1989 and I was desperate to get one. My parents refused. Eventually, I played Tetris on a large home computer and was pretty good at it age about 11 from memory.
I was also really desperate for some Levi 501 jeans in my early teens which I eventually got for Christmas and wore solidly for years. I also had a skater phase and a skateboard and some VANS as a tween.
I remember loving scouting and I think we had more freedom in those days, even with the scouts. Or maybe it was just young leaders primarily. Cannot remember adults featuring as much as these days.

I was born in 1980. We played out all the time. My mum never knew exactly where I was but she knew the general area (very quiet village though). My parents both smoked and it was very much just a part of life. Not sure how many teachers smoked but there was a rumour the caretaker set a bin on fire by chucking his cigarette in.
The year after I was born my dad got his first car with rear seatbelts which was a new experience for my siblings.
I wouldn't want to grow up now. There was less peer pressure and no-one had mobiles.
I know we all rely on technology now but reckon it's ruined kid's childhood.

I was born mid 80s. We lived on a busy road so we weren't really allowed to play out (could rollerskate on the driveway of the mechanics garage next door and round the grounds of the church on the other side, which my dad was the vicar of so we could also take the keys and play in the hall inside, playing table tennis, pool, flying paper aeroplanes) though when we got a bit older (i was 10 maybe, my brother 2 years older) we could rollerskate to a nearby carpark to play street hockey and from 11ish we could walk to town alone (we could wander around town by ourselves younger than that but walked there and back with our parents - going to town was a thing pretty much every Saturday)

However, when we went on holiday we were allowed to roam freely even much younger. Have very fond memories of exploring Dutch towns with my brother on our bikes or roaming forests and climbing massive rocks and fishing in lakes in Finland, all completely unsupervised.

We wore seatbelts when there was a seat belt for everyone but we also squashed more people in the car than seats. When I was very little we had a Lada for 7 people - 4 kids on the backseat and one in the boot

Parents never smiled and we ate healthy home cooked meals.