Was childhood it better back in the day or was it insanely dangerous?

[FleetFootedJanet]

I grew up in the 80s. My group of friends were the boys and girls who lived on our street and surrounding street. We went out for hours, with those friends with no adult supervision, and played in the streets or gardens. We also, when slightly older, went further afield.

I distinctly remember one occasion when we played on a building site close to our house, when they were building an extension to the estate where we lived. We also used to “sail” on the old canal using whatever we could find, and played on a bit of disused land next to an old car park.

I don’t know, but I sense that kids don’t do stuff like that now. DD is quite young but the idea she’d play in the canal or on a building site seems mad, even though I did it and have fond memories of exploring and doing all that stuff. I’m still friends with a good proportion of those kids who I played with back then.

So was it better? Or was it insanely dangerous, and I’m lucky to have made it to adulthood? Did it give us something kids now don’t have - are they missing out? Or am I just getting old and nostalgic?

Oh my god I'd forgotten going over the top on the swings 😄

and the gocarts that we hurtled down the steepest roads we could find till we always fell off at high speed - so much lost skin from that

The ice slides we made on pavements as well - we got clipped round the ear for creating a hugely dangerous slalom one winter - no-one could get to the shop

I've just remembered - I've still got a scar the size of a 50p on my knee because I fell on it so much it didn't heal for 2 years at one point - there was so much grit in it. Cotton wool soaked in dettol and boiling water daily pressed onto it with tweezers was my mums remedy for that. God that hurt 😨

Child of the 80s.

A friend died walking to school. Crossing a 40 mph road. He was 7!

From about age 8 or 9 we had freedom to explore the countryside on the edge of town. Turns out there was a future (or past who knows) child killer living very nearby.

My DC were lucky to grow up still playing out. But they are severely lacking social sills and independence in their teens now! And the online world scares me on their behalf.

So I think I’d quite like a middle road.

I was chatting to a colleague a while back, and she reckon her dd was two years behind where she was at that stage (dd aged around 19) in terms of independence and experience.

Glaswegian living in South of England. It's not you know. The children living beside me playing out and about just like I did as a child and my children did in Glasgow. They have started going in earlier now that the schools are back though sadly, but I have seen them all get up to the same games children everywhere get up to throughout the summer ... hide and seek, dens , rounders etc( see it when walking my dog )

It was drilled and I mean really drilled into us at school that we must never play on the railway line or swim in the quarry. They didn’t seem so bothered about the canal or the river although my DM told me not to play near the river until I had my Gold survival swimming badge. One boy ran across the dual carriage way and was killed. So we all knew not to do that although I did i guess that could still happen today.

I think parents smoking and letting us ride in the boot of an estate car was far more dangerous than anything we got up to while playing out unsupervised.

Chip pan fires and chimney fires were a thing. I remember having both in our little house.

I was born in the 60s and had a typically dangerous childhood. Only 1 of all my my classmates throughout school died and that was because she was driving aged 18 on a dual carriageway. She was hit by a car that was coming up the slip road and he went into the side of her. She was the kindest most decent person you could wish to meet. I still think about her now.

My sister got badly scalded in a chip pan incident. And we had chimney fires almost every year!

We had more freedom and virtually no supervision so we went and did whatever we liked,we weren't supposed to play on building sites or in abandoned old houses , old railway lines, swim in rivers, take sweets or money from strangers but we did. We always had a gang of kids of all ages from tots to teens to play with & nobody was ever left on their own, we all looked out for each other and luckily no major accidents or incidents occurred, we were very, very lucky indeed.

We spent way more time unsupervised and outdoors. That worked then but can't now. If I look at photos of our street - out of about 120 houses, only about twelve had cars. Now all houses have a car, some have two. The amount of traffic on the roads makes playing out a lot more dangerous.

Where I live there is a small council housing estate with big patches of grass. The kids play out until dusk. They chalk the pavements, they build ramps for their bikes - most importantly - the toddlers are supervised by the eight year olds who interact with the tweens. They are not stuck in a single age friendship dynamic. I often think they have a way more interesting childhood than the better off DC with scheduled activities and secluded gardens.