What made your parents paranoid when you were growing up?

[BeCraftyFatball]

For myself -Danger when leaving the street

Dad worked on cars. I was never allowed in a car with a bloke who had not long got his licence.

I remember helping wash cars with kangaroo and emu smeared over them. I suppose he had seen cars with brains smeared over the inside but I would never ask. I’ve never thought of that until now.

Oh I didn't know about the pot!

The 'give me lead' was a game of one upmanship really.

Give me lead, keep me writing
Give me jam, keep me singing

All very silly to be fair.

But ahhh!

There were three in the bed
And the little one said:
"Roll over, roll over!"
So they all rolled over
One hit the floor
And his guts fell out...

RULE BRITANNIA!
THREE MONEYS ON A STICK!
ONE FELL OUT AND PARALYSED HIS...
DIDDLY DOO, DON'T MIND ME..!

I grew up in a reasonably large northern city. When I was around 16 I met a boy on holiday and arranged to meet him in London in half term. (We were staying with relatives in Barnet, so was easy to pop in for the day.) My mum pulled me aside before I got the tube and warned me that people from cults prey on out-of-town teenagers, so to keep my wits about me! It was bizarre.

More generally, yes, the worrying about what people think, not being common or cheap etc etc. Mum was also pretty keen we didn't develop the local accent and was always threatening elocution lessons!

The obvious urban legend that was the temporary tattoos impregnated with LSD 🤔

I know a different version:

There were three in the bed,
And the little one said,
Roll over, roll over,
So they all rolled over,
And one fell out,
And bumped his head,
And began to shout

Rule Britannia!
The queen is dressed in her pyjamas,
This bed is only big enough for,
1..2..3..4..etc.

My parents didn't give a toss what people thought. Mum was a bit hyper about food hygiene though.

Rule Brittania!
Marmalade and Jam.
5 Chinese crackers up your ar*e
Go bang bang bang bang bang!

Grapes. They knew a family who had a child who choked while running around on the playground eating a grape. It was on the news and everything. They went to the funeral. We never had grapes in the house after that.

Eating or drinking the street

Going out with wet hair

Tattoos

Wearing a football shirt, unless going to an actual football match

Eating frozen foods

You know one day your own adult kids will be recanting your own foibles to eye roll over!

Mine were great but there was definitely a theme amongst friends parents in the early 90s to be ridiculously over strict and shouty with teens.

The worst was always assumed. We were a pretty innocent group but my poor friends would get literally screamed at for minor things like being 5 mins late. It was assumed we would get into drugs and perfectly nice age appropriate boyfriends viewed with suspicion. Made me really careful when parenting teens to be nothing like this.

Not too much. It was borne in on me that if I did get pregnant before finishing my education, I could expect my mum to take me off for an abortion (I would have been fully on board with this). I assumed that they would want me to sort out contraception, which I did, so we were both shocked when it turned out they assumed I wouldn’t have sex.

My mum was very nervous about the impact of watching scary stuff on TV, and I think she was right, and I’ve tried to replicate that for ds, with less success. I watched the farm safety film mentioned above (Apaches) at primary school and was terrified beyond belief and she was furious, I think rightly.