Did children once have more freedom?

My daughter’s nine and has been playing out without parental supervision since she started school. These past three years I guess, she’s gone off with her friends over the fields at the back of us. They’re a noisy bunch and we can usually hear them, even if we can’t see them. School allow year 5 and 6 to walk to and from school without an adult. So on the days I’m at home, she has been walking home by herself. It’s only half a mile along a lane and a bit of a busy A road, but because school has a lot of children from out of the area, she does have to be aware of the cars coming down the lane. She’s lost a bit of confidence during the lockdown so hasn’t been walking home alone, but we’ll look to start that again after Easter. I love walking her to and from school, such an opportunity for chatting and noticing things from a child’s perspective! During lockdown I have left her by herself a few times when I’ve popped to the village shop or the post office - this is a big thing for her as she hates to be alone. When she goes to secondary school she’ll have to go and catch the school bus as it’s in a village about eight miles away, whereas I had to catch just a standard bus as I lived in a town when I was young.

I remember being on a London bus with a girlfriend and the man opposite exposed himself. We were about 12 or 13 and started giggling so the bloke got off the bus. We never told anyone. I remember my mum telling me some old man had done the same to her and her mum, my grandma, called the police who asked her to describe the man. She said she could only describe his ‘thing’ ! I laughed when she told me but it must have been frightening for a little girl.

I gave my children the same freedom as I had. We walked to school from age 7 and mine did the same. We got in scrapes and so did my children but grew up independent and able. My daughter has not long started to let my grandson walk to school on his own. Hes 9 in April. The world is the same place. There were always paedophiles and rapists. Children have to learn if they get in danger how to get out of it

Whereas, I do think that older (teenage) children are far too much hovered over by parents these days, my memories of my childhood involves a lot of time being left alone at a very young age. Could not be helped, My Mum needed to go to part-time work by the time I was 6 years of age, so i was left alone for about an hour after arriving home from school each day, and often for several hours during school holidays.

I remember some of the things I got up and realise how lucky I was not have had a serious or even fatal accident. At 7 yrs of age I did jump ( my parents always assumed I had fallen), from a pretty high window. It was the bathroom of the house we lived in, and children do not have perspective of distance, Each evening I would look out the large window on to the back garden and it looked as if I could just take a large step out of it on to the lawn. So, parents at work, I got some of my friends to spread on that lawn some dolls blankets and I 'stepped'!!! Amazingly, apart from shock all I got was a scratch on my ankle, This would have been about fifteen feet. Horrible thing was that directly beneath that window was a spike railing (to basement) -somehow I managed to go far enough forward to avoid that. My friends all ran off, and it was a good time before I was found crying in the garden. Only when the elderly man in the rooms beneath us could not get into our shared bathroom as I had carefully locked the door, and came downstairs to use the Landladies private toilet by the garden door.

So, when people proudly boast as to how they roamed freely in childhood and never came to any harm, I remember with a shudder how dangerous it can be.

Yes we did have a lot more freedom. At 5 I used to walk down the hill to school with 2 friends aged 6 and 7
At 9 we all went out to play after lunch often with the dog. Running in fields and derelict houses, picking wild flowers and blackberries, playing skipping or hopscotch etc. Came home at tea time. Healthy, fit, outdoor childhood and not a screen or phone in sight. If it rained heavy people would stop and give kids a lift home too. Definitely all taboo now.

Feeling a little bit sad, reading about all the freedom a lot of you had. I grew up in the 50s/60s, with a very clingy mother and controlling father. Furthermore, my mother had been an only child, and felt having a sister was all you need, so wanting to see friends was almost met with the question 'what for?' We were very much kept at home.
My parents loved us and thought what they were doing was right. But as soon as I was old enough I left home to escape this claustrophobic family.

There was far more freedom. Sometimes I used to walk home alone from guide meetings, a couple of miles away. Another time, I went to the woods with a friend. We must have caught the bus as the woods were in a different part of the city. While we were there, a teenage boy approached me and asked me if I wanted to 'look at something.' Naive little me thought it was a mouse he was cradling in his hands - until I saw that it wasn't!
My dad was furious - with me, for some reason. I should have screamed, apparently, or run away, instead of just walking away.
We walked to and from infant school on our own, and played tennis, ball games and skipping in the streets.
My grandchildren have 'experiences' almost every weekend, or at least they did before lockdown. Every trip is by car and none of them has ever, as far as I know, played out in the streets with their friends. They couldn't, of course. The streets are full of traffic nowadays, whereas the streets I grew up in were almost deserted. Very few people were rich enough in the fifties to afford a car. We did have one, but not until I was at my grammar school, so it must have been the mid sixties.

Around the end of WW1, every Saturday morning my aunt, aged 8, would travel alone from Bermondsey where she lived to one of the major music colleges in central London, for piano lessons.

She had won a scholarship to be taught there and her mother could not afford the time nor the money to accompany her there and back.

I also could marry my husband as I doubt decades ago, an interracial marriage would have been accepted.

Yes and no.

Kids had less freedom where safety is involved but opportunity wise, careers, scholarships, it is more freedom than before.

I remember being sent to play on the street in conditions they should have unacceptable then - next to a super busy road and with a ball, you can imagine where I am going

We also played next to the back door of a famous prostitution bar and we would see very drunk, drugged, etc customers come out at noon the next day after partying all night

I am able to have my professional career in my field due to breaking barriers with gender assigned roles.

When I was 7 or 8 years old, after breakfast during the school holidays Mum would make me a sandwich and drink and I would skip off for the day, roaming over fields with my friends. We fished for frogs in a pond and swung on a rope over a stream, climbed trees and played, and didn’t go home until it was time for our evening meal. By the time I was 10 I was trusted to babysit my 4 younger siblings while my parents went food shopping. At 10 I was regularly put on a train by myself to travel from Bristol to London, to stay with family friends (collected by them at the other end). I am still so grateful for such a happy and carefree childhood. Also that I never came to any harm!

I remember disappearing for the day during the summer months, also in Winter moaning to be allowed out when it was raining. Playing in the snow until I was wet and cold and being told to come inside. No one bothered ever if I disappeared. ( probably hoped I'd disappear for good ?) I was always in trouble for climbing trees and coming home covered in scratches and bruises from falling down them. My legs were often a mess covered scabs etc. It's not like that in today's world. I've noticed children are much more afraid than we ever were.

My friend and I used to walk across a park to our primary school. We were supposed to stick to the path but used to go all over the park on our way home. One day a flasher came out of the bushes and wanted us to play with him. We weren't sure what he was on about but refused and went home. We had no idea what he was doing but we were wise enough to know that if we told our mothers the walks through the park would probably be stopped so we never told any one.

Much freer, I used to take a baby out for a walk in the pram, aged around 10, the mum was friend of my mum and nobody seemed to have a problem. My best friend and I were sent out to buy the bread on Saturdays and once this was done we were allowed to go off to the shops and wander around, this was in London in the late 50's. In fact we were freer as children than as teenagers when strict dads stepped in to lay down the law. My AC were bought up in the country and were always making camps in the woods with the other local children, that would be late 70's early 80's. Their children are heavily supervised including being taken to and from school.

We were given free reign to go and play in the local brook, went with the boy next door! I was once approached by a stranger in a car who wanted me to get in, and I ran straight home. The police were called, but never heard any more. We were not allowed to stay on our own in the house however. After we moved I had made an arrangement with the boy I used to play with that he would come round to the new house. My father wanted to take the family out for a drive, I said I wanted to wait for my friend, and locked myself in the downstairs loo! Unfortunately the window was open, and my father managed to squeeze in through that, and gave me a severe spanking!

EV I remember calling with a friend at someone’s house and asking if we could take their baby for a walk - and they let us!!?

Grew up in the 60s/70s. Definitely had more freedom than today's children. However, a lot of that changed when I reached about 7. A little girl called Christine Darby was murdered (she had got into a stranger's car if I remember rightly). From then on it was stranger danger.
I can still remember a little poem I saw written down about it as follows.
If while you are out at play
A friendly stranger comes your way.
Who offers sweets and stops to talk.
And asks you to come for a walk.
Or in his car to have a ride.
Never, never step inside.
Tell your Mum, she knows the dangers.
It's best you shouldn't talk to strangers.....

Do you remember the amount of prams left outside shops while the mums were inside, completely oblivious of any danger of them being harmed or taken ?
It's what you did, leave baby outside usually sleeping or well harnessed and sitting watching the world go by while people stopped to talked to them or even play.

Yes, parks, walking to school. Getting on buses. Going to the library from the age of 7. Saturday morning pictures from that age as well. Playing on bomb sites ( told off about that when found out). Going to the cinema in the afternoons during school holidays. Going to the South Kensington museums when a friend knocked for me. Sat drawing the costumes in the Victoria and Albert. Walked through the door that magically opened as I walked towards it in the science museum! Used to ask to take babies out and even crossed busy roads with the siblings hanging onto the pram. No one seemed to worry much. Did a lot of errands going to the shops for various things.

sprigishere that made me laugh .

I went on the bus to primary school when I was 8. At 11 I went on a train, crossed a busy road, and then a bus to Grammar school. All in reverse in the evening. Biggest worry was plaiting my hair on the way there and unplaiting on the way home as the school insisted and my mother wouldn't agree! Both thought they had won the argument!

We used to be able to go out in the morning, pop back for lunch and then out again until either dinner time or at the very least, a time that we were set.
As a teenager I was never set a curfew - I just knew that if I wasn't in home and bed by at the latest, 9pm during the week and 10pm at the weekends that I would not be able to be up in time to catch my bus at 7.50am to go to school.
I was allowed to stay home for a few hours on my own from about 13 and while my parents and younger siblings from 16.

I was born in 1939, and played in the street from an early age. No traffic risks then. I took myself the half mile to and from school as soon as I had settled in. I do remember sitting on the doorstep crying, one day, because Mum wasn’t there when I got home. It was unheard of, and I was convinced that something awful had happened. She turned up a few minutes later.
Once I reached the age of around 8 I was out all day. We were surrounded by parks, and not far from the River Mersey, so there was always lots to do. Apart from the usual warnings about talking to strangers we were given free rein. I often cycled, on my gear-lesss bike, the 50 mile round trip to Southport.
My own children also had lots of freedom. We have a large tract of common land opposite our house, and dozens of local children played there, from the age of 3 or so. The older ones kept an eye on the youngsters, and the parents kept an eye on them all from the windows and front gardens. Parenting was a joint responsibility then, and we all felt free to discipline bad behaviour, no matter whose child it was.
The grass was all worn away, in the summer. From the tramp of many small feet, and football matches. Now I never see children playing there, which is such a shame.
All the freedom we had, as children, instilled self-discipline, self-confidence and common sense. Today’s over-protected children seem very poorly equipped for life in comparison.

Thanks for all the lovely posts, they've brought back somany memories. I remember the bluebells and once taking home some huge branches of flowering May. My mother refused to have it in the house she said it was unlucky.

My sister and I would go off on our bikes in the school holidays and be gone for hours. We often took a sandwich and fruit. My mum had no idea where we went, although we knew not to accept lifts from strangers