Stuff you did as a child that wouldn’t be contemplated now

From the age of 5 I went to school on the bus on my own. At home time I would spend my bus money on sweets and walk home. It was a couple of miles!

I would also disappear off on my bike all day and only go home when I was hungry from about the age of 9

I was horse mad as a child and from around 7 or 8 I used to get two buses to the stables and back (walking around half-a-mile down a steep unlit road too), then we'd disappear on the ponies all day through the woods and fields. No-one knew where we were. Sometimes we'd take a shortcut from the stables to the wee village shop by crossing an old railway viaduct which was in a very derelict condition and was supposed to be closed to the public. I shudder to think of it now...

From age seven I played out with friends and we would wander far and wide, only returning home at bedtime. We got into many scrapes, including breaking into someone’s home, which was very dilapidated so we assumed was empty, and the door was open, the owner was not amused. And being chased off farmland by a farmer with a shotgun.

In my last year at primary school, so I was 11, I cycled alone about 2 miles across a golf course to the swimming pool in the next village, and back about a couple of hours later.This was summer evenings after tea. So it was light, but thinking about it, no telling who was about amongst the bushes and trees, the route was quite isolated.

Funny thing was, up to then, my mother was a very protective, fussy mum, but as I was soon going on to secondary school, (and enjoyed swimming) she must have thought it was time to loosen the apron strings.

Sometimes I look back on my early years, and like others can't believe how different it is from the micro managed childhood of today. My brother and I with a nearby friend walked to school, occasionally my mother came with us not always. I was the youngest and I remember trailing behind them aged about 5, as we had to cross a bit of common land, over a railway bridge and alongside a main road to reach our school. I think it took us a good half hour. Our back garden backed on to a stream which fed into a duck pond, beyond that a cricket green and a pub, named "The Cricketers" what else! I was friendly with the daughter of the publicans. I was under the fence from an early age playing around the stream and pond with her and other local children. Again, during the school holidays, we'd be roaming around on bikes and roller skates. Sometimes, led astray by my brother and some older children we'd purchase a platform ticket at our local station and get the train up to Waterloo, London was about 13 miles away, and then come back again. Saturdays it was morning cinema for children, which was in our town, in those days parents didn't drop you off you just arrived. Similarly, going and coming back from Brownies, especially in the dark unaccompanied and hours and hours at the local swimming pool, practically taught myself to swim aged about 7 when I forgot to put my rubber ring on and suddenly realised I was swimming without it When I think of all the swimming lessons I shelled out for mine by contrast.

Rode a pony round villages in North Yorkshire, for hours at a time. No one knew where I was! Sister and I had a chemistry set,it arrived with various dangerous liquids in it, when they were used up, we went to the local pharmacy and bought some more! Anyone rememember chasing globules of mercury round the lab bench at school?

Like others from 7 or 8 onwards, depending on where we lived, I and my younger sister were free to wander off, whether we lived in town or country, to do what we wanted and we were expected to travel quite a long distance to school by bus. like another poster, my sister and I changed the route our parents set for another one, which we preferred. I am not sure our parents ever realised.

I walked to school from the age of 5; it wasn't far but at the age of 6 I was put in charge of a neighbour's 5 year old.
Then from age 7 a longer walk to catch the bus to Junior school. Sometimes I'd walk home, but only with a couple of other girls, about 2 miles through not very nice areas.

Of course we all went out to play, sometimes calling on others some distance away.

Sister and I had a chemistry set,it arrived with various dangerous liquids in it, when they were used up, we went to the local pharmacy and bought some more! Anyone rememember chasing globules of mercury round the lab bench at school?
Strangely enough, DH and I were chatting about this yesterday, having chemistry sets from Father Christmas. I had a toy stove which you could light with methylated spirits 😲. Also remember flicking the mercury around the lab bench at school.

From the age of 6 I walked/ran to school in all weathers which took me along a stretch of one of the busiest main roads in Bristol and took 15 minutes. When I was older we would play marbles in the gutters all the way home, and play in the bomb sites...no rush to get home at all.

When older[8,9+] we would bike out to countryside [now choked with row upon row of houses], build dens, pick apples, plums, pears, blackberries, paddle in a stream and go home when we felt like it. We'd also knock on farmhouse doors for drinks of water if we were thirsty. So trusting!

With one friend I would go to the swimming baths [aged 7/8] and we had to take her younger sister [6] along. Neither of them could swim, but I could. They always managed not to drown though and got home ok.

No one ever knew where we were or when we'd be home. When I was a brownie I would knock on strangers doors for 'Bob-a-Job' week and go inside to do all sorts of tasks! Again no adult knew where we were or what house we were in! Nothing bad happened, Thank God.

When 11 I cycled along the very busy main roads and bus routes from one side of Bristol to the other [6-7 miles] to go to a friends house. Took ages and was scary. Then had to do a longish bike ride with her...then cycle the traffic choked roads back home afterwards. Exhausted but lived to tell the tale. Mother didn't seem bothered.

Like the OP I was put on a train. I went from Bath Spa and travelled to Portsmouth (Cosham) where my grandparents lived. My lovely gran met me off the train. I endured the journey in a state of abject fear: was I on the right train would I be able to work the window, lean out and open the door so I could get off?
Like others I had the freedom to go out and not return for hours. Nor did my parents ever take me to school or collect me. My dad showed me where the infants school was and I took myself there and back from day one, though it was a safe journey with no roads to cross. When I went to junior school aged 7, I used the bus (or walked and spent the bus fare).
Today’s parents would be horrified.

I walked miles to school, walked home for dinner and back to school. One thing I find unimaginable now is that my friend and me used to knock on people's doors and ask if we could take their babies out. The mums would put the babies in the pram and off we'd go for the afternoon. Some of them had never set eyes on us before. I cringe when I think about it now.

Went to the Rec after school on our bikes and stayed there until dinner time.

Listened to the radio, read books and played games in the evening as we didn't have a TV when I was very young.

I walked to school by myself from the age of 5. Once I was in junior school I was allowed to spend time on the swings at the park on my way home.

During the week my life was very much micro-managed as my mum taught at the primary school I attended.

At weekends however we would go to my Gparents farm and then I was free to walk dogs around the farm, play by the river and in the barns with cousins, unsupervised all day. As long as we turned up for meals with our hands washed no questions asked!

When I got my first proper bike, aged 13, I spent the whole summer cycling the country lanes, just me, no plan, no mobile phone. Marvellous!

I also walked to school from 5 years old with my older sis who was 7 and her best friend. We had to walk through country lanes for part of the journey then along a busy road.

I was put on a train to London from the North and "crossed over" London with a friend of my father's who I'd never met before in order to be put on the train to the ferry for the Isle of Wight - where, once over the water, my aunt would be waiting for me at Ryde.
I think I was 10.

From 10 upwards I'd sometimes do what others talk about. Save my bus money for other things and walk home along the canal - or to my father's business which was not so far.
Nobody knew what I was doing.

I actually think children are capable of so much more than we give them credit for.
Being put on a train one end of a journey and getting met at the other isn't really SO hard.

I was pretty much protected until I was nearly 8 because of the war. Life consisted of running to the shelter when the siren sounded, at home and at school. After the war ended I had a lot of freedom, mostly with the boy next door. We would disappear on our bikes, all along the coast east and west from Torquay, more or less all day and only going home to eat and sleep during school holidays. Climbing down into a local quarry by the sea was a favourite and having picnics with odds and ends we took from home. Old bomb shelters made great places to play. And suddenly beaches were accessible after being cocooned in barbed wire during the war.
When I look back, I had a huge amount of freedom. Mum didn't seem to bother about where I was.
From 11 onwards I cycled to school on the other side of Torquay, in all weathers.
Mum had her first stroke when I was 13, and I was put on a train to Bristol to stay with unknown relatives.

Just re-read my post and forgot to say my secondary school (when I was 10) was 6+ miles from home , but only 3 or so from my father's workplace. I only ever walked the 6 miles in the spring/ summer (and when I didn't have my huge art portfolio with me!).
Walking back from junior school was only a mile or so to my father.

As an aside, my grandson walked home from school (about a mile) with friends for the first time last summer. He was 10. He was really excited to do it!

When I was about 14 we moved to an isolated house in the country and I knew no one. I used to cycle round and explore. One day crossing a little river I was stopped by 3 strange men and we chatted for a while. They asked me if I would like to play golf with them so I cycled into town the next day and had a nice round of golf where they taught me some shots. I didn't tell my parents.and I don't think they would have been interested.

From reading posts I can see how much things have changed. Parents and adults in general were not part of our world, we took off at the soonest opportunity to be with other kids playing and getting into scrapes.
I think that suited our parents as much as us. I can’t remember my parents taking it upon themselves to do something with us, unless it was the summer holiday when my dad had two week off from the local Mill - it was called ‘the wakes’ back then - and we would go to a cottage in North Wales or to Blackpool where my sis and I both missed our friends and got very bored because it often rained.
Nowadays parents have to be totally involved with their children, planning activities and taking them everywhere. I think is much harder for them and for the kids.

From age 4 I took the bus to school about 10 miles away.( She thought the village school wouldn't be suitable.) I don't think my mother ever went to the school so a girl who got on at the stop before me walked me through the town to school and brought me home. She was 6.
One day when school ended I couldn't find her and the teacher told me everyone had gone home.I managed to walk to the bus station and got the bus into the village as it didn't go past my house on that route. I waited in the shop intil my mother came to collect me. I wonder now how she knew where I was as we had no phone.

Putting young children on a train must have been seen as normal. Every summer, from the age of 6 my brother (8) and I were sent from London to Scotland on the train. We were in a carriage with the compartments, in the care of the guards. Lunch and tea in the buffet car. I always worried because tea was around Carlisle and I thought we’d still be eating when we got to our station.
We were met in Scotland by our Grandparents and Dad would dive up at the end of the holiday to collect us.

Drive.

Babs03

From reading posts I can see how much things have changed. Parents and adults in general were not part of our world, we took off at the soonest opportunity to be with other kids playing and getting into scrapes.
I think that suited our parents as much as us. I can’t remember my parents taking it upon themselves to do something with us, unless it was the summer holiday when my dad had two week off from the local Mill - it was called ‘the wakes’ back then - and we would go to a cottage in North Wales or to Blackpool where my sis and I both missed our friends and got very bored because it often rained.
Nowadays parents have to be totally involved with their children, planning activities and taking them everywhere. I think is much harder for them and for the kids.

I used to go with my Mum regularly, once a week, on our bikes, to visit 'Auntie' and 'Uncle's' farm but, once there, we children were allowed to roam freely.
My Mum took me to work with her in the school holidays from the age of about four as well. She worked in a large, very old hotel and it was good fun roaming round there too. No-one seemed to mind.

I remember a friend and I taking ourselves off to a Beetle Drive aged about 11, catching two buses at night. (Why?)
I remember it because I won the booby prize.