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

ViceVersa
Yes, the no safety matting etc.
And if you fell off and broke an arm, you were told off for being stupid or not being careful rather than the rush to sue.

I remember a child probably being molested by a man on a country lane surrounded by woods near us, nobody said to us what had happened just that something bad had happened to a little boy so we shouldn’t play near this location. I remember how obediently we nodded but as soon as we could we went straight the country lane where it allegedly happened searching for the culprit like Blyton’s Secret Seven. Looking back it makes me draw a sharp breath in.

Magenta8

When I was still very little, during the 1950s, I regularly used to cross a very busy main road to get to the corner shop where I bought ten Craven A cigarettes for my mum and I was allowed to spend the change on sweets. I don't know of any shops that would not sell cigarettes to young children back then.

When I was about eight or nine I often used to travel on the London Underground from East London to the Natural History Museum in Kensington by myself.

Magenta8. I remember going for my parents' cigarettes too. They chain-smoked 60 plain Kensitas (dad) and 40 tipped Kensitas (mother) a day!. I guess I got the passive smoke. As you said, all the shops let wee kids pick them up for their parents. Some things have changed for the better!

Aged 7 I walked to school on my iwn through our council estate. Aged 12 I used to go into Soho by bus and tube to meet my older sister for lunch. Aged 14 I went clubbing in the West End. My parents weren’t bothered or worried.

My dad was a farmer. After the harvest each year from when I was about 9 he would give me a home fashioned lit ‘torch’ made of a stick with petrol soaked rags and we’d burn the straw in the fields. I loved it and put potatoes in the ashes to bake!!
I also drove tractors around the farm from around 11 yrs old…

My old playmate and I reminisce about our 'free range childhoods' or jokingly was it 'parental neglect'. Out in the morning, maybe go home for lunch and then back out until it started to get dark or we were hungry. We lived in a rural area so no busy roads to worry about but with hindsight we did some pretty scary and dangerous things.

From about the age of 9 I would go to the sweet shop two doors away to buy cigarettes for myself. They must have known it wasn't for my parents as it wasn't their usual brand. I didn't really smoke them properly, but all the same...

I walked to school at 6 on my own, and we were out from dawn till dusk playing with our friends in the park and fields. When I was 8 we moved house, and I walked to school through fields, across the new by-pass and down through footpaths to the school. We all used to walk together, knew how to look after ourselves and never fell out.
If it rained while we were out, we knocked on someone's door and asked them to phone our dads to collect us! We usually got given biscuits and squash while we waited.
When I was 13 I told my dad I wanted to go camping on my own with my 9 year old sister. He packed up the tent and some food and took us to a camp site, and left us overnight. His attitude was, if we were old enough to ask, we were old enough to do it. We were absolutely fine.

My father, born 1930, would get a bus from Sheffield and go to the Peak District when he was 12, and sleep rough in caves after hiking all day.

I did allow my own sons to play out from being 6 as well, we're in a quiet village and I thought that if I could do it, they should. We all learnt valuable skills.

When my youngest brother started school ( his school was further away than my senior school) I used to take him on my bicycle rack, with a cushion strapped in place to make it comfortable. He held onto the saddle! My twin sister ( without a rack on her bike so cycled directly to school) could cover for me if I was slightly late for class registration!
When we were in infants class we walked home together with friends from our class who lived closer. On one very wet day a man in a car stopped to pick up his daughter Jane, and tried to offer my sister and I a lift too. Of course we stuck to the rule that you never got in a car with a strange man- ( we had never met the father before) even if it was Jane’s dad! My mother was very cross but she saw the childish logic in later!
We too used to play outside afterschool and once slightly older ( about 8) we cycled miles - but of course we were always together if cycling and the roads were much quieter than today.

Yes in holidays and weekends we used to go play all over on our own.And went to school alone once at secondary school.I remember on my first day at school aged 5 a teacher said i could go home for lunch now (turns out i wasnt supposed to) and i had to find my way home alone, luckily it was a couple of streets away & i remembered the way,but mum wasnt in as she went shopping knowing i'd be safely in school.Man next door gave me soup then mum got back & returned me to school,where she had stern words with the Headteacher & they gave me school lunch.

When we were about 8 my friend and I both got bikes with lights for Christmas.
We lived in a quiet village with no streetlights and thought nothing of cycling home in the dark after tea in one another's houses. But our respective mothers would telephone to say that a little girl was on her way.
In the summer, we used to cycle miles to swim in a little river or to play on the cadets' training equipment belonging to a nearby boys boarding school.
My sisters and I all agreed that we had a healthy and independent childhood.

Aged 11, and a keen swimmer, I went to the outdoor baths, which had the changing rooms with half-doors around the edge. I remember a man told me what an excellent swimmer I was and would I like him to tutor me? Of course I was hugely flattered and said yes.
When I got out and went into the cubicle to change he came in and helped to dry me! I was so naive! He then said he would meet me there the next day for more lessons.............luckily something prevented me from going back!!

Went to the doctor on my own at 14 and to a hospital appointment with a consultant at 15. Called for friends without appointments, or phoning. Played in derelict buildings and on bomb sites. Walked to school with classmates and home again. No adult needed apart from the first day in infant school. Took my sisters for GP and dentist visits at 14 as mum was ill. Went out playing with friends only coming in for meals. Sent home alone when I had German Measles at school. Parents weren't even contacted. Given a quater of a codeine by dad when I had flu. You could just buy them at the chemist, and buy mums cigarettes at the shop or from a machine outside the shop. Also paraffin from a machine.

I was so fed up about no-one ever having the time to iron my dolls' clothes that I begged my mother to teach me to iron when I was seven.

She did so, and after that I ironed the dolls' clothes, my hair ribbons, Daddy's handkerchiefs, tray cloths etc. happily.

Bored stiff during a summer holiday the year I was nine (none of my friends lived nearby) I took over the family mending and did it regularly after that.

Yes out all day on your bike. Going miles ! Lots of empty mansion s in surrey where I grew up. Wandered all over Sandhurst / on into broadmoor hospital & surrounds. Bet you can’t get past the gate these days ( into sandhurst ). I’d be curious to know having moved away

When I was 3 and my sister 4 we were put on a train in London to go to Hull to our nan's house. We changed trains at Doncaster and our aunts met us at the station in Hull.

When we were a bit older at ages 7 and 8 mum went to work full time and we looked after our 3 year old brother including cooking chips in a chip pan on the gas stove for lunch. Doesn't bear thinking about these days really, but we all grew up to be indedendant people who could look after ourselves.

I walked to school alone from the age of 5, this wuld be in 1950, and was considered the norm in those days.

Living in London I used to love getting an all day London Transport Red Rover ticket and explore my city. Sadly, unthinkable now. I also used to cycle the 8 miles into Abridge, Essex to sit by the river and enjoy a picnic before heading back. Lovely memories

My mother was a widow and as soon as I started school she got a job in the corner shop. On my first day aged 5 she walked me to school, which took about 20 minutes. For the next week a little girl in the next year up took me to and from, and thereafter I was on my own! Growing up playing in the woods and fields from morning until night. Skipping rope, hopscotch on the pavement, bike rides exploring - total freedom. My sister's grandchildren today are totally monitored and taken by car to all their after school clubs, they never seem to be left alone for a minute.

I can remember using pocket money to buy loose fireworks, which I kept until bonfire night in a cupboard in my bedroom.

As part of a large group of village kids we spent many long hot summers days down by the river. Anyone who could swim would go into the river and swim across / dodging detritus and the occasional dead cow. It’s a fast flowing river with dangerous currents and although our parents knew there were no objections. Happy days - which always seemed to be sunny.

All the above is so familiar and yet I can't help wondering why things have changed so vastly. It must be a combination of factors such as a bigger population and more cars. But why were almost all parents back in the day so unconcerned what their children got up to whereas today's children are mollycoddled beyond belief? I mean, for us the dangers were the nearby river, a canal and a few derelict buildings but parents didn't seem worried about any of them. When I tell my own children about my childhood and the total freedom we enjoyed from a very young age I know they don't really believe me.

oh gosh so much, so many things. well I am of an age, I grew up during the war years etc.. we roamed the streets, large council estate in Birmingham, near to Sutton Park, (Sutton Coldfield) a huge park we walked most everywhere,, spent so much time there in the woods etc.. out till 10 p.m. at night, mind you we were in trouble for being out after dark, but so safe..travelled around Brum on the buses..

placed a bet for my dad, some coins , with bet written on wrapped in the paper, and as walked by the man , standing by his gate, slipped the bet into his hand! oh my!

ate acorns in the woods... oh gosh, so many things I can`t recall them all, we were free! went scrumping for apples, cos we were always hungry, and no we weren`t rough and ready kids, quite a respectable family.

chalked games on the pavements,, hopscotch,, etc... played in the street, games , running across the roadway.. "Farmer,farmer, may we cross your field" one of them, Hide and seek in and around the neighbours gardens..

Taking apart a disused railway line to get the sleepers to build a bonfire. A gang of 8 or so littluns under the direction of a big boy. Making winter warmers essentially pierced tin cans with wire handles filled with fire that were swung around your head to make them blaze. By the age of 8 or so I could make and throw Molotov cocktails in battles with gangs trying to steal our bonfire wood. Emptying the powder out of fireworks to make rudimentary pipe bombs. Sometimes the police or fire brigade intervened but not parents.