According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's, 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because...

Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint, which was promptly chewed and
licked.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play
with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent 'clackers' on our wheels.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle - tasted the same.

We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop with sugar in it, but we were
never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find
out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us all day and no one minded.

We did not have Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet chat rooms. We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents. We learnt not to do the same thing again.

We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue - we learned to get over it.

We walked to friend's homes.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate live stuff, and although we were told it would happen, we did not have very many eyes out, nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.

We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law.
Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And you're one of them. Congratulations! Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

(If you aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us).

Can I add:

We learned to swim in muddy rivers - in our vests & knickers - with no lifeguards or attendants around.

We would use axes to chop wood, we would light bonfires and half-cooked sausages - which we then would eat, with no ill-effects.

We would walk, in gangs of up to 12, from one village to the next, carrying/pushing/pulling younger brothers and sisters - and threaten them that we would give them to the gypsies at the next travellers' site, if they "told" on us when we got home ;) , without the police coming out to see what we were up to.

AND we would have a bath, once a week, whether we needed it or not!

BUT we would also have our hair tied up in "rags" in order to have ringlets every night; would have to sit and learn to knit - including knitting socks on 4 needles before we were 8; run errands, which would include carrying 7lbs of potatoes a couple of miles from the allotments - and always, always always, have to check on a couple of elderly neighbours and do little jobs for them - which would mean cleaning out fires, bringing in coal - wihout being paid - unless you would count a couple of soft, sticky, fluffy mint balls!

Margot

LOLOL Margot are you my long lost sister That sounds just like my brother & me ;)

Arr they still tell tales of the Wylie Girls & their friends around Tilehurst/Sulham/Pangbourne & Theale :D :D :D

Margot

As a warning to others ...
;) :D :D

Well you know what they say - if you cant be a Good Example, you can be an Awful Warning :D :D :D :D

Margot

LOL my brother & me were known as the terrible three as we always had a dog of some sort with us, quite Enid B ;) without the terribly nice accents lolol

There we were, trundling along, with a couple of dogs - one of them, our old labrador with the oh so terribly un-pc name  - I will give you a clue - he was a black lab, and we are talking early '50s ;)

Our mums were quite happy for us to go off for the whole day - because we had the dogs with us :D :D

Margot

Black Lab and in the 50's I know someone with a black Spanish who I think may have the same name but this was due to the word gosh coming after it :d 

I'm only in my 30's but boy life was so much easier then and more fun.  You could go anywhere without your parents wondering where you were.  Isn't it sad how things have changed so much in the last 30 years?

No - wrong name - this name started with N ;)

Margot

From the latin for black I presume & now a derogatory name for people of the same colour ?

The same name as Guy Gibson's dog? ;)

Interestingly that was also the name of a shade of brown, in materials.
:)

I suspect it may have been less PC than that starting with the letter N?

Those were the days, aye?

Was it really that good or have the rose tinted specs come out........... :)

They were really that good. You don't now what you've missed!!!

If you did have rose-tinted specs, they were little round ones, with pink frames, generally held together with elastoplast :D

Margot

With one lens taped over entirely to cure your lazy eye!

They were much less pressurized than today & summer hols etc were just that a free time to enjoy the weather etc. We used to go off to the seaside in a gang on the train(all of 8 miles !)or bus with no adults around but lololol always the dog !

Oh yes, as long as you had the dog with you, you were allowed to go anywhere!

LOL sometimes it wasn't even our dog either!

We really did have that amount of freedom!
:)

I also remember that at the age of 14, the parents of my friend and I decided that we were responsible enough to be allowed to go up to London Paddington by train, then go to Oxford Street, to that wonderful emporium - for us - C & A (this was before Biba, Topshop, or any other such "teenage" shop) to buy a dress each!   We were absolutely LOADED with money - we both had £5.00!!!

This was enough, for our fare to London, tube to Oxford Street, a dress, which would cost £2.9s.11d AND a pair of shoes which we had seen advertised in Freeman Hardy & Willis for £1.15s 0d.    However, we also wanted to go to the 2 I's coffee bar, in Soho, and have lunch there (when, we would, of course, have changed into our nice new gear) - and looked like sophisticated girls about town :).   So, we decided that we were going to hitchhike up to London, along the A-4, and save the 5s.0d train fare.    We decided that we would be sensible about this - we would only get in a car/lorry with someone who looked old enough to be our fathers - and = most important this - we would take a hatpin each - this was a long - very long, shart knitting needle type of thing, that our mothers would use to secure their little 'ats on their 'eads!

So, in our white socks and sandals, off we set.    By a bit of lying through our teeth, we managed to con a bus driver into letting us go free from Reading to Maidenhead (we didn't want to be seen on the A-4 at Reading by anyone who might have reported back to our families) - and after about 15 mins sticking out our thumbs, a delivery lorry of some sort stopped - and a bit burly bloke told us both to 'op in, sharpish - which we both did.   When he found out where we were going, he insisted on seeing our money - we were a bit reluctant to show him - after all, he might want to rob us, might'nt he? - but when we did, he did take us right to Paddington - but oh boy, did he give us an earbashing - what could have happened to us if he hadn't come along, etc etc etc.   He also gave us another half crown each - bless him :)

We had a wonderful day, got our dresses, shoes, Miners make up, had cappuchinos in the 2I's - and egg & chips in a Wimpey, and got back home safely,with our parents none the wiser.

Years later, it somehow slipped up, when both Mums were there - we both had babies of our own then - and dear Marian said - "oh it was alright, Mrs W - we had a hatpin each" - and ever after, if anyone was doing anything daft - my mum would say - oh yes - they had a hatpin each :D

I would go absolutely berserk if my daughter had done anything like that - and we're lecturing step-granddaughter about the perils of going off on her own, with a friend, after that poor girl in Reading a week or so back.

The times, they are a-changing :(

Margot

I've still got the most gorgeous long posh Biba dress, bought in 1974. And I've got the receipt - it cost me £5!

Keep that dress AND keep the receipt with it .... together you will be handing on a legacy to your successors - believe it or not, I had a couple of ooriginal Jean Muir dresses (bought in the 60s for about £6 or £7 each - proper dear they were :) ) that I cut up & made clothes for my daughter in the '70s  - they would have been worth a small fortune now!!!

Margot

When I was 10 to 15 years old things were still that free in Poland where we went on summer hols to grans.  We would go out in the morning and come in for something to eat when we got hungry and off we would go again until dark.  All the kids did theri own thing but vandalism was virtually unknown.

LOL how the world has changed. I am going to loads of dog shows and thought of camping, then thought why bother I have a stall and a car, why do I need a tent? OH was horified that I wouldnt be safe and I would have no where to shower. So remind me what we did all those years ago at guide camp, how did we survive all week without a cooker let alone a shower? How many times did we go off camping by ourselves in the woods and commons. OK so we sat up half the night talking but we also drank milk straight from the cows aided and abetted by the farmer.

Living on the outskirts of London another favorite hobby was to buy a 1 day bus pass and see how far you could get and still get home in time for tea. Failure to do so had serious consequences, but we normally arrived puffing and panting for 6 o clock even if on one occaision we missed the bus and were so scared of what our mums would do we burst in to tears and the bus inspector used his phone to call our mums and let them know it was all his fault for running the busses early!

ive just read this post after been away for a while and as a mother of teenagers in this day and age i encourage my kids to go on the streets and play with there friends instead of sitting in the house on the computer etc and as i live in a small village warn them that if they get up to mischief someone who knows me will tell me what they have been upto but if my boys meet with there friends and walk round in more than a group of 3 they are classed as yobs!!! and as for wearing just youre hoods on youre head in a cape like manner they are definetly hooded yobs!! and to let them play street rounders i would have the police knocking on the door telling me that my son was yielding a dangerous weapon and that he and his gang were going to do some damage!!! and as for letting the dog roam round with him the dog warden would be out as fast as here van could bring her hauling them back to my house!! so sometimes my sons and there friends dont want to go out and play on the streets as all the hassle and mither they get so they end up sat indoors on the computer!!!!

Great post, it makes me sad that it isnt safe enough to give my own kids that kind of childhood !

Sarah
x

Its not any less safe really its just the way the media deal with things.  The chances of a child being abducted is very remote in fact statistically they are at far more danger in the home, from people they know, than out of it.  Traffic's probably a bigger danger now than it was but most of that is mums driving kids yards to school!  Of course in the old days we had the Tufty club :), now children don't get to deal with traffic until they are practically at the end of their teens.  When I was about 7 I was allowed to roam freely outdoors either with chums or on my way to their houses.  I grew up largely in Cornwall and open mine shafts were quite a danger in those days but my parents, like everyone elses, gave us dire warnings against going near them and then resigned themselves to the fact that kids will want to play.