What did you do as a child that would be totally unacceptable nowadays?

What did I do as a child that would be totally unacceptable nowadays?

Running around in the garden in thunderstorms, without any clothes on.

I don't think the neighbours would be too keen if I did it now.

 

There were fewer kids in the 1930s and fewer cars too. Was it some sort of sport that those who could afford cars, i.e. the very wealthy, engaged in to achieve more child deaths on the roads than we now have? Are the wealthy genetically pre-programmed to be reckless?

 

Initially there was no Highway code, so drivers just did their own thing. There were no signs at junctions, no traffic lights, no designated side of the road to drive on, no rules on whether a pedestrian of motorist had priority, no speed limits and lack of experience over braking distances. Added to that, there will have been drivers who were the prototypes for Toad of Toad Hall on the roads.

 

nn

 

We often used to work (unpaid) for the local farmer lugging bales about and taking the bales off the machine that made them.

That would be classed as child abuse now probably but at the time was good fun.

I wouldn't swap my childhood for that of many modern kids.

 

@kibosh was a middle class kid who was very good at getting others in trouble.

 

As a child I had a bird's egg collection. One egg of about forty different species.
Totally unacceptable today.

 

So did a friend of mine - he used to get them by taking them from nests.

This is still done by the way.

 

before cars children were killed all the time by horse and carts..

 

There were lots of horses and carts in my village - we used to see them all the time.

You had to careful about flying pigs too.

 

Its the old r-K spectrum, the fewer children a population is producing, the better care it takes of each individual. In the days of huge families and a higher death rate, the population was still replacing itself, despite accident and illnesses amongst the young. These days no way could we sustain the percentage losses in the UK 100 or 200 years ago.

 

Depends on your definition of middle class: my family were the educated poor. Some of my friends didn't have the sense to stop while the going was good. They really didn't need any help with getting into trouble.

When I was younger, I persuaded pals that it would be a bad idea to go blabbing. I was very good at convincing people that my idea was in fact theirs. Nobody blabbed.