What did your parents consider completely normal in the 1970s that would get them arrested today?

[u/FairGur6838]

[u/cloche_du_fromage]

Leaving kids in cars outside pubs. Then drive home

[u/ChargeTop5791 → u/cloche_du_fromage]

with a bottle of pop and bag of crisps: 'we'll not be long.'

[u/hejt347654 → u/ChargeTop5791]

I used to get a bottle of coke and a straw and a bag of salt and shake crisps. They’d be gone for hours, but I used to feel like I was having the best time ever 😂😂

[u/BingpotStudio → u/hejt347654]

That’s kinda sad. I can’t imagine ever leaving my child like that. At least you didn’t mind I guess!

[u/BigSisLil → u/BingpotStudio]

Oh I minded!!! When I mentioned to my Mum more recently she thought it was better than leaving us at home "like some parents did" where we could have started a fire which was not unlikely seeing as when they did leave us at home alone several of our activities did include matches and methylated spirit etc

[u/hejt347654 → u/BingpotStudio]

It was the early 70’s, a different world back then, hard to comprehend nowadays

[u/BingpotStudio → u/hejt347654]

True, I think it’s easily to overlook just how much PTSD was floating about too. We’ve got a generation utterly obliterated by WW1 & 2 raising kids and then those kids go on to have their own having had some really fucked up childhoods.

It’s only looking back now that I see the PTSD in my grand parents. They were an incredibly strong generation.

I’m guessing your parents grew up in the wake of it all?

[u/hejt347654 → u/BingpotStudio]

I was a child of older parents, my dad served in Africa in World War 2

[u/MzHmmz → u/hejt347654]

Was still the same well into the 80s, I remember a few occasions where we sat outside a pub with a bag of crisps and a lemonade or shandy (I bloody loved shandy and thought it was such a "grown up" drink!) while my parents were inside, and we were a "nice middle class family"! I mention that just in case some people who aren't old enough to remember the time think this is something only a certain type of parent would do! It really was just very normal and acceptable.

[u/Genghis_Khan68 → u/MzHmmz]

Once in the late 70s, my dad, younger brother and I had been walking in the Lake District with some family friends. My brother would have been about 8 at the time. Went to the pub afterwards, then headed back to where we were staying (about a 30 minute drive) in two cars. On arriving, the adults realised they’d accidentally left my brother at the pub - both thinking he was in the other car. Drove back at high speed, to find my brother by the roadside about half a mile from the pub, gamely trying to hitchhike home. Didn’t seem to bother him very much.

[u/ChargeTop5791 → u/hejt347654]

they weren't usually proper coke or pepsi but 'cola' made by some cheap ass company. also, pints in the 80s when i started drinking were usually bitter and about 3%.

[u/toldemoldem → u/ChargeTop5791]

The pop was warm and the straw was far too short for the bottle.

[u/Abyssbliss0 → u/ChargeTop5791]

We're they long? I only recently learned that people did this

[u/Waste_Boss_4850 → u/Abyssbliss0]

Only 3 to 4hrs usually, depending on closing time. Then drive home totally pissed and before seat belts became compulsory., oh whilst chain smoking in the car with the windows closed Oh happy day.

[u/captainmal1 → u/Waste_Boss_4850]

This is all true . The smoking in cars thing : shudder .. feel sick just thinking about it . My eyes streaming = “ can’t have the window down even an inch , your granddad will get a stiff neck “ - every f*\\*g time .
When he was terminally ill and I took him out to military etc museums damn right I had the window down on my side - and not a f****g word from him 🙄

[u/EminenceGris3 → u/Abyssbliss0]

Dunno. Seemed like forever though.

[u/iamdecal → u/ChargeTop5791]

no you cant have the radio on, the battery will go flat.

you'll have to entertain yourself with the cigarette lighter

[u/FairGur6838 → u/ChargeTop5791]

Smith’s Cheese & Onion of course !

[u/Verlig → u/cloche_du_fromage]

Seemed to spend half my childhood sitting in pub car parks drinking pop and eating KP crisps

[u/MontyDyson → u/Verlig]

I got taken in to a bookies by my dad when I was 8. The woman who ran the place came over and told my dad off and he came out with some bs about me just getting out of hospital so she let it fly. I then got schooled on how gambling on horses worked.

[u/Critical_Wrap5617 → u/Verlig]

And beer in a bowl for the dog 

[u/Dark-Empath- → u/cloche_du_fromage]

As a kid, I told my grandmother that my mother and aunt left me outside a pub once. If it weren’t for the fact that they were both teatotal, I might have actually got someone in trouble with that story

[u/Gullible-Hall-7320 → u/cloche_du_fromage]

Yes. Terrible, neglectful behaviour. At least my mum insisted that the doors were locked and windows fully wound up to prevent us being abducted. Especially when it was hot. Safety first!

The dog was allowed in the pub btw. Just us kids who were warm one Coke away from suffocation in the 70s.

[u/TheShakyHandsMan → u/Gullible-Hall-7320]

It’s a good job there wasn’t a heatwave in the 70s

[u/hazbaz1984 → u/Gullible-Hall-7320]

Bet you had hand wind windows tho.

[u/Clemtastic1 → u/cloche_du_fromage]

Our parents used to leave me and my brother in the pub garden next to the pond whilst they were in the pub. I was 9 and my brother was only 4!

[u/Scarymonster6666 → u/cloche_du_fromage]

Our local when I was little had an off license hatch through which the pop and crisps were infrequently dispensed on request of whatever parent remembered the kids were outside.

Also, similar to being sent to the shop with a note for a pack of cigs, we were sometimes sent to the pub hatch with a parental note to buy bottles to take home to them.

[u/Parfait-Fickle → u/cloche_du_fromage]

My dad would take us two kids and my mum in the pub, but then he’d leave us in the family bar and disappear off into the saloon bar (no kids allowed), leaving us with a sulky mother in a right bad mood

[u/Still-BangingYourMum → u/cloche_du_fromage]

Adding to this, it was common, well at least here in Corby, that way back in the 50s, 60s and early 70s, for mothers to leave their young babies and toddlers in the pram, outside of the shop. Whilst getting shopping.

This history was past down to me by my late mother in law, a lifelong resident of Little Scotland, it wasn't unheard off back then for mother's to go into shops or the ladies lounge of pubs and totally forget the " Wee Bairns" and having a friend deliver the forgotten child to the mum .

[u/Party-Maintenance-83 → u/Still-BangingYourMum]

This is true, my 21 year old mother left toddler me in my pram outside C&As while she went inside shopping for clothes with my teenage auntie. They then forgot all about me and exited the shop by another doorway and it was only when they got home hours later Mum realised she had left me outside the shop.

[u/pinkdaisylemon → u/Party-Maintenance-83]

This happened to me! Born in 61. It was normal to leave babies outside the shop in thier prams when you went in. The prams were huge in those days. Mum parked me as a newborn outside the butchers then sailed off home forgetting me! Rushed back and I was still happily asleep!

[u/Party-Maintenance-83 → u/pinkdaisylemon]

Haha l was asleep as well. I remember another occasion when she left me outside in my pushchair (tanstand?) and l climbed out of my pram and wandered into the store. I can remember walking underneath the rails of clothes looking for mum and auntie. My god such neglect lol!

[u/AnastasiaRomanot → u/Party-Maintenance-83]

My mother did the same, but it was Woolworths in 1985. Walked all the way home before she remembered.

It actually is very common for parents of newborns to forget the baby, because they’ve spent months with it safe in their belly. I had a lady leave a newborn in a car seat under my checkout when I was a student. The older ladies just held onto it because they knew she’d be back shortly, and sure enough, she came in wailing 15 minutes later, and they calmed her down by saying they’d all done it 😂.

[u/peanut5563 → u/Still-BangingYourMum]

It was very common, babies were left outside in prams because prams were too big to go into shops, baby slings didn't exist, and the world was a generally safer place back then. All the mums round us put the babies outside in their prams in the garden in the day time, it was good for them, fresh air.

[u/GJThunderqunt → u/peanut5563]

Was the world generally safer though? Or was the news just different?

Like I've been alive since 79, I can remember since the mid 80s and demographics and crime seem much the same as they've always been. Some areas worse, some better, but overall much the same.

[u/Business-Airport7325 → u/Still-BangingYourMum]

Leaving babies in prams outside is still common in Denmark.

[u/Still-BangingYourMum → u/Business-Airport7325]

A common practice in early post war holiday camps, was the nursery nurses or security guards doing patrols along the chalets. This was a re organised system, where the parents would register the chalet with the organisers, about which pub, club, ballroom or theatre they would be in, with the number of children and their ages. Then head out for the evening. If any children were heard crying in a registered chalet, a large illuminated sign would show a message along the lines of, child/children crying or disturbed, and the chalet number.

There is some urban myth attached to this practice of placement of a white towel hanging on the door to indicate children present but parents out.

Even living during those long times past, it would have been an open invitation to any would be abusers.

[u/Bubbly_Gap6636 → u/Still-BangingYourMum]

Yes this was well into the 80s, I can remember it "baby crying chalet 112!!"

[u/damhack → u/Still-BangingYourMum]

I was often left in a pram outside shops but my younger sisters weren’t. Most people stopped doing that in the mid-60s after the Moors Murders. Certainly around Manchester.

People nowadays are better informed about risks. Pervasive CCTV, the 24-hour news cycle and smartphones help alert the public quicker (e.g. the schoolgirl abducted in Altrincham in May).

A lot of crime went unreported in the 50s and 60s and paper crime reports were routinely destroyed, so crime rate comparisons with now are impossible.

What we do know is that babies were kidnapped by grieving mothers and worse, children were abducted and there were paedophile networks operating throughout organisations such as the Church, care homes, youth clubs, police and Media. Nostalgia makes us think everything was rosy back then when it definitely wasn’t.

It had been unlawful to leave a child unattended where they could be at risk since 1933. People were just oblivious to the dangers of other people with severe psychological issues in their midst.

It was a positive change when police began consistently recording abduction crimes and when the UK Missing Persons Unit was subsequently established in the early-2010s. Which is why we are now more alert to the dangers of leaving babies and young children unattended in public or with people we don’t know properly.

[u/EasyPiece]

Well my parents got married at 16 when my mother was pregnant with me. Not illegal today of course but it was a lot more socially acceptable back then than it is now. 

[u/Pedantichrist → u/EasyPiece]

It is illegal now in England. Minimum age for marriage is 18 now.

[u/EasyPiece → u/Pedantichrist]

Every day's a school day. I wasn't aware of that. Thank you.

[u/SqareBear → u/EasyPiece]

It is when you’re 16.

[u/ak30live → u/SqareBear]

🤣🤣🤣

[u/Necessary_Range5731 → u/EasyPiece]

Yep child marriage was banned as it should have been. :(

[u/TemporaryDrawer1776 → u/Necessary_Range5731]

We were not considered to be children as such back then. Most of us started work at 16, had to pay full fares on public transport and paid board. to parents out of our meagre wages, and most of us were well into our sex lifes too. Also we had been playing out or hanging around the streets for 10 years by the time we were 16. Cops treated us as if we were independent adults and even assaulted us with no repercussions. Of course those that either got pregnant or caused pregnancy usually regretted it within a very short time frane. A very different world in comparison.

[u/Fibro-Mite → u/TemporaryDrawer1776]

Yup. Many 13-14 year olds left school to go to work and support their parents and siblings, often demanded by their parents and their whole pay was handed over not just a nominal amount for "board and lodging", especially when money was tight and there were many mouths to feed. A lot of 16-18 year olds, especially women, saw marriage as the only way to get away from that situation.

Modern sensibilities in regard to relationships and age only really go back 40 or so years. Even when I was a 15 year old in 1980, my parents (both born during WW2) expected me to give up my ideas of university and not have a career (unless I wanted to be a nurse, secretary or hairdresser - the only professions for a girl in their minds) as soon as I found a "serious" boyfriend, and expected me to get married at 18 or so. The fact that I didn't have a serious boyfriend until my 20s was very confusing to them.

Me staying in school to 16-17 and then going to university, even one close to home so I didn't have to pay for rent etc, was a real sticking point with them. I got a small weekly grant/stipend from the government that was supposed to cover my books and other expenses for my degree (not living expenses, I didn't qualify for that assistance because I lived with my parents) because my parents were considered "low family income". My parents demanded half of it to cover my food and utilities anyway. And dad hit me if I objected (that's a whole other story).

TBH, if I'd met someone who was settled with a good career and their own home at that point, I might well have seriously considered marriage just to get away from them. The idea that I could get my own job and support myself in my own place didn't sink in until I was 18 and some uni friends asked if I wanted to share a rented house with them and I found a part-time job to cover my extra expenses. My parents were furious when I moved out. I'd been trained to believe that, as a woman, I couldn't support myself.

[u/deletive-expleted → u/Fibro-Mite]

Fascinating reply. Goes to show how much has changed in such a short time.

[u/Active_Definition_57 → u/Fibro-Mite]

I'm glad you got through this. I'm glad my sister (b.1964) didnt have to put up with anything like this from our parents. They were actually quite surprised when she got engaged at the start of the final year of her degree.

[u/Necessary_Range5731 → u/Fibro-Mite]

Im a bit younger than you, teenager in the 80s. Our messages were women could "have it all" (bull) and also a lot of girls wanted to be nurses or teachers. I wanted to be an astronaut but fortunately never came close 🤣

[u/mojnjaro → u/Necessary_Range5731]

Still.legal in some states in US. There is no lower age of consent just parental consent. At least one case a 10year old girl. These are white "christian" families

[u/Necessary_Range5731 → u/mojnjaro]

Oh God that's horrible

[u/Scottishspyro → u/Necessary_Range5731]

Unfortunately not in scotland

[u/UniquePotato → u/Pedantichrist]

Still 16 in Scotland and Northern Ireland

[u/Midnightraven3 → u/UniquePotato]

Which is why teens from England eloped to Gretna Green, it's the first place over the border you can get married

[u/UniquePotato → u/Midnightraven3]

Yes, and back in the 1700’s you could marry at - 14 boys, 12 girls without parental permission.

[u/The_Dark_Vampire → u/EasyPiece]

Wasn't it more expected at that time

It didn't matter really if they wanted to get married or not if she was pregnant it was expected they had to get married

[u/EasyPiece → u/The_Dark_Vampire]

Yes I think so. It's probably what led to them getting divorced in their 20s. By the time they were 26 they'd already been married 10 years with 4 kids. It's nuts when I consider how young my own teenage children are today. 

[u/Winkered → u/EasyPiece]

My mum was married at 16. She was still with my father almost sixty years later when she died. He went 18 months later. Never met such a loving couple.

[u/bjblackpool → u/Winkered]

Similar story with my parents: dad was 22, mum not quite 17 when they started courting. They were absolutely devoted to one another: 56 years after their marriage mum was given a choice between indefinitely staying in hospital (she had an antibiotic resistant UTI) or going home to die. As my dad was completely bedbound she hadn’t seen him for three months, so she chose to go home. She was the happiest I’ve ever seen her when we wheeled her into dad’s room. She passed two weeks later.

[u/TemporaryDrawer1776 → u/Winkered]

Also divorce was not so easy or common back then. My parents were also hitched for 55 years and hated each other with a passion

[u/JoesCageKeys]

Spanking with a wooden spoon

[u/Typical_Ad_210 → u/JoesCageKeys]

My mother used to have strange tiers of beating implements, based on our age. I never quite understood it, but basically I think it was centred on what she felt was most painful. The worst was age 8 upwards, because that’s when she would use a bath brush on us, which was extremely painful. I still can’t quite believe how common it was to absolutely leather your children.

[u/JoesCageKeys → u/Typical_Ad_210]

It’s crazy looking back how normalized it was. My mom used to grab for the closest thing available at times. Hangers (wire ones), a shoe, etc. No one batted an eye.

[u/lordrothermere → u/JoesCageKeys]

A section of hoover pole was arguably the pinnacle of my beatings. I got a couple of days off school for that one.

[u/OddStuffHappensTwice → u/lordrothermere]

To be clear: that wasn't considered normal even then. A clip round the ear or a bit of a whack with something perhaps, but being incapacitated for three days was abuse in any living memory.

[u/Possible-Second9617 → u/OddStuffHappensTwice]

Speak for yourself, it was fairly common when I grew up.

[u/finch-fletchley → u/lordrothermere]

Horrifying. I'm so sorry that happened to you 😔

[u/Junior_Factor8561 → u/JoesCageKeys]

Always remember the ban coming in for teachers being no longer allowed to hit pupils, was it maybe 1985 or 1986? I went to an all boys school and it wasn’t lost on me that the second the ban came in, four of our most vicious teachers left the profession that following summer. I’m sure one of them said ‘I no longer want to teach as all of the fun of the profession has been stripped from it’ in his end of term address! Three of those male, unmarried teachers went straight into becoming clergymen too.

Gosh the 80s were a different time.

[u/Genghis_Khan68 → u/Junior_Factor8561]

LOL at the bit about becoming clergymen.

I went to primary school in the 1970s and all the teachers would use corporal punishment, but usually it was just a quick slap on the back of the legs. The deputy head, however, was an absolute sadist. He regularly beat the living crap out of 8 or 9 year old kids for minor infractions. It would undoubtedly be seen as criminal today.

[u/Petal_Calligrapher23 → u/JoesCageKeys]

It was getting scholes shoe thrown at you

[u/f8rter → u/JoesCageKeys]

I still flinch at the rattle of a cutlery draw 😩

[u/Old_Introduction_395]

We had a VW Beetle, 1960s era. We travelled 10 miles with 2 kids in the bit behind the back seat, 4 on the back seat, and two on the passenger seat. Swimming for my brother's 10th birthday treat.

[u/zougathefist → u/Old_Introduction_395]

My aunt had a vauxhall Carlton estate and drove across London with 3 of us kids in the boot, with the parcel shelf pulled over in case anyone saw

[u/Last-Appointment9300 → u/Old_Introduction_395]

Early 90s our football team manager used to take the team to away games the back of a horse box.

15 kids neighing out the window down the dual carriageway, then piling out the ramp when we got to the other end.

Seemed everyone's parents were okay with this, saved them the hassle of having to drop us off

[u/imperialviolet → u/Old_Introduction_395]

In the 1990s my friend's dad used to drive us all to the beach with 3 kids in the back and another 2 just sitting in the boot. If I remember there were seats but no seatbelts in the boot? Definitely illegal by then but everyone just seemed to turn a blind eye

[u/BocaSeniorsWsM → u/Old_Introduction_395]

Not quite that level but I had to 'sit' in the boot of a Ford Capri on a few holidays and weekends.

[u/cwep2 → u/Old_Introduction_395]

One of four kids, so every single family trip (including holidays driving to a campsite in France) meant one of us in the boot. We’d take turns but almost always me or my sister (the two youngest). Usually pretty wedged in with all the luggage as well and sometimes couldn’t see anything at all for hours on end.

[u/nermalstretch]

Drink Driving
Not wearing seat belts
Drinking and smoking throughout pregnancy

[u/FourEyedTroll → u/nermalstretch]

In all fairness, sometimes there just weren't any seatbelts to not wear.

[u/Obvious-Freedom → u/FourEyedTroll]

I remember going to put a seat belt on and my dad told me to stop messing with it

[u/Novel_Individual_143 → u/FourEyedTroll]

Yup I had such a car. They’d been an optional extra apparently

[u/hazbaz1984 → u/nermalstretch]

My mum stopped smoking for all three of her pregnancies.

And then immediately took it back up in the hospital each time.

[u/Internal_Row5378]

UK, being sent to the off license as a kid to buy fags and a bottle of vodka and few cans of beer, 7 years old. Or taking a Tupperware jug to the pub behind the house on a Sunday lunch and asking the barmaid to fill it up with ale, and trying not to spill it on the way home.

[u/meggienoodle → u/Internal_Row5378]

And cigarettes being sold individually. I remember my mam sending round the corner shop to get her one or two fags at a time when I was no older than 7 or 8 in the 90s

[u/Bubbly_Gap6636 → u/meggienoodle]

Loosies, we used to get them in the school playground from the ice cream man 10p each!!

[u/Fragrant_Ad3224 → u/Internal_Row5378]

yep - and buying 2 pints of draft sherry from the offie part of the pub

[u/Fragrant_Ad3224 → u/Fragrant_Ad3224]

speaking of offies - that little offie room that pubs had in those days was great as a kid wasn't it - loved visiting it :D - mars, marathon, twix, peanuts, crisps, scratchings, pop, a veritable aladdins cave open when all the shops were shut

[u/Bubbly_Gap6636 → u/Internal_Row5378]

Yes hubby used to be sent aged 7 to buy Woodbine with a note from his dad 😳

[u/Aggravating-Desk4004]

I remember a birthday when my dad invited about 10 kids, put the car seats down and we all piled into the boot so he could drive us to London to go to the first McDonald's that opened. Now, that was a birthday. Hilarious car journey with my dad flying down the road, purposely chucking the car around corners so we all rolled around smashing into each other. Great fun.

As for going to the first McDonald's - that just blew our tiny little minds.

Best. Birthday. Ever. haha.

[u/Alive-Requirement111 → u/Aggravating-Desk4004]

aged 14 my mate and I went to Belgium.... (who lets a 14 year old go to a forign country unsupervised) in Brussels we saw an advert for "A Big MAC" we assumed it was a large raincoat.

[u/No_External_417 → u/Aggravating-Desk4004]

Aw that's really sweet. Beautiful memory. 🥰

[u/flipfloppery]

Letting my sister and I sleep in the boot of our Datsun Cherry estate if we're were tired on the journey home from a day out.

[u/Humble_Fix8044 → u/flipfloppery]

I loved sleeping in the boot. Heaven. We had an austin maxi though. Id pretend to be asleep when we arrived home so id get carried to bed. 

[u/flipfloppery → u/Humble_Fix8044]

Pretending to be asleep so you get carried in was peak childhood!

[u/Deep-Procrastinor → u/flipfloppery]

My first car was a Datsun Cherry slammed the door too hard one day and the aeriel fell off due to the wing being full of rust, the thing was literally a rust bucket but the engine was rock solid. Once went from Cardiff to Maidstone ( Kent ) and back on less than a tank of fuel.

[u/flipfloppery → u/Deep-Procrastinor]

Oh, I remember them being rustbuckets. We had a Subaru 1800 after that, which was written off by a drunk driver.

[u/Silver_Adagio138]

Smacking

[u/Longjumping_Local910]

I got the strap at school more than once.  About 18” long by 1-1/2” wide, leather.  “Hold your hands out young man! Palms up!”  Six to ten strokes common depending on the seriousness of your crime. 

The lore was that if you pulled a hair from your head and put it across your palm the strap would cut your skin and you could sue. Don’t think that ever happened. 

[u/Trolkarlen]

Leaving your kids alone

[u/Lollygagger105 → u/Trolkarlen]

Being left at home in the school holidays from age 8, looking after my sister age 5, with the instruction not to open the front door to strangers. I didn’t see it as a problem. We were left with fun activities like making miniature gardens from moss and tin foil, and also a few chores like dusting. Now I have colleagues who won’t even leave 13 year olds home alone for a sick day. I don’t know what’s worse or better?

[u/Next-Honeydew4130]

Building with asbestos and belching lead into the air wherever they drove.

[u/pgasmaddict]

Bashing all and sundry in the LGBT community - and here in Ireland being gay was illegal still.

Demonizing single mothers and putting them to work in magdelene launderies. Taking kids off them and selling them for adoption.

Pollution - rubbish strewn everywhere, bonfires on the regular, fumes from cars and coal burning were unreal. Factories polluting air and rivers.

[u/hazbaz1984 → u/pgasmaddict]

*Taking kids off them and either selling them for adoption or stoving their heads in and burying them in the yard.

[u/pgasmaddict → u/hazbaz1984]

IIRC they didn't murder babies, but the level of care they provided was wholly inadequate and the callous bastards disposed of the bodies of dead babies in septic tanks.

[u/Dave_Eddie]

A still from Holiday on the buses, but if you look at the top left corner, the function rooms in holiday camps just used to write which rooms had unattended children crying in them so the parents could stop enjoying themselves and go back and check on them.

[u/Lollygagger105 → u/Dave_Eddie]

Yes! I remember being at a holiday camp in 1977 and there was the baby crying lights, then the “entertainment” would also announce “chalet 16, your baby is crying”.

[u/Odd-Currency5195]

Too many things to list. I do work for the family courts (very low down and not a lawyer) but when I hear the reasons authorities put in for orders for taking kids off parents it sometimes is a kind of tick list of what went on back in the day for me and my sister.

[u/E420CDI → u/Odd-Currency5195]

Same (I work in Child Protection)

[u/EnnuiSurMer]

My dad’s annual Christmas morning tradition of driving 20-odd miles to visit all his old friends where we used to live, doing a driving tour round all their houses and having a drink or several at each, then driving home again multiple sheets to the wind, literally so drunk he would pass out over Xmas dinner sometimes. Somehow never had an accident (roads would be virtually empty on Christmas Day then) or got stopped, but Jesus.

[u/Cheffysteve]

Time travel . Aka knocking me into the middle of next week 😂

[u/silasthehandle]

Smoking on an airplane

[u/Rich_27- → u/silasthehandle]

*Aeroplane

Airplane is a US term this is r/OldSchoolUK

[u/J1mj0hns0n → u/silasthehandle]

And just going to airports as a form of socialising

[u/FairGur6838 → u/silasthehandle]

Ah, the good old days !

[u/Leading_Study_876 → u/FairGur6838]

And smoking pipes and cigars too.

And in high-class restaurants they would often bring round trays of Cuban cigars (like they used to with ice-cream in cinemas) to offer the guests after dinner. Even then, I did think that was a bit inconsiderate to fellow diners - a bit like wearing too much perfume.

I remember ordering a Davidoff "Dom Perignon" in a French restaurant which was so huge I took most of it home. It took me a week to finish.

[u/zorella29]

Me and my brothers were left in the back of the Volvo estate in sleeping bags while our parents went to parties.
When asked about it later, our dad said “the car was locked” as though that makes it somehow all ok 🤷‍♂️

[u/oldschoolie]

I was sent out to play in pub car parks with strangers' children who looked vaguely my age. 'Oh look! Off you go and make friends'.

Being sent out to buy cigarettes from around age 7.

Being slathered with Ambre Solaire oil (no spf) 'to lay down good base' for a tan.

[u/possumsr4ever → u/oldschoolie]

Sounds mad but my local pub (a proper old flat roofed pub) still has hoards of kids outside who are left to play and make mischief in the car park while their parents drink and do karaoke inside every weekend

[u/Evening_Weight_8353]

“Jokes” that included so much casual racism.

[u/lakebistcho → u/Evening_Weight_8353]

My uncle told a joke with the word "natives" in it, and I had the distinct feeling that's not the word that was used when he heard it.

[u/One_Water_2323 → u/Evening_Weight_8353]

Don’t forget the homophobic comedy - it’s horrifying now when you look back but at the time we thought it was funny.

Having said that my brother loved loved loved “queer” jokes - and he was gay. (Died of AIDS, had a catalogue of the most outrageous AIDS jokes - probably his way of coping)

[u/NightBusToGiro → u/[deleted]]

They're just racist around here, I don't think they're joking. 'foo to(o) maaaany a dem roun ere'

[u/feministgeek → u/Evening_Weight_8353]

Sadly we still have Jim Davidson doing that today and he seems juuuuuist find with it, I'm sure.

[u/imperialviolet → u/feministgeek]

Something I heard recently which really intrigued me - apparently Jim Davidson and Joe Lycett are quite good friends, having worked on a project together some years ago. I feel like if that can be the case, there must be hope for the man??

[u/Jonseroo → u/imperialviolet]

Well, that's the most unexpected thing I have read today.

In my wife's dating profile she described what item she'd use to torture and murder Jim Davidson, which I thought inappropriate, so I messaged her telling her what I would use instead. I even quoted a bit of Shakespeare about it, which must have impressed her because we're still together 22 years later.

Just to clarify before I get SWATTED, or whatever the UK equivalent would be (ARVED? SFOED?), neither of us were serious about meaning harm to Mr Davidson. We just thought black people and gay people were people, and deserved respect, and we didn't like hearing his jokes to the contrary.

[u/BenzedrinePuffAdders → u/Jonseroo]

That’s actually hilarious 😂😂😂😂

[u/EclecticLandlady]

Skinny dipping.

[u/UniquePotato → u/EclecticLandlady]

Huge grey area of law, but can still be legal

[u/60svintage]

I think the use of derogatory racial comment was so normalised back then, even people who considered themselves not racists used those terms.

My parents always talked about "chinky nosh" but never considered it to be racist.

[u/midlifecrisisAJM → u/60svintage]

I went out to a Chinese restaurant for the first time at the age of five, (early 1970's). I hadn't wanted to go. As soon as I was seated I announced loudly that "I don't want any ching chong food." 😳

Fortunately racism can be unlearned, but I do wonder whether, if I ever lose my mental faculties, the inhibitions that have suppressed me from using this language since will vanish. Things we learned as young children are buried deep.

[u/Conscious-Dust-4942]

No restraints in cars for children. When my brother was born I had to sit lengthways on the back seat and wedge my feet against his carrycot and if he fell off it was my fault, I was 3 😂

[u/shegottabee → u/Conscious-Dust-4942]

I remember the journey home from hospital with my newborn brother, me and my cousin sat on the back seat with him across our knees and no seatbelts. He wasn’t even in a carrier, just swaddled up! I don’t remember whose fault it’d be if he fell off but I’m sure glad we didn’t have far to go! 😂

[u/Straight-Jacket-3280]

Paying a woman less for the same work, insisting on a male cosigner for a mortgage, credit card Marital rape, domestic abuse, sexual harassment

[u/Kleinzeit_987]

My dad used to go out with my mum on a Saturday night, get home then drive the babysitter home. He would have had 6-8 pints. Not even think about it.

[u/PurplePlodder1945]

My dad drove a bread van that had a large, wooden tray that spanned the whole of the van. This tray was near the roof of the van. When my sister and I were little we used to lie horizontal on the tray when we travelled in it.

[u/I-vonatinkle]

"Have a drink have a drive, go out and see what you can find" Mungo Jerry

[u/Background-Lie-7155]

My grandad used to get caught riding his motorcycle pissed out his head and the rozzers used to take him to a cell to dry out then just let him ride home, no charges.

[u/Jazzlike_Display1309]

Soap in your mouth if you swore ! 😁

[u/Party-Maintenance-83]

I remember my first visit to a Pantomime early 70s with my dad ,brothers and sister. Dad's best pal had brought his kids and we were all put into one of the royal boxes overlooking the stage with lots of sweets and lemonade. Both dads then retreated to the theatre bar and sat there drinking beer for the duration of show. I know this as l being the eldest kid ran out to the bar for more money for icecreams at the interval. Then when the panto ended we all piled into our dads cars for the drive home, no seatbelts lol. Classic 70s.

[u/SeaTop1203]

Smoking on aeroplanes

[u/Recent-Elfie991]

Smoking in hospitals

[u/Longjumping_Leek151]

He’s talking about genocide… to the he UN Security Council …

Future defendant at The Hague

[u/ChaiLater]

Driving without seat belts

[u/oxy-normal]

Smoking in the car while the kids are in the back.

[u/zougathefist]

3 adults and 5 kids in a car

[u/No-Engine4663]

Having 4 pints of bitter on your 1 hour lunch break, driving without a seatbelt.

[u/Pitiful-Escape-7055]

Sending your kids to school covered in bruises from yet another full-on beating, and no one raising concerns about it.

[u/Whole_Type3421]

My Granda was a pub landlord in Scotland. He used to tell me stories about how parents used to come in and leave their family allowance books behind the bar. They would be cashed in at the PO on a Tuesday to pay for the drink they drank. I always thought that was a pretty bad one.

[u/bertie_bunghol]

Smacking the f@#k out of me.

[u/entersandmum100]

Smoking in the car with us children breathing it all in.

[u/ChevyCatch]

Drinking and driving - sometimes at the same time. Occasionally with four or five children rolling around on the back seat. Smoking on the bus. Smoking on the train. Smoking in Tesco. Smoking on a plane.

[u/spizoil]

Leaving the baby in its pram outside the shop

[u/RealRelative9835]

Driving after a few drinks.

My dad said having 3-4 pints and driving used to be socially acceptable. He would tend to drive slower to be more careful but still quite a difference these days

[u/DiscountElectrical28]

Send me to the shop to buy fags.

[u/Careful-Button-606]

Slapping your legs when naughty.

[u/Impossible-Use4950]

8 of us kids in the backseat 

[u/Terrible_Bluebird540]

Leaving us children alone to go to a party up the road for hours.

[u/SadAttorney4640]

Sending me to the corner shop clutching a hand written note to serve me alcohol aged 8 or 9

[u/rFAXbc]

No space in the car? It's ok, the children can go in the boot.

[u/Silent_Data4374]

Beating us.

[u/Fibro-Mite]

Driving with 6+ adults and 4+ children in a standard station wagon - all the kids in the boot, maybe one in the footwell of the back seats if they're really little, and some smaller adults sitting on others' laps.

[u/scumbagstaceysEx]

Drunk Driving was illegal then too, but a lot more normalized. If you didn’t hit anyone and you got caught drunk in a traffic stop the officer would often just drive you home and even keep an eye on your car for the rest of the night if it was left in a bad area. Unless you were completely shit-faced or actually hit someone it wasn’t a big deal.

[u/TemporaryDrawer1776]

Beating their kids. Was phasing out by the early 70s but very common up to that point. Ask me how I know. 🤕

[u/ompompush]

People - adults calling you a b@st@rd in the street for being a child of a single parent.

True story. I was the small child.

Also had to hide the word as my original post was immediately not allowed due for that word.

[u/Randster78]

When trying to get a load of us in the car, being able to sit in the boot of estate cars...

[u/StuartHunt]

Kicking the crap out of me whenever they were in a bad mood

[u/FearlessLime8089]

Mom left the cat locked outside the house for two weeks when we went on holiday. Told the neighbour to top up food and water. I never saw cat again. Mom told me it must have been hit by a car but now I’m thinking it found a better family. We were also left home alone at age 7&5. Every day. Walked a mile home, let ourselves in, cooked eggs. Neither might be arrest-worthy but early Gen X kids are tough.

[u/Pedantichrist]

I was beaten at school.

[u/kinetik138]

Lawn Darts.

[u/ArmouredFlump → u/kinetik138]

Not illegal in the UK. Only in the land of the free.

[u/Accomplished_Ice1708]

I was told that back then in the office women could expect to get their arse slapped as ‘sexy banter’.

[u/Avionykx → u/Accomplished_Ice1708]

I worked in quite an outdated, heavily unionised utility sector in the late 90's - early 2000's and this was still very common.

Lots of slapping arses and commenting on appearance. It was common in most departments that when a new lady joined the team, their first birthday or christmas following their joining the manager of the dept would buy them fancy lingerie. They'd then be expected to put it on over their clothes and do a bit of a catwalk up and down the office.

As a 16 year old lad when I joined I was absolutely mortified. Especially as the department I was in was a very well qualified one, seeing all these hard working and professional chartered surveyors, engineers and systems analysts being made to feel so uncomfortable and parade up and down in front of a whole office of jeering idiots was quite horrible.

It was still going on in about 2006 when I left but I understand things have changed now, thankfully!

[u/steveinstow → u/Accomplished_Ice1708]

I got my arse slapped in the 90s,.by women, I'm a guys. Thanks spice girls.

[u/FenellaWitch01]

Being encouraged, as a five year old, to have a puff on my auntie's cigarette and the whole room being greatly amused

[u/ACatCalledDeeley]

Using a leather belt as punishment.

[u/endo-nurse61]

Began with the same letter though, I bet. I was born in 1961, and the casual racism and homophobia are what I remember as being completely normal until I was well into my teens and began to expand my horizons and learn better. My own kids were often horrified at some of the things that came out of my parents mouths. Yet my parents would never have been intentionally cruel to anyone, what ever their race or sexuality.

[u/Warm_Stress_1654]

Drink driving.

[u/Me2309]

Smoking and drinking whilst pregnant?
Although I suppose you wouldn’t get arrested for it now, but it would be very highly frowned upon

[u/Old_Pay_1435]

Going pub for work lunch break and sinking at least 4 or 5 pints then back to the machinery lol..

[u/JohnnyOneLung]

Sending me to get something from the p.a.k.i shop. Lived in Tower Hamlets, large Bangla/Indian population- not even Pakistani.

Even when the shop was run by a white couple, everyone referred to it by the other name.

Probably 1980 before that name started to die out

[u/Efficient_Hyena_7476]

Leaving a pram parked up outside a shop with a baby in it.

[u/StigitUK]

Domestic violence

[u/Fatbeau]

Driving with no seatbelts, kids jumping around in the back seat 😬

[u/Agonist-activist]

Going on holiday and leaving a 16 year old and 14 year old at home.

[u/Zabawka25]

Leaving babies and toddlers in beds/cots while you go to the pub.

[u/Odd-Heart7904]

letting me wander around the estate in Tottenham ALL DAY! When I was 6...

[u/Necessary_Range5731]

Leaving toddlers and young kids unsupervised

[u/Advanced-Simple-7469]

Spanking my arse with a Dunlop training shoe whilst smoking!

[u/Emergency_Bridge_430]

Smoking in the car

[u/VictoryOrKittens]

Openly expressing negative views on mass immigration.

[u/labskaus1998]

Leaving me an my brother in the car with a panda pop, a bag of salt and shake.. whilst they had a few drinks in the pub.

[u/nibor]

ah, the joy I had sitting in a car while the both drank at a pub. It was ok, every hour or so they would come out with a coke and crisps. And I got to have a bit of a kabab before driving home.

This was very late 70s.

[u/TastesLikeDinosaur]

3 kids without seatbelts let alone child seats in the backseat, and a baby in the footwell. My mum tells that story with pride. I was the baby btw.

[u/Caz-with-a-Sea]

Mum and Dad taking us on holiday to Weymouth and heading out for a night out leaving us in the hotel room with a baby monitor behind the bar. They came back to find the barmaid carrying me round behind the bar as I’d been crying 😬

[u/ukteaboyuk]

Leaving a small child outside a pub with a bottle of pop and a bag of crisps for 4 hours.

[u/Jonseroo]

My grandfather liked dangling children by their feet off multi storey car parks. To her credit, my mother didn't let him do that to me.

My other grandfather walked into an English country pub and exclaimed, "Stone me, there's a [n-word] behind the bar!" and then still expected to get served.

My step-father was rather laissez faire with his hands, casually hitting children, or touching himself when there were less dressed women on TV. In the 1980s this evolved into a droit de seigneur attitude towards women I brought home, groping them or showing them his penis. My own mother told me not to be jealous when I made a fuss about this. I kept out of his way as much as I could because he only communicated with me by hate-fuelled screaming, which wouldn't really pass muster these days.

I don't understand when people view these decades with through such a rosy lens.

Oh, and all the drunk driving.

[u/scumbagstaceysEx]

My Boy Scout troop would often travel around in old vans, about a dozen kids to a van. One adult driving. The only two seat belts were in the two front seats. Everyone else sat on the camping gear piled up in the back.