Posted By Jonathan Sandler CMIOSH
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 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 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it Tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice 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 could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We did not have Play stations 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 DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt!

We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no lawsuits.

We had full on fistfights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us.

We walked to friends' homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mum or dad to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.

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

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

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!

Show this to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good. For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us.

Dont forget the cotton wool!

Posted By Charles
And do you what has sneaked in while we have been enriching ourselves and others with modern technology ... crime. So I think the balance of social life we had will never be the same again unless crime is irradicated, and parents can be parents again ... kids need to feel free ... in a SAFE ENVIRONMENT!

Posted By Charles
Now what have our children turned into ... a lot of unsociable human beings ... surely this can be reverted with careful strategic planning in illiminating CRIME and motivating our children to explore and feel nature FREELY ... imagine how healthy, stressless and environmentally conscious they will be ...

Posted By AlB
As a 28 year old I'm stuck somewhere inbetween.

Going out and actually having fun as opposed to being in front of a TV all evening was great - getting caked in mud and dog turd on the school playing field during lunchtime whilst playing good old "British Bulldog".

But then, when it was raining there was that great contraption that took 30 minutes to get going - ZX Sinclair Spectrum!

Posted By Mark Talbot
I don't have kids, but I can tell you that my sister's hoard did all of the above and more.

Don't take the average newspaper column as your witness on children's lives today.

If you prohibit your kids from learning the hard way blame yourself, not others... but they might at least make it to our age if you instill "a little bit of common" (as my mom would always say).

Posted By IT
I remember when my older Brother and I walked bare foot through the country property and during the summer lifted fallen sheet of corrigated iron ,why to throw rocks at the 3-4 Tiger Snakes nestled underneath and running when they got annoyed at us .

I still remember manners as well and teach my kids the same .

IT

Posted By GD
Those WERE the days, I remember lining up 12 kids side by side on their backs on the playing field, just so that I could launch my 50cc motorbike of the end of a 12" high ramp and over them. I did wear a crash hat though! Also remember going carol singing and my mate Kef had a home made lantern (glass bottle full of 2 star with a rag stuck in the top). Fortunately it was unlit when my other mate Col's dad confiscated it.

Posted By Jack
OK you've conviced me, h&s practitioners are incredibly sad. This has appeared at least twice before, but the saddest thing is the same people reply!

Posted By J Knight
John,

I agree with what you say in summary, large sections of the media & the political classes have a hidden agenda on H&S, but much of what we are alluding to is not based on sound risk judgment. Kids crawling under machines and lax safety standards in playgrounds is one thing, but children not being allowed out to play for fear of the bogey-man is another. Offences against children were as common in the nineteen-sixties as they are now, but I was nonetheless allowed to go out and explore my environment. We don't yet know the long-term psychological effects of cosseting kids in the way parents do now, but we may have lost a key part of growing up by over-compensating for what is largely imagined peril. I know that there some kids still allowed out to play, but having just come back from Mexico it's striking by contrast how rarely we see children here without adult company.

Me, I'm just glad I grew up as I did with the freedoms I had,

John

Posted By John Allen
John,

My posting was largely aimed at things which have made the environment physically safer for children ie seat belts, pelican crossings, rubber matting under swings, child proof caps and so on.

I do agree with you on the issue of the "bogeyman" on the street corner. It's interesting that the media has two apparently conflicting agendas. Whilst always ready to criticise safety precautions they are the first to stoke up public fears about paedophilia. Kids are at a bigger danger from their own parents than strangers.

Of course the last thing we can expect from the media is consistency.

Posted By Merv Newman
Unfortunately I do remember when "the safety officer" was not in the least respected. It was a job reserved for those who were no good for anything else.

Put up a few posters, fill out the accident reports, don't ask questions and keep off my back !

Then retire quietly on your pension. We won't miss you and we may not even bother to replace you. Or your posters.

Posted By Alison Melrose
After watching "Life on Mars" last night I can't say I miss the fashion from back then!

There was the local bobby though who would threaten to "tell yer mum" if you were misbehaving (for that read standing chatting to your mates rather than joy riding / breaking and entering / happy slapping that the kids seem to do these days!) AND they did know your Mum as they lived locally.

The summer holidays lasted for ever and the highlight was jumping head first off a 20ft stack of hay bales into a pile of straw then getting chased by the farmer! I still have the scar on my knee from a barb wired fence I tried to vault..

There were safety advertisements on the TV - Tufty crossing the road safely (along with the Green Cross Code man)and the kid in the quarry.

I remember wearing my Dad's firefighter outfit to the local gala. It June and the temperature was 26 degrees - I was about 9 years old. The boots were massive and the "slickers" heavy. The jacket almost reached the floor. The material has changed, the clothing is lighter and more efficient (though I doubt I'd make £35 from walking round the village these days!). We spent the money on fizz bombs / licorice lips and ...oooh, "Top Dec" cider (the rebel in me!).

My brother had a ZX Spectrum (but wouldn't let me play on it very often as I was a "girl" and that was a "boy" toy). I had my Sindy though and she was TOUGH! (she could abseil from the bedroom window better then Action Man).

The 70's and 80's were fun..children seemed a lot more "innocent" back then. Kids were brought up to respected their elders (today they are taught to speak their minds and many show little or no respect for anyone or anything). The PC brigade weren't around - I had a Golly Wog and nobody said it was wrong.

Back then the hospitals were clean (I don't recall MRSA!). The transport system is about the same though (there is still only one bus an hour to the village I stayed in - and it takes longer now!).

Posted By Descarte
If you had all this, walked everywhere, did everything that way, how come now your children don't. Where did *you* go wrong.

Did you get lazy? maybe as it is easier to drive round the corner, or leave your kids watching TV or playing computer games, maybe its easier to earn money by sueing companies than earning it yourselves, or leaving the teachers to bring up your children as you are too busy, and when they do a bad job you can then blame them too.

I don't think its the childrens fault at all.

Sits back to wait for numerous slanderous comments.

Posted By Alison Melrose
We now live in a media controlled fear climate...

Whenever Bush is struggling in the polls, cart out a tape from Osama (the bogeyman) and ramp up the fear of terrorism

Don't let your children play - fear of abduction, being sued (the lady who threw a snowball at her own kid, in her own garden being taken to court by the neighbour because it nearly hit their child a prime example).

When I was a kid, the news wasn't 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with hypothesis and dissection of each and every story. I watched Newsround with John Craven and wasn't asked to "e-mail my view on...". I wasn't ignorant but neither was the news immediate..if something happened in a foreign country, we'd hear about it a day later when it had become "sanitised". Now you get the blood, guts and gore live in your living room. Granted, kids today seem a lot more "worldly" - there was a sense of innocence back then that seems to be lost a lot earlier in life nowadays..

However, kids are a lot more confident in their abilities and are not afraid to question things..good luck to them!