Things that passed muster when you were a kid

[sarahbear]

Riding in the back of pickup trucks around town.

[abs]

Everything?

Riding in pick up trucks. Being out from sun up to sun down on weekends and in summer and never really checking in at home. No seatbelts. Staying home after school by myself starting in like 3rd grade.

[gummybear]

When I was in 6th or 7th grade we went to a hospital for a field trip. We were learning about blood types. We were set up at a table with a plastic tarp over it and given finger prickers and the chemicals to mix with blood, slides, and microscopes. We were all pricking each other, squeezing blood out of each other, smearing it on the slides etc. OH, and they didn't change the tarp from the group before us so there was blood all over it to begin with! This is one of my favorite WTF stories from childhood.

I also got my mouth taped shut in first grade.

[wambam]

My cousins and I used to "camp" in my uncle's van in the driveway. He would make us "Frankie drink" which was warm milk and honey lol. I don't know if that counts, but allowing kids to sleep in a car overnight seems...different.

My parents took me too see a lot of movies I definitely should not have been watching. Notably, Forest Gump when I was 6.

The amount of sugar I ate was astonishing lol. Gushers, fruit roll ups, sugary cereal, soda, HiC, etc etc.

[Bernadine]

My dad used to sit me on his lap when we turned onto our road, and let me steer the rest of the way to our house.

[Eagles]

Oct 19, 2017 8:38:45 GMT -5 gummybear said:

I also got my mouth taped shut in first grade.

My first grade teacher would staple lace to the boys' shirts if they were untucked, because she said they obviously wanted to wear a slip.

[lovelyshoes]

Oct 19, 2017 8:45:57 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

My dad used to sit me on his lap when we turned onto our road, and let me steer the rest of the way to our house.

One of my best childhood memories!

[macmars45]

Riding in the back of my great grandpa's pickup truck every summer when we visited him & great grandma.
Running around our acre+ of land (with a fast moving creek at the edge of the property behind lots of trees) with my sisters & cousins on weekends & all summer and only checking in at lunchtime/coming home for dinner.
ETA: when on long car trips my twin sister & I would lay down in the back of the station wagon to sleep/rest. No seat belts & definitely no car seat even though we started doing that when we were 5/6 at the latest.

[Crystal]

So many things. It's a wonder we're all still alive!

[winecat]

When I was in kindergarten, the teacher fell on me and broke my arm when we were sitting on the floor for storytime. This was way before cell phones and they couldn't get ahold of my mom, so they loaded me in someone's car and took me to the ER. They left me there alone! I remember being scared. They finally got me in a room but my roommate had just been in a motorcycle accident so he was all bloody. He was okay and conscious and felt bad for me so he was talking to me trying to make me feel better.

[winecat]

My grandmother used to send me and my two younger cousins to the store by ourselves with the dog off leash.

[wambam]

Oct 19, 2017 8:52:19 GMT -5 winecat said:

When I was in kindergarten, the teacher fell on me and broke my arm when we were sitting on the floor for storytime. This was way before cell phones and they couldn't get ahold of my mom, so they loaded me in someone's car and took me to the ER. They left me there alone! I remember being scared. They finally got me in a room but my roommate had just been in a motorcycle accident so he was all bloody. He was okay and conscious and felt bad for me so he was talking to me trying to make me feel better.

WHAT. THE. FUCK. They left you there?! Taking you to the ER is one thing. Leaving a 5 year old ALONE in the emergency room is insane. 

[Bernadine]

winecat wins this game!

[franky]

I got my hand smacked with a ruler daily by my second grade teacher because I always had to ask someone for a pencil.

[ThirdandLong]

We played tag during recess practically every single day, every single recess. My kid's school doesn't allow touch tag. They are only permitted to step on each other's shadows. This seems lame to me.

My mom also made treats for my birthday, as did other parents for their kids, and we took several minutes to celebrate the birthday kid and enjoy the treats at the end of the school day. We aren't allowed to bring homemade treats anymore.

On that note, parents were allowed in the school and in the classroom. I can remember various reasons for this happening. But at my kid's school, you have to be buzzed in the front door and then you stay in the office while your kid is summoned, no matter the reason, or you drop whatever off and they take it to your kid (on their timetable). I get that it's a safety thing, I really do!, but during the entire school year, I see their classroom once before the school year begins and that's it. It just feels odd to me, since that's not AT ALL how it was for me growing up.

[winecat]

wambam and @mama2b- I remember them leaving and being terrified. I wasn't even in the room yet when they left. The motorcycle guy was in the room when they put me there and he was all WTF so he tried to keep me calm/distract me.

Being 5, I was excited that I didn't have to go back to school and got chocolate ice cream instead.

[gummybear]

There are so many minor things too.
Our grade school was a voting precinct and on election days, randoms would just be roaming the halls to vote.
My second grade teacher used to yank out loose teeth so they'd be less of a distraction.
Everyone used to leave their kids in the car when they ran errands.

[wambam]

Oct 19, 2017 9:02:12 GMT -5 winecat said:

wambam and @mama2b - I remember them leaving and being terrified. I wasn't even in the room yet when they left. The motorcycle guy was in the room when they put me there and he was all WTF so he tried to keep me calm/distract me.

Being 5, I was excited that I didn't have to go back to school and got chocolate ice cream instead.

I just don't understand how anyone, at any time in history, would think this is totes fine. Just sit with the kid until the parent comes. ANY adult from the school will do!

[followyourarrow]

Hay rack rides.
Being allowed to walk over a mile to the city swimming pool by myself starting at age 8.
The school bus just dropped us off, didn't check to see if parents were there or not.

[mcsangel2]

Our neighborhood was directly adjacent to a mall. I spent a lot of free time (especially in the summer) going over there by myself (or with my cousin who was one year younger). Starting when I was 10-11. Never even told my parents where I was going most of the time.

[thebreakfastclub]

On the last day of school when I was in elementary, the bus driver had us close up all the windows, and we had a giant paper fight with our old notebooks, etc, as she drove us home.

I do think back fondly of that though.

[gummybear]

Oct 19, 2017 9:03:45 GMT -5 followyourarrow said:

Hay rack rides.
Being allowed to walk over a mile to the city swimming pool by myself starting at age 8.
The school bus just dropped us off, didn't check to see if parents were there or not.

This was on my list too. I KNOW I was younger than 10 bc we moved when I was 10, but I was allowed to cross a busy street (Baltimore Pike for locals), then I had to scale a cliff to take the shortcut to the pool. It was so steep you had to cling to a chain-link fence and go down sideways. 

[mcsangel2]

Oct 19, 2017 9:00:28 GMT -5 ThirdandLong said:

We played tag during recess practically every single day, every single recess. My kid's school doesn't allow touch tag. They are only permitted to step on each other's shadows. This seems lame to me.

My mom also made treats for my birthday, as did other parents for their kids, and we took several minutes to celebrate the birthday kid and enjoy the treats at the end of the school day. We aren't allowed to bring homemade treats anymore.

On that note, parents were allowed in the school and in the classroom. I can remember various reasons for this happening. But at my kid's school, you have to be buzzed in the front door and then you stay in the office while your kid is summoned, no matter the reason, or you drop whatever off and they take it to your kid (on their timetable). I get that it's a safety thing, I really do!, but during the entire school year, I see their classroom once before the school year begins and that's it. It just feels odd to me, since that's not AT ALL how it was for me growing up.

Tag. TAG??

We played dodgeball at my school. Coed. For P.E.

[mcsangel2]

Oct 19, 2017 9:05:38 GMT -5 thebreakfastclub said:

On the last day of school when I was in elementary, the bus driver had us close up all the windows, and we had a giant paper fight with our old notebooks, etc, as she drove us home.

I do think back fondly of that though.

Last day of school at my (small, parochial) elementary, each year, was a water balloon fight sponsored by the teachers. It was awesome.

[fivechickens]

Not wearing a seatbelt, sitting in the front seat of the car as a toddler, carseats were optional (not even sure I was in one as a toddler and I don’t know what I was in as a newborn/infant).

I remember my mom taking us on car rides and I would lay my head on her lap and take a nap while she drove.

I remember my aunt taking my cousins and I on errands when we were young and she would leave us in the car and tell us if anyone bothered us to lay on the horn.

That’s all I can think of now but it was the 70’s/80’s so there is a lot more I am sure.

Smoking on airplanes.

[felicity]

Dodgeball. The 6th grade teachers organized a (voluntary) tournament every year during recess and the winning class got a trophy that they proudly displayed for the rest of the school year. It was legendary at my school. I remember some big kid pegged me in the chin one time, and it knocked me back so hard that it sent me flying on the asphalt. So fun lol.

[gummybear]

Oct 19, 2017 9:05:49 GMT -5 mcsangel2 said:

Oct 19, 2017 9:00:28 GMT -5 ThirdandLong said:

We played tag during recess practically every single day, every single recess. My kid's school doesn't allow touch tag. They are only permitted to step on each other's shadows. This seems lame to me.

My mom also made treats for my birthday, as did other parents for their kids, and we took several minutes to celebrate the birthday kid and enjoy the treats at the end of the school day. We aren't allowed to bring homemade treats anymore.

On that note, parents were allowed in the school and in the classroom. I can remember various reasons for this happening. But at my kid's school, you have to be buzzed in the front door and then you stay in the office while your kid is summoned, no matter the reason, or you drop whatever off and they take it to your kid (on their timetable). I get that it's a safety thing, I really do!, but during the entire school year, I see their classroom once before the school year begins and that's it. It just feels odd to me, since that's not AT ALL how it was for me growing up.

Tag. TAG??

We played dodgeball at my school. Coed. For P.E.

We played this game where you linked arms and someone had to run at full speed and try to break through. On concrete. Many a concussion was had by kids who failed. And this other game where you threw a tennis ball at a wall and and then some poor soul had to run there and back before the ball returned and if you didn't, you get pegged with it. Or something like that.

[cabbagecabbage]

My mom was considered very safe because she wouldn't let us ride in the back of pickups or in the way back of station wagons. She also wouldn't let us have sugar cereal or white bread. Life was pretty hard.


Every year we went to a huge 4th of July party on a farm and a family friend would sneak me and my sister away to help set off the big fireworks. We were like 6 and 8. When we were 10 or so, we started having bottle rocket fights with the country kids. They were brutal. My mom never knew. He also used to let us ride the huge lawnmower with him. Good times.

[wambam]

Dodgeball is not allowed? Even with those foam balls?

[jreeds]

Oct 19, 2017 8:52:19 GMT -5 winecat said:

When I was in kindergarten, the teacher fell on me and broke my arm when we were sitting on the floor for storytime. This was way before cell phones and they couldn't get ahold of my mom, so they loaded me in someone's car and took me to the ER. They left me there alone! I remember being scared. They finally got me in a room but my roommate had just been in a motorcycle accident so he was all bloody. He was okay and conscious and felt bad for me so he was talking to me trying to make me feel better.

 This is literally my face when reading this.