No we didn't - it was different. We always think what we do / did is better than what other people do particularly with the rosy
glow of hindsight. (Unless of course we were continuously ill or some such)
0 Kudo
DEBATE Did we have a better childhood?
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 Bluecat |
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Posts: 229 (21/07/2008 08:19:58) |
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rattybird |
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Posts: 45 (21/07/2008 08:40:58) |
I do not remember my childhood with much fondness, my mother always worked and from age 11 I was on my own a lot, I was an only child, I think my sons who are
now 30 and 33 had a better childhood than me, I stayed home with them, and they were able to go off and play, I think the children today are missing out on
freedom that past generations had.
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 Matilda |
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Posts: 658 (21/07/2008 10:06:04) |
I think children have the wrong sort of freedom now. We would go out, ride bikes, fall out of trees etc. They seem to go out and just hang around shouting and
swearing and getting into trouble. No one seems to care what they are doing. Our parents always knew where we were and what we were up to. We had to be in by a
certain time. But then I lived in a very rural area, so we had plenty of space to play.
Sue |
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lady of kent |
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Posts: 406 (21/07/2008 10:55:57) |
I think we had a better childhood, I can remember going to play over the `field` and getting rides on the milk float, counting the coal in, spending the hours
just `playing` we didnt have lots of toys, but my first pram and bike were like a godsend
 , I can see it sometimes in the grandchildren when we take them out without
their parents. backberry picking was a great hit with them last year. lv
Janet
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craftytiger |
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Posts: 475 (21/07/2008 11:19:56) |
Course we had a better childhood just like the generation before us and every generation after us. Mine was a fabulous childhood and I hope when my boys grow
up they will look back and think the same about theirs.
Of course they will miss out on playing with the ZX spectrum and Grandstand ( the electronic game with tennis, badminton etc, but there were little lines moving up and down as the players and the ball was a little square with no sense of direction) But hey if they are happy I think they could do without some of the things I had. Clair |
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BALMCAKE |
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Posts: 984 (21/07/2008 13:26:08) |
Although I had an abusive stepfather I have to say yes, we made our own entertainment, we ate more natural foods, we played out
mostly safely, we didn't sit in front of the TV or computer all day , we were taught discipline in schools, we went to Sunday school and actually enjoyed
going, those of us from poorer families got lots of clothes from jumble sales and had fun rummaging through all the clothes, mother did all the cooking there
were no ready meals full of god knows what, children who were naughty were just naughty not labeled with some ailment, but those days there were not as many
additives in our foods as there are today, we could swing from trees on rope swings and play near becks catching tadpoles and frogs and just be children,
someone could give a harmless hug and if you were upset in school the teacher would give you an Innocent cuddle not like today when all the wrong things are
thought, so yes we did have a better and happier childhood because we were allowed to be children.
Wendy |
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Jane C |
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Posts: 398 (21/07/2008 14:34:52) |
I don't think my childhood was better than the one my children had, just different. We didn't have wall to wall TV and electronic games that some do
now, but then my parents didn't have the money to take us on holidays abroad etc.
Surely it's up to us, to give our children the best possible childhood we can. If they have computers, games consoles etc then who is it that buys them? No-one says we have to. None of my children had TV's etc in their bedrooms when growing up, much to their embarassment and annoyance, but it was something I was adamant about. I saw far too many children, 'plonked' in front of the TV, to keep them occupied, instead of their parents spending time with them. I know it isn't always the case, before everyone jumps on me, but it does happen. I used to look forward to school holidays, having the children at home with me. Being able to play with them, spend time with them. I cringe now when I hear people saying ' I'm dreading the school holidays, 7 weeks of the kids being at home" Don't get me wrong, my 3 weren't always angels, we used to have arguements and they'd fall out etc. Surely we saw our childhood through a childs eyes, where as now, we see our children's childhood from an adults perspective, it's bound to be different. Jane xxx |
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Suzy03 |
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Posts: 6954 (21/07/2008 14:53:12) |
Only yesterday I was remembering being under the covers on a sunday night with a torch and radio listening to luxembourg.Oh Ali, I remember doing that too, great fun! 
My parents were extremely over protective so my sister and I didn't have quite so much freedom as many of our friends (well my sis did as she would do her own thing and damn the consequences but I was Miss Goody Two Shoes  ). I do remember being allowed out with friends to roam the fields which isn't a
very safe thing for children to do these days (assuming the fields haven't been built on of course as most of the ones I remember have). Of course there
wasn't 24 hour TV or computers either.....not that I can comment on over use of the computer 
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pennyday |
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Posts: 42 (21/07/2008 16:32:00) |
oh definately a better child hood, playing in the street, disappearing over the fields for hours at a time, but cause there was loads of us kids together we
were all safe. Everyone in the street new everyone else and most of the poeple for 3 streets around, so you knew not to get upto anything you really shouldnt
cause you were too well known. We were one of the slightly luckier familys in the sense that we were the only family in the street with a car, but on the
downside of that was the fact that my father left for work before we got up and didnt get home until we were long in bed, consequently we only really saw him
at the weekends.
All us kids had bikes that were basically second hand or cobbled together, roller skates, which when the leather broke we rigged on to a board, guess where skate boards came from, I wish I had patented that idea we had. Mino fishing, and fruit picking. Oh and in the summer swimming in the river, great, just meant that we needed a bath when we got home cause the river bed was so muddy. heehee great fun, the kids of today miss out on so much. |
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dogdaft |
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Posts: 434 (21/07/2008 19:44:08) |
we definately had a better child hood for many reasons.
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Henriwfc |
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Posts: 13 (21/07/2008 19:52:25) |
<<Only yesterday I was remembering being under the covers on a sunday night with a torch and radio listening to luxembourg>>
LOL - only I used to hide under the covers listening to Radio 4's "Book at Bedtime. (I was a strange child). I particularly remember being frightened by (but loving every minute of) John Buchan's "The Three Hostages" when I was about 10 years old. I don't suppose modern children are allowed to read Buchan as he is probably considered racist, sexist and thoroughly non-PC these days. |
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Henriwfc |
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Posts: 13 (21/07/2008 20:05:48) |
sue09 wrote: But I remember a primary school friend who caught polio in the epidemic in the '50s. She survived but was crippled by it and never returned to school. Another child in the village was blind as a result of measles. I taught a child who was fed by the teaching staff in the morning and before he went home because he wouldn't get anything else until his school dinner next day. And that was in the 1970s! |
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mazfrance |
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Posts: 1335 (21/07/2008 20:18:09) |
Well, maybe I didn't, but that was because I grew up in Bombay and Karachi, and was never allowed out by myself..... wherever I went, I had to have a
servant with me, not much fun.....
Then I went to boarding school just outside Derby, and we weren't allowed to talk to anyone from the village either, especially the boys 
I truly envy people who had a carefree childhood, I tried to give my children as carefree a childhood as possible. |
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TheSwedishTulip |
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Posts: 421 (21/07/2008 21:04:00) |
Yes I think it was better in the way that it wasnt so much crime and violence then as it is now.I had a very safe childhood. We lived in a small village by a
lake, and everybody knew everybody. We were a large bunch of children of all ages and the only rules we had were 2, dont go up to the highway and learn to
swim! So all the parents got together and brought in a swimming teacher and we all learnt to swim and then our parents didnt see us for the rest of the
summers.
(Except for meals. Half of the mothers in the village had to have these large chunky loud cowbells in the summer, which they used when it was "feeding time" lol, so it was only for us to recognise which bell was ringing and then we went home to eat. We ate and then we were out of the house as greased lightning).Our kitchen door was constantly open from the beginning of June to the middle of August ( so was all the kitchen doors in the village) when school began. And my parents didnt have to lock the car for years... Just across the lake was a small mountain covered in fir trees, and in the mountain was a cave where three people had dissappeared in 1854. It was very exciting to take our bikes and go there and crawl into the cave. This cave used to be a hidey hole for partisans in the war against the Danish in the 1700th century.... We had a small jetty and a rowing boat and a small canoe so we spend a lot of time on the lake, swimming, fishing and in the winter skating and skiing. We put up tents in each others gardens, we played football and other games on the football pitch that lay in the middle of the village. It was also on the football pitch the whole village celebrated the Midsummer Feast with a large maypole and dancing and singing. We camped and told ghost stories close to the retired sawmill, we didnt camp in it, it was too scary. Yes we did hurt ourselves a bit, fell down from trees, broke a bone or two, but we were free to go were our fancies took us, we could explore and satisfy our curiosity about life in a way that I believe some parents are afraid to let their children do today just because the bigger amount of crimes these days. I believe that many parents thinks that the society is more insecure today than it was when they were small... Eva |
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