things i learned today

I remember when you got stung with nettles Dad always went and found a doc leaf and rubbed it all over the area until your skin turned green...... I'm sure I was brought up on a different planet to what it is today

 

Doc leaves do actually work.

And yes, it is an entirely different world now compared to when we were kids. I remember being allowed to play out. I remember sometimes hurting myself several streets away from home, so it was up to the nearest available parent to clean my grazes and then decide whether I needed to be escorted home, or if I could just be told, 'now go home and tell your mam what's happened'.

 

Clueless I still do that now, within 2016 reason, it's really quite disturbing how many parents won't let their offspring play!
My 3rd son will start secondary this year and his friend has never been allowed to play out!
I find this really worrying, parents admit that they game all evening
If we bring them up to have manners, morals and values surely we have to trust them

 

I have to admit I was a bit of a tomboy when I was younger and never in the house, always out playing, climbed trees, which I fell out of many of times and once broke my arm, a neighbour took me to hospital, no mobile phones... a telling off for getting home late, collecting glass bottles for the pop man who use to give you a shilling per bottle.. great days...great memories

 

My Mum was from Darlington. This thread explains why I never told her when I broke my collarbone or about the time I picked up my father's soldering iron at the wrong end and burnt the skin out of my palm.

"If you're looking for sympathy, you can find it in the dictionary between sh...and syphilis "

Had a way with words......

 

I worry for my kids. I'd let CL1.1 play out, if he had anyone to play out with. He has plenty of friends, but they're not allowed to play out.

One kid, who lives just over the road, was for a while 1.1s best mate. They'd play in our garden. His mam was always clearly anxious. I built a sort of fort/play climbing thing complete with wobbly bridge and slide and things. Every kid that's been roundto play loves it. This kid I just mentioned included. But his mam was terrified every time he climbed the approx 4 ft flight of steps to get on top. She started making excuses not to pop over. Now gradually cl1.1 has become best mates with another kid. That first kid, poor lad, doesn't get to go anywhere. It really worries me the isolation that kids have nowadays. When I was there age, I'm pretty sure all parents in a community pretty much shared all the kids and vice versa. I remember a very standard question when I was little. "does your mam know you're here". If you answered yes, that was good enough. Any doubt, we'll every parent knew every other parent, and they always seemed able to match the kid to the correct parents, so it never took long to ensure that all was in order.

 

For lori ^^^^^ it happens, doesn't it

 

@clueless1 I totally agree, its scary today, society has changed, but has it, do we just hear about it more now?

Our kids grew up with motorhome, bikes, canoes, walking, fishing, making friends, playing in forests with new founded friends, some of which are still friends some 20 years on.

The TV was never on, we played board games, read books, collected items on a trail and looked them up in books, talked etc. etc. as parents we all worked and rotated the kids around ... so one night I would have them and give them tea, the next a friend would have mine and so on... I still have the mammoth load of Lego in the attic...hours of fun and play by all, builds the imagination... today its all computer games

 

I feel your anxiousness clueless, parents are so much more protective. That's not a bad thing but children need to play, they need to acquire social skills.
I think as long as I've got parents phone numbers and the nights are getting longer and I know where they are......
Let kids be kids, I trust mine, they know our phone number if it gets to dark they ring me
I realise this isn't everyone's opinion but it's mine

 

Darlington as in county Durham, UK ? That's literally just up the road from me. About 30 minutes drive. Small world eh?

 

yes, Durham County. She was a war bride.

took my father out to see the bluebells......

 

Country Durham is huge xxxx

 

As a child I was a real a Tomboy at times, we climbed trees, climbed on the cricket practice nets , built camps, had mud fights, had sleepovers in camps in the garden, played board games & generally had a great time! Some days I'd go out all day but I knew I had to be back by a certain time & if I wasn't I was in serious trouble! There was never much sympathy if we got hurt we were told to get on with it! I fell over rollerskating & broke my wrist my mum said it would be fine by the morning if I had a paracetamol! I was in so much pain I couldn't stop crying! Eventually my step dad took me to hospital where I had an X-Ray to confirm it was broken! Mum bought me a pair of large rubber gloves so I could still do my share of the washing up!

 

Any connection to the air force? During WW2 there was a military air base at Middleton saint George, just outside Darlington. At some point Teesside airport came into being, originally as a military air base but later a civilian air port. Not sure of the timing. Probably post WW2 though as the main runway is deliberately long enough to launch a fully laiden Hercules, which is unusual for such a small airport. That's in dinsdale, also just outside of Darlington. The other military connection in the area is of course Catterick Garrison, also just outside Darlington. I believe it's all British army but might have accommodated our brethren from overseas during wartime.