When You Were A Kid (2 Viewers)

[Otis]

I'm still relatively young at 26 years old but is it really that different as to what it was a years ago in terms of safety?

Is the fear of letting kids out to play just because we have more exposure and are connected to many more people than we were before so we're more aware of the dangers?

I'd have thought kids will still have had knives and drugs back in the day, but now it's of public concern because of the exposure it gets in the media.

How often does something bad actually happen? I'm yet to have kids so obviously I can't really level myself with some of you who do have kids and these concerns.

I do though think we are missing a key factor.

When I was at primary school (junior school we called it back then), there was just one 11 year old girl who had started to grow breasts. Every other girl was as flat as a pancake and all the girls just looked like the children they in fact were.

Now we have most girls developing at 10 or 11 and with social media access they are all trying to be adult at a much younger age.

Some of my daughter's 14 year old friends clearly look much older and have the body shape of adult women.

Times have changed most definitely.

Also, with the introduction of people from foreign countries to our shores there is also a different mindset amongst some immigrants.

In Iran you can be married at 9 (this not officially confirmed).

Saudi Arabia - aged 10
Sudan - 10

The age of consent in Nigeria is 11.

Unfortunately, you walk around the city centres of this country and you do see men looking sexually at your children. My daughter has had it since she was 12.

Obviously just a tiny fraction of people, but still a worry.

Think there are a few factors that do point to things having changed.

Drugs are now more widely available now and you can get coke at school.

I don't recall a single drug related incident when I was at school.

 

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[hill83]

When I was at primary school (junior school we called it back then), there was just one 11 year old girl who had started to grow breasts. Every other girl was as flat as a pancake and all the girls just looked like the children they in fact were.

Now we have most girls developing at 10 or 11 and with social media access they are all trying to be adult at a much younger age.

Some of my daughter's 14 year old friends clearly look much older and have the body shape of adult women.

Times have changed most definitely

 

[Otis]

Yup. A sign of the times.

I just wonder if he would be worse in this current age, or would be discovered sooner. My thought is the latter.

 

[tommydazzle]

Enjoyed my roaming free childhood and pretty much identical to most of the posts on here - street games, footy till dark, making swings from trees, battles with kids from other areas, walking to Bulkington to squash pennies on the train track, making trolleys for racing, pimping our bikes with ape-hanger handlebars, being chased by the parkie in Longford Park once we had graduated to BSA Bantams and roared through the park (sometimes 3 on a bike) to get to places we could create scramble tracks, pretty sure we were riding where the Ricoh is now. Parents never even knew I had a motorbike as I kept it at a mates. Happy days and wouldn't swap for the indoor, chaperoned life of many kids nowadays.

It's the tragedy of adulthood that we lose that carefree life we had with our mates.

 

[Otis]

Such a shame the fear factor that is around now.

I dropped my parents off for a meal down by the showcase cinema yesterday and said I would wander over to Tesco and then come back in an hour.

Walked across and there was a school party (primary school) walking from the Showcase.

I couldn't avoid them until I got by the Tesco store and all the teachers had their eye on me.

All I was doing was walking down the road, but I felt very uncomfortable.

Was trying to walk behind them, but the line of kids was very fractured, with some way ahead of others.

Other people were walking past too, but because I was a bloke all eyes seemed to be focused on me.

Don't think we can go round looking at everyone as if they are a potential paedophile.

 

[tommydazzle]

Yes Otis it's a sad state of affairs, my late father-in-law found a little girl crying and lost in a department store. He took her by the hand and led her to a till so they could tannoy the parents. I couldn't help thinking - would I have done that? Just imagine being apprehended by an angry parent as you were walking through the store with their child.

 

[hill83]

Such a shame the fear factor that is around now.

I dropped my parents off for a meal down by the showcase cinema yesterday and said I would wander over to Tesco and then come back in an hour.

Walked across and there was a school party (primary school) walking from the Showcase.

I couldn't avoid them until I got by the Tesco store and all the teachers had their eye on me.

All I was doing was walking down the road, but I felt very uncomfortable.

Was trying to walk behind them, but the line of kids was very fractured, with some way ahead of others.

Other people were walking past too, but because I was a bloke all eyes seemed to be focused on me.

Don't think we can go round looking at everyone as if they are a potential paedophile.

 

[Otis]

Well that's the thing, I didn't even have the cigar.

 

[NorthernWisdom]

I do though think we are missing a key factor.

When I was at primary school (junior school we called it back then), there was just one 11 year old girl who had started to grow breasts. Every other girl was as flat as a pancake and all the girls just looked like the children they in fact were.

Now we have most girls developing at 10 or 11 and with social media access they are all trying to be adult at a much younger age.

Some of my daughter's 14 year old friends clearly look much older and have the body shape of adult women.

Times have changed most definitely.

Also, with the introduction of people from foreign countries to our shores there is also a different mindset amongst some immigrants.

In Iran you can be married at 9 (this not officially confirmed).

Saudi Arabia - aged 10
Sudan - 10

The age of consent in Nigeria is 11.

Unfortunately, you walk around the city centres of this country and you do see men looking sexually at your children. My daughter has had it since she was 12.

Obviously just a tiny fraction of people, but still a worry.

Think there are a few factors that do point to things having changed.

Drugs are now more widely available now and you can get coke at school.

I don't recall a single drug related incident when I was at school.

Worth noting it's only in 1929 that the age a woman could marry in this country was raised from 12.

There are ebbs and flows, and each generation has its taboos and things it finds acceptable. As olderskyblue says, a lot of it is what's spread more easily nowadays through social media. The criminal records of the past are rather... unnerving in the types of crime that were tolerated, and sometimes even condoned.

 

[Otis]

Worth noting it's only in 1929 that the age a woman could marry in this country was raised from 12.

There are ebbs and flows, and each generation has its taboos and things it finds acceptable. As olderskyblue says, a lot of it is what's spread more easily nowadays through social media. The criminal records of the past are rather... unnerving in the types of crime that were tolerated, and sometimes even condoned.

Yep, indeed.

Kids are definitely trying to be older at a younger age now though for sure.
I worry about some of my daughter's friends because they looks so much older, but I know them and know of their naivety and know they are just children.

Sometimes you wouldn't think that though just from looking at them.

The internet has opened up a whole new world.

 

[bringbackrattles]

Well, the 2 families who hung about together were very well known around wood end. In fact, didn’t you know the older one who got killed in Longford years later?

Yes I knew him well. I drank with him lots of times, and our paths crossed in prison on a couple of occasions. He had a bad reputation,but didn't deserve what happened to him. But sadly when you live that life these things can happen.

 

[olderskyblue]

Yes I knew him well. I drank with him lots of times, and our paths crossed in prison on a couple of occasions. He had a bad reputation,but didn't deserve what happened to him. But sadly when you live that life these things can happen.

His best mate back in the day lived next door to me. ( I used to do a window cleaning round with him during school holidays)
He was a handful too, as was 3 of his 5 brothers. always Felt save in the Livvy. Once you were seen with them, nobody bothered you. (16 yrs old fresh faced kid could easily upset the wrong person without realising)

Only one of the 6 lived past 50. All died from liver failure. Their old man saw 3 of his sons die well before him. Shame

 

[olderskyblue]

Yes I knew him well. I drank with him lots of times, and our paths crossed in prison on a couple of occasions. He had a bad reputation,but didn't deserve what happened to him. But sadly when you live that life these things can happen.

Strange but true. His grand-daughter is one of my daughters best friends

 

[robofcov]

School holidays get out of the house about 9am walk up to Hearsall Common used to be football pitches on it then, take a football with me play keep ups till somebody else arrived, then someone else start with a game of headers and volleys in an hour would have enough for 5 -a-side , then it was about 15 a side within another hour, come 4pm saw me dad walking home from Rover Canley so was time for dinner, everyone drifted off for food, then come 6pm started again. Out of school hoildays.
Sundays used to be Spencer Park after Star Soccer sometimes going over the fence at King Henry School to play on there pitch. Saturdays memorial park straight after parky put nets up for afternoon matches, then about 1.30 some of us would decide Lets Go Up The City so home changed No9 bus to town then walk up to Highfield Road.
Climbing trees around Canley Ford , milkshakes at the Milk Bar, going round Devils Dungeon on our bikes seeing who had the best cow horn handle bars.
When i got older walking from Earlsdon to the Finham community Centre 3 nights a week for the youth club.

 

[bringbackrattles]

Strange but true. His grand-daughter is one of my daughters best friends

When I was in Winson Green he was 2 cells along from me, we swapped newspapers. And once again in Ranby nick in Notts, I was in the dormitories, but he was on a wing. I got on well with him, as all us Cov lads did we looked after each other. On a lighter note he was suffering with gout, and in Ranby the eating hall was a good walk, but by the time he often got there, he missed many meals ! I told the Grimsby lads who were rough nuts in there that he was a real hard man in Cov, but as he walked slow due to the gout they never believed me !

 

[no_loyalty]

I spent the majority of the summer holidays at Cov baths diving off all the diving boards and generally pissing about, or going on bike rides to Coombe Abbey, I remember getting chased by some scallies across the main field trying to nick our bikes, and absolutely shitting ourselves on the way back to Wyken.