How did we ever survive our childhood . .

without bike helmets, knee pads for skating and child-prooof bottle caps?

I once ate half a bottle of St. Joseph's baby aspirin (I was about 5) and I'm still here. Anyone have any similar tales of survival?

I drank lighter fluid once, chewed on an electric cord while it was still plugged in, and ate mud. I read about some parents who are suing their school system because the teacher made their son sit in a closet because he wouldn't stop talking in class. The parents said the poor boy is so traumatized he can't function. I spent the second grade sitting in the closet for the same reason and it was the best thing that ever happened to me! Kids today are just too pampered.

You can't move in the supermarket now for antibacterial cleaning products and remember you have to have specific cleaners for the bathroom and the kitchen...don't use the wrong one now lol.
Gone are the days where one cleaner did the whole house or like my grandma she used Fairy Household Soap for absolutely EVERYTHING...from cleaning the floor to cleaning the dishes and everything in between - out came the block of Fairy soap!
As for the child proof bottle caps they were not needed when I was a child in the late 50's through the 60's because if Mother said "Don't touch!" then it wasn't touched lol.
Nowadays children are so used to their homes being totally antibacterialised that as soon as they go somewhere that isn't they end up with serious bouts of intestinal disturbances......sickness & diarhea.
Seeing children out playing in the summer sunshine is becoming a rare sight with parents being frightened witless that something might happen to their child, either falling & hurting themselves or the threat of skin cancer.
It is a well known fact that we need the Vitamin D that sunshine provides and I fear that when these children reach their 20's or 30's they are going to be ridden with osteoporosis through not having received enough sunshine in their childhood. I remember, as a child, that we did not have sunscreen plastered all over us every 30 minutes.
I wonder if I could sue all the neighbours who slapped me or chastised me or if I could bring charges against every school teacher who hit me with a cane, slipper or leather tawse or perhaps even bring charges against my own mother for the cruelty I suffered at her hands? No, because that was then and this is now........much different times.

I'm still a "spring chicken" at 28 years old but, I often wonder how I even survived as a kid. When I was younger, bike helmets were still not very popular.
I had so many bike accidents, flying over fences head first, skinning my knees up until they were unrecognizable, etc.
Now that my own children are at that age to ride bikes, I always make sure that they are wearing a helmet. What I find amazing is that there are still some kids who think wearing a helmet is babyish and uncool.
I tell my daughters when someone makes fun of them for wearing a helmet then they should just say "Who is the baby here? The one protecting themselves or the one who will end up brain dead when their head hits the pavement?"

i did the exact same thing with the aspirins (i was 7) and i was sick for the whole day.and no one even noticed. my mom kinda looked at me but quickly her mind was diverted to my bad lil brother, who is now a teacher! lol talk about turn arounds! and also , i did ride down the street without a bike helmet., crashed into a fire hydrant and got scrapped up pretty good. the neighbors came out not to check on me but to laugh, cause i was going so freaking fast. then i hobbled my little butt back up to my house and my mom said to me after rubbing me down with alcohol...."I told you that bike had no brakes!" lol ..... let's not talk about my front tooth being chipped cause i was in a hurry to see a cute boy walk out his house (i was 12) and of course i cracked my forehead after getting in a fight with my lil brother (he hit me with a belt buckle) 16 stitches on the first day of 8th grade and i got hit by a motorcycle in the same year (broke my arm from the fingers to the shoulder). then i was workng in my parents store and 3 sodas bursts on my hand giving me 12 stitches and i got older and more clumsy ...was dodging outta the way of my friends fighting and got hit with a can , split the back of my head open ..22 stitches.. (age 22) by the time I got pregnant , the hospital knew who i was.

I started riding horses at 5 years old. I've fallen off, been thrown off, had the saddle fall off, kicked, bitten & stepped on. I never really was hurt. I had more trouble surviving adulthood from picking the wrong men. I almost didn't survive one of those. But as you said, I'm still here and I finally did find a nice guy. It only took me 48 years. We've been together 5 years now.
After reading some of the others, there were a lot of other things I did. We had a cabin on the Susquehana river & I used to swim too far out. Sometimes the current was strong. W had a rope swing, & if you let go too soon, you hit the rocks at the bottom. I used to pick up things like snakes & spiders (freaked my Mom out).
Thanks for the memories! Those were the good times!

I ate a bunch of snail pellets on a dare & never even threw up! I think the box said slug-go on it. My Mother freaked out & my stepdad just laughed & said we should wait to see if I got sick. When I didn't, they fed me dinner & put me to bed. Maybe it was good for me to get used to poison. As I got older, I certainly ingested more than my fair share & only OD'd once by accident! Othertimes, people tried to poison me & it had no ill effect, other than p'ing me off!
I was the batch queen for all the cooks to try their new stuff on & when their product didn't appear to hurt me, they'd take it & get sick...ha-ha!

Ibremember when cars had running boards and we would stand on the running board ans hold on the door to stay on. Also cars had steel bumpwes on the back. Some were like a bumper on one side and a bumper on the other side and the spare tire in the middle. We would sit on the rear bumper and hold on the tire. Lots of things rhat is against the law today. Was fun too.

I ate about a handful of small, red berry-shaped, hot, hot, hot, seering hot peppers from my Grandmother's yard. I cried for an hour. I was 5. **I also busted my lip and nose (fell on my face) swinging from the top of a high, steel swing pole running across that holds the seats. I was 7. **I was sliding down a huge steel slide when I got the brillant idea to slide down bent at the knees. Didn't get two inches down it when I lost my balance and fell over. Hit concrete and it knocked me out. I was 9. Boy, howdy...it's a wonder I'm alive.

(((hugs)))

I was born and raised on the Tuckahoe River. It's a wonder we didn't all drown. We use to untie people boats and take them down the River and back for miles. We would tie them back up and go about our business. We use to walk along the railroad tracks and across the trestle over the river. We would go out walking in the woods all day and go play in the graveyard at night. We drank water out of streams and garden hoses and chewed tar out of the cracks in the road. Swinging on vines across ravines and climbing vines and walking across the tree tops on them. I don't know how we didn't at least get hurt but we never did and as far as I know we are all still here.

I always seemed to have a bandage or plasters on my legs and arms.

I was forever falling over, i ran everywhere--------do kids do that these days?........When i wasnt running i was climbing, dress tucked up in knickers, when i was older I had my bike, screaming down the hills, hair pouring out behind me. The only times i didnt like it was when my brakes failed

gone are the good days when you stuffed up someone Else's parent abused you, you just took it because you knew if you didn't they would tell your parents and you would be in even more trouble.

In australia your not allowed to take photo's of children under 12 on a beach, hence (child porn).

back in my day if some one took a pic dad's would just accuse them of being a perv stright away and hit them all over and done with.

but now you would be charged for both taking the pic and hitting.

sad .... gone are the good old days.. :)

So many things, , food left out on the table, milk that wasn't pastuerized. Get a tomato or carrot from the garden and wipe the dirt off on our pants and eat away.Onve stepped on a rust nail, went all the way through my foot.My parents pulled it out poured on peroxide , bandage it " It hurt like crazy"" But I didn't die.

It's unbelievable isn't it? We regularly rode in the back of the truck. We even had to travel one night. So they through a mattress back there and we had a sheet that we tried to keep around us as we flew down the interstate one night. And what about those I believe they were called Luden's cough drops. I ate a whole package because I thought it was candy:)

Yes isn't it amazing?I climbed trees,swung on grape vines over gully's that would bury a house.Rode on the back of most farm equipment.Chopped wood,and swam in rice canals.Yes I got a few cuts and scrapes,no broken bones and nothing needing a doctor.I was the all american tom boy.Played baseball every sunday with no protection of any kind and barefoot.Yeah I still do stupid stuff but nowadays it hurts.

you are so right diana . i once was hit head on riding my bike , by a motorcycle . i was about 6 or 7 and my parents were mad at me because i was on the wrong side of the road . my brother who was older and with me , never got " a talking to " . funny thing , we all survived . lol . take care . d.

We survived Lead paint, Asbestos, eating ice from the ice man I was told, caused Polio. Our playground was the dry dump next door, fifteen feet from our kitchen door. "We found a lot of neat things out there" We swam in the mississippi river, I started when I was ten.
We either hitched a ride or jumped a freight train going our way, legs flying in the air as we caught a hand rail.
My mom would have died had she knew what we did as kids. Of course, I would't think of the grandkids doing this now.

I played sports without three layers of pads like all the wussies do in America. I would like to see an American football player come play rugby. I imagine they would be crapping themselves without their Michelin Man suits, helmets, visors, mouth guards, knee pads etc.

Now that most of the country is on Medicaid, parents bring in children for a sniffle to the Emergency Room every day, we all just shake our heads in wonder (in the back room)

As well as all the problems of surviving everday life we had to hope to survive the bombing./buzz bombs/shelling across the Channel .Luck plays a big part.

I have never broken a bone or been in a life threatening situation.

We all had parents who watch us I mean really was outside watching us.