‘Times really have changed’: Mum compares growing up in the ’60s to today

Growing up in the 1960s was a very different affair to what children and grandchildren are experiencing today. If you grew up in the ‘swinging sixties’, you probably spent most days outside rather than glued in front of the TV.

Writing to online forum Mumsnet, one woman has sparked debate about how times have changed since the ’60s, adding kids of today would rather watch a YouTube video than spend hours in the backyard playing or camping out in the wilderness.

The woman said she caught up with her dad and aunty last week over dinner, adding: “[They] spent most of the night talking about what they got up to as kids. We’re talking 1960s.”

She said her grandma would “chuck them out after breakfast” and the siblings wouldn’t come back until tea time.

“They spent the summer holidays playing in farmers fields, building dens, biking to here there and everywhere, waiting for the trains to pass etc,” she added.

However, the woman said kids of today wouldn’t have any of these stories to tell.

“Dd [darling daughter] is currently up in her room watching you tube [sic]. Ds [darling son] is watching a film. Just sat here thinking how times really have changed ,” she wrote.

Read more: The things we did as kids that would deeply offend today’s PC police

It didn’t take long for readers to pitch in with their own stories, sharing memories from their own childhoods. One commentator said they were told to come home when the street lights came on. “We always spent summer holidays outside even in the rain,” they added.

Another said they had a similar upbringing, adding that kids don’t have that freedom anymore. “I think it was better. We didn’t have much money, but it was fun,” they wrote. “Kids don’t have that freedom anymore. I think we learnt lots of skills then which served us better in adulthood, which children today can’t have because they don’t have the same freedom.”

However, one reader recalled a very different experience, saying they hated being chucked out as a kid. “It’s f*****g dangerous and it was often boring and lots of low level bullying and even sexual assault/ grooming took place. I’m so glad my kids won’t have that sort of childhood tbh [to be honest].”

Another added: “I spent my summers exploring and biking and getting up to all sorts. But actually, I feel that my childhood was rather lonely and that I was left to it a lot.”

What are your thoughts? What did you get up to as a kid?