A question of fun

[badgergirl]

Over the past few weeks, I've been trying to get myself out of the house more, as the four walls of the living room were starting to drive me slowly insane. So I've been walking with the pram. And Sprog, of course. I'm lucky enough to live near a couple of parks, and the Country Park for the Humber Bridge, which is actually really lovely when it isn't full of chavs trying to set it alight. And I've been sitting on benches, watching squirrels play, and thinking about my own memories of childhood. I went places with my parents on holiday, etc, but country walks, watching animals and generally playing out were never particularly on the agenda at other times. My Mum only had a day off work a week, and my Dad didn't drive. Reading and imaginative games with toys my parents both encouraged well, but getting out for ADVENTURE? Not really.

I was also allowed out "the back" - where there were playing fields and trees. And I climbed trees to read books in peace, built dens occasionally, and generally had fun. In days where kids didn't know the word "paedophile", or particularly have a sense of danger, it was fantastic. It was well known that we had a local "flasher", but there was never any sense of danger from him...which in retrospect, was possibly naive. Possibly not. But when we were kids, he was something to giggle about...and, in my case, something to wonder about because I was never unfortunate enough to see him myself. I was close enough to home to be checked upon regularly, and that was enough.

Where we live now, the kids play out in the road. We live down a dead end, so traffic isn't frequent, but when people do drive down they drive down FAST. And the kids exhibit little or no road sense. This leads me to wonder where Sprog will play, but it also makes me promise myself that my days off when he is a toddler and older, and my weekends, will not be wasted. We will go and watch squirrels and climb trees. We will do leaf rubbings, go to the beach, collect stones and paint them. We will go to the local farms and see the baby animals. And we will have fun. Naturally, I worry that this is idealism at its best, but I want him to have happy memories of days out which didn't cost the earth. Days where 'fun' isn't queuing for an hour for a 2 minute ride on a rollercoaster.

And so - what were your favourite childhood activities? The ones you remember clearly, and wish you could recreate?

 

[pilkers]

I lived in a tiny village in Wales back then so I remember being wild and running free up and down country lanes and in fields. Climbing trees, riding our bikes as fast as we could down empty streets....

They were brilliant days. I never remember it raining although I'm pretty sure it did. I never remember it being cold or anything like that. We used to get up in the morning...have our breakfast and go out to play. I remember playing lots of imaginative games like owning a garden centre and my friends were the customers... I used to have rubber stamps which I loved and I would stamp books endlessly and pretend I was a librarian...

I wish life was life that again!

 

[charlie84]

Yep i used to do pretty similar things to you. Where i lived there was a wood and huge kinda area that backed onto an industrial estate where people would walk their dogs, we as kids would more or less live there climbing trees and building dens. I lived on an estate and in my road there were loads of kids and we were always out in the street riding bikes, roller skating and playing kirby
There were cars but i dont remember having to move out the way alot so they werent a problem.
My mum used to allow all the kids in our back garden to play on our swing/slides/seesaw and in the summer would have a paddling pool out for the little ones.
At a young age we were allowed to go to the local park which was down the road, and our local pub had a side door hatch in which us kids could buy penny sweets and pop from when we had pocket money.
We were never in the house if the weather was nice. We would only come in for our dinner and tea

We were warned about strangers and people in cars and not to go near them and if they tried to talk to us to go straight home or to the nearest adult we knew.

Just cant imagine Calleigh ever having the same freedom as me as a child its such a shame really but i like you will get out and about and do things with her.

 

[claire_louise]

my earlist childhood memories were of my shed lol my dad had a garden shed with all his tools and next door was my shed with all my garden toys, it was FAB! one day it was a submarine, then it was a school or a vets or just a shelter when me and my best mate got stuck out in the rain.

bit later on when we'd moved my neighbours had a HUGE field out the back of thier house, at the very top where a row of trees, we each had our own den, made 'carpets' (haha) out of leaves, climbed trees and took picnics with us. this was in sight of our house (good for mums shouting in for dunner) but a good distance away so we felt free. we would spend the whole day out exploring the fields behind the houses, some of the land belonged to out parents ... other bits im not sure, but no one minded cos there was no one else there. no one ever worried, we knew to be back by dark, and we spent so much time outside we knew exactly what time that would be

was awesome!! but i was very lucky growing up in a tiny village on the isle of wight

 

[nickilubs]

Puddle jumping! I loved going out for walks when it was raining really hard with old clothes on and wellies just to go out and jump in puddles!

Dad used to give us a load of bamboo pole things (big long sticks) and a old curtain and we would build a wigwam in the back garden used to have us there for forever!

Gardening, painting, making things all that kind of stuff I loved (still do!)

 

[HideiLu]

Most of what I remember from growing up was at my Nans farmhouse in France (My Mums side of the family are French and all still live there, so spent about 40% of our time there)

It was a secluded place in the middle of some fields between two villages about 3 miles apart.

We would go out and play hide and seek in the corn fields. Ride our bikes to a local tip and scavange parts to make go-karts or bits for our den. Get our wellies on and catch frogs, toads and newts from the pond. Go on walks to pick mushrooms and fruits to make jams. Or collect the chickens eggs, feed them etc, and collect firewood for my Nans arga. Oooh and lots of cooking and washing up! The whole family got involved in that constant cycle of cooking!

When in England, we use to spend every other Sunday at my Dads in Hastings old town and we would find secret passages around the town or go for long walks over the firehills to Fairlight.

Sadly my Nan sold her house about 4 years ago and moved across to Brittany. Her new place is also lovely, but would love to be able to go back to her old home and take Jack with me.