I often think how different Baby’s childhood will be when compared to my own. Technology and social culture changes so rapidly that the childhood she will experience is far removed from my own. As a child of the seventies I didn’t have a mobile phone, a computer and guess what? The internet hadn’t even been invented! We might not have had the latest tech gadgets, but what we did have was plenty of fun.
So with this is mind here are some ways that you can give your children a break from their 2016 childhood and let them experience a 1970s one;
- Playing outside ALL DAY – I remember being outside with friends for the entire day, not an hour or two, but the ENTIRE day. No parents checking on us (although I appreciate that times have changed), just playing with friends and breathing in the fresh air.
- Watching lots of TV – These days TV gets a bad rap, but in the ‘good old days’ we watched a fair amount of TV and it didn’t make our eyes go square. As long as it included Fraggle Rock, Mr Ben, Top Cat, The Wombles, with maybe a dash of the more adult The Good Life.
- Having sleepovers at a friends house – Impromptu get-togethers meaning we had to borrow PJs and clothes for the next day, just because we didn’t want the fun of the day to end.
- Putting on a show – I remember putting on shows, singing and dancing with friends, for no other reason than just for fun, definitely not for YouTube.
- Record the top 40 on the radio – O.k so it may not be that easy unless you have an old cassette player kicking around (and it may not have been strictly legal), but there was a lot of skill involved in pressing the ‘record and play’ buttons together and getting the pauses in the right place so you avoided the DJ talking.
- Create things from scavenged objects – No trips to the craft supplies box, just find stuff in the woods and spend ages building dens.
- Eating and drinking whatever they want – The culinary delights of Vimto, Angel Delight, Vesta meals, Soda Streams, Arctic Rolls? Wagon Wheels were bigger then too…
- Give them some ‘proper’ toys to play with – Who needs a PS4 when you could have an Atari? Why collect Bratz when you could pester your parents to go to the National garage to complete your Smurf collection? I certainly don’t remember any toys that involved making a dog poo or pulling snot from someone’s nose! The Whoopee Cushion was the grossest it got.
- Buy them an old walkman – Where’s the fun in downloading or streaming music straight to your phone? I can remember the days when I used to attempt to wind tangled cassette tape back in to order using a biro.
Has this has got your historical tastebuds tingling? If so, you can find out lots of interesting facts about every region in the UK from the 1960s to present day, using this interactive map.
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.