When I was at school (back in the 80s) we were never bored during the big summer holidays. Nowadays, however, I see groups of kids hanging around complaining of having nowt to do. All long faced and full of disdain.

Not being occupied when me and my mates were young was never an issue -there was always a project to be getting on with or some sport to play.

We’d go “ponding” to catch newts and tadpoles, make an ace den in the woods (no girls allowed), hang a rope swing, build ramps for our bikes, play football in the sun until we got banging headaches, shoot tin cans with a gat gun, play cricket on the field, make “cider” from acquired apples and generally have loads of calorie burning, character building fun. Todays’ kids should get a slice of what I had and it cost cock all!

derek and his mate yesterday

I blame ‘helicopter parenting’.

Jumpers for goal posts… Bangers in the subway… Scrumping for porn in the bushes of Whitefield Park…

Kids these days. Thrash some sense into them.

Derek & HtS seem to be on a bit of a nostalgia trip at the moment…

It ain’t what it was…

Rioting?

I do wonder if the wealth of computer games, dvds, tellies etc has seriously reduced kids abilities to use their imagination, or has over stimulated them to the extent that everyday activities lack interest.

Or I might just be getting old 🙂

I suspect that a lot of kids these days are not allowed out to do those sorts of things, or if they do, some nimby will complain and get an asbo on them

My eldest is 8, and when I suggested that he was now old enough to go round his mates in the village unaccompanied, all the other parents were horrified at the thought.

Strangely, he’s not that keen to go and play with those parents kids…..

IanMunro is talking some sense up there^^^^

I was at school in the 1980s, and I remember being bored silly at times during the summer holidays. All the activities Derek mentions were great when the weather was nice, but being stuck in front of Why Don’t You? when it was piddling down was not my idea of fun.

We used to kick a ball around on the street, if they did that these days hordes of adults with flaming torches and pitchforks would dispatch them from the area for fear a ball might actually touch a car.

Adults create the environment, kids just respond to it.

ps. and the past is a false utopia that never really existed as remembered and imagined.

Mobile phones…….why go out and socialise when you can bbm all day from the comfort of your bed?

tree jumping used to be a favourite game we played, I held the record for 36 trees (the woods we played in wasnt too dense with trees so it was a good record). Afte the tree jumping we’ld finish off the days events stream jumping, last event of the day as always resulted in getting soaked.

I blame Health and Safety too!!

I do wonder if the wealth of computer games, dvds, tellies etc has seriously reduced kids abilities to use their imagination

I think that’s part of it at least, but IMO, they just can’t see anyhting other than electronic toys as being ‘enjoyment’. It not cool to build dens or go fishing (That’s what I did) etc. Anything that’s not instant gratifacation at a push of a button. To be fair, it’s the parents that started them along that path though.

We used to kick a ball around on the street, if they did that these days hordes of adults with flaming torches and pitchforks would dispatch them from the area for fear a ball might actually touch a car.

Absolutely bang on. There was a NIMBY up the road from us that called the police every time someone got a football out on the grass in the circle at the end of our cul-de-sac. And she was only mid-30s. According to her it was like Baghdad about 50 yard up the street from us, and the kids (8-16 year olds) were all devil-incarnate. So what do they do? Carry on right outside her house and scarper when the cops arrive…. They can get a rise, see?? She’s moved now, so it’s quieter….

Me? Well, a group of them came up to the garage when I was fixing bikes, all cheeky like, “Wossat mister?”. I thought I might tell ’em to clear off, but decided to be nice and talk to them. I even fixed an old BMX for one of them, and one older lad in particular has a ‘bad rep’ but I always say HI to him in the street and he seems polite enough.

And the ‘surprise’???

I don’t get any bother from the local kids….. Odd that….

Adults create the environment, kids just respond to it

Very true.

I’m not sure we remember just how bored we were during the summer holidays.

Difference is the amount of diversions available to kids nowadays and a totally different method of parenting. I think my entire toy collection consisted of a couple of cowboy guns, some cars and a doll manly figure of the Face from the A-Team. What I did have was 70 acres of farmland to play in and I don’t remember my folks being too bothered about the amount of time I was out of sight, trying to keep myself entertained.

kids were much simpler (stupider..?) in olden days…

I think that’s part of it at least, but IMO, they just can’t see anyhting other than electronic toys as being ‘enjoyment’. It not cool to build dens or go fishing (That’s what I did) etc. Anything that’s not instant gratifacation at a push of a button. To be fair, it’s the parents that started them along that path though.

Thinking back to my childhood – we had a computer (Amstrad CPC!), a TV and a VCR. So I agree that if kids today are only able to derive entertainment from electronic toys, then they’re probably getting it from their parents.

do you have any idea how boring kicking a football in the road is compared to the magical wonders of the internet, a 42″plasma telly with HD explosions you control with a wireless button thingy and consuming copious legal/illegal highs attained with ease from your friends?!

i had the MOD woods/land out my back gate, never grew up with computer games or stuff like that.

but if i was a kid noawadays and with one device in the palm of my hand i could watch naked ladies, try and kill terrorists, contact the world via facebook and order food… would i be as excited about throwing a football at a curb… doubt it.

when I was a kid and bored, I’d just go out on my bmx and jump off kerbs, or go places I wasn’t supposed to like the woods, or under the subway to the other side of the dual carriageway (!).
or go in the garage and take my dad’s lawnmower to bits or set fire to his cans of WD40.
.
if I was a kid now, I’d probably be playing on my Xbox, but I reckon I’d still do the above…

I’ve barely seen my 6 and 10 year old this holiday they are always out doing something. I think it depends where you live we have lots of outdoorsy stuff nearby and I trust them to look after each other. Especially as there is a group of them out most days. If I lived in Peckham maybe not.

Do they still keep birds of prey

@derek_starship – you are a canting and priggish old fool.

The 80s were crap. The kids had nowt to do if it rained apart from try to avoid The Doris by wearing stripey socks.

Moaning bastard – I’m surprised you ever get out and ride with any of your peers.

Maybe you are right – I guess selective memory and all that…

I remember large chunks of the summer hols being very boring and adults telling me that I ‘shouldn’t be bored’.
Eventually, we all grow up and spout the same old stuff that our elders used to.

…like brakes, I also used to go and do stuff I wasn’t supposed to. Light fires, sniff glue, search for hedgerow porn….

I do wonder if the wealth of computer games, dvds, tellies etc has seriously reduced kids abilities to use their imagination

Don’t reckon. I had lots of computer games and TV time when I was a kid but still also did all the boys own things that have been suggested by the old farts 🙂

Blame the parents IMO

I vividly remember being told to not bother coming back until the street lights were on

We used to do all sorts of free things ………

Train ride to the Dales and back
Pictures
Go and help on a farm for a couple of hours for a free meal
Race motorbikes/mopeds etc on waste ground

Absolutely bang on. There was a NIMBY up the road from us that called the police every time someone got a football out on the grass in the circle at the end of our cul-de-sac. And she was only mid-30s. According to her it was like Baghdad about 50 yard up the street from us, and the kids (8-16 year olds) were all devil-incarnate. So what do they do? Carry on right outside her house and scarper when the cops arrive…. They can get a rise, see??

I’ve got neighbours like that. The other day, seen the wife, all red-faced and sweating, trying to ‘run’ after a gang of lads who she’d gone down to remonstrate with about the noise. Middle of the day. She just looked utterly ridiculous, and achieved absolutely nothing, as they just casually jogged just out of reach, calling her all sorts, then turned up 5 minutes after her husband had dragged her back inside, and carried on worse than before. 🙄

I was probbly just as bad as many of the kids on my estate are now. We used to enjoy throwing stones up at the old derelict house’s windows, skin up on the green, let people’s tyres down and key their cars, play Knock Down Ginger to annoy the frail old folk, goad people’s dogs, bully the younger kids and generally amuse ourselves mainly at others’ expense and detriment. Gangs of us would stand there intimidating anyone who dared challenge us. There were regular fights between us, often using various weaponry.

Getting a chase off the police was a highlight. Mind you, they were usually pretty useless and slow, so that fun din’t last long. Some other lads burnt a police car out once while they were chasing the rest of us around the estate. 😆

Ah, those were the days. Happy, halcyon days….

let people’s tyres down and key their cars

Ah, those were the days

nice…

we used to go on the downs behind our house, light fires and chuck deodorant cans on there

also used to put rocks on the train tracks and wait for the trains to come along (fortunately was only chalk and goods trains)

There’s loads of stuff that kids just don’t do anymore

like ………..

Go around to the posh estate with a newspaper parcel of dog shit, put it on the door step, set fire to it and ring the bell 🙂

Dry : go to the beach
Wet : go to the moors

God I miss Devon in the summer holidays 😥

There were regular fights between us, often using various weaponry

wow you’re so street

Nope, just honest.

That’s the reality of how I grew up, that’s all. The thread’s about ‘kids of today blah blah’; just pointing out that for me, things were pretty much the same as I see it here now.

I don’t remember much of my school holidays. I read quite a lot. And rode my bike with school friends. We had a swing-ball in the garden – it was ace. Then I got a home computer. I guess it all went wrong from there.

I can remember my parents telling me off for complaining I was bored in the summer hols.

Nothing has change apart from the kids of yesterday become the grumpy old men of today

Uplink – that classic shitealight game. Top quality entertainment.

I loved the 20 a side games of football with the kids down the street and who could climb the tree the highest. The best was when Rebecca £$%$£* let us feel her t%ts whilst drinking two dogs though! 😉 Happy days

hedgerow porn….

ah… rose-tinted glasses….

I can remember being bored sensless in the summer holidays. I did all the rose tinted stuff above, plus had a field bike with antisocial exhuast to terrorise the moors on & use the petrol to make petrol bombs.
Then I discovered summer jobs, disposable income, lager and girls.

The adults have changed, not the kids. We once had a farmer empty both barrels of a 12 bore over our heads as we rode past his farm (again). My mum just told me to stop riding past his farm – He’d have had the local ARU round these days!

I can remember being bored sensless in the summer holidays

I can’t. Not ever. The year I finished my O-levels I must have had about 3 months off. I spent most of the time fishing and palying football/cricket in the park as far as I can remember, but bored? Nope.

The only thing that bores me now is sitting on a beach/poolside in the sun for days on end. I get restless and have to go do something….. 🙂

I probably watch 1-2 hrs of TV on the average day, and on holiday none at all. I can ALWAYS find something to do!