25 Social Norms From Back In The Day That Aren’t Acceptable Anymore

Many things in life have undergone huge changes over our lifetime. Things that we were accustomed to as kids are not the reality of modern children. Many behaviours and norms that were common during our youth may even be considered downright rude or crossing a boundary by today’s standards in society.

#1 Kissing, hugging, or being forced to dance with a creepy relative.

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#2 I’ve been told that women were expected to wear “foundation garments” at work, and if they didn’t, then they might get reprimanded. I’m talking about longline bras and girdles. In the 80s, one of my friends got sent to the office for not wearing a bra to high school.

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#3 Possibly stopping in at a friend’s house unannounced. That used to be fairly common when everyone didn’t have a phone in his or her pocket.

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#4 This may be hard to believe but when I started buying cigarettes in 1964 for 25 cents from a vending machine at the coin operated laundromat I often saw people, both men and women quietly sitting in their underwear reading magazines while their clothes were washing or drying. I do remember one guy in boxer shorts and shoes tap dancing. .

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#5 All my parents’ friends used to give me a spanking for each year on my birthday. Does anyone else remember this? Birthday spankings? So weird.

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#6 Inviting the neighborhood children into your home. (1960’s and 70’s) On Halloween some people would ask you to step in the house to show an elderly family member your costume. It was very awkward .

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We also had a very religious elderly woman across the street, ( empty nester married couple) she held a Bible school every Wednesday after school for neighborhood kids to attend. We would go into her downstairs family room and she would show a film strip, give a felt board presentation, sing some songs. Then we would make a craft project and have a snack. Each week we were given a Bible verse to memorize and if you could recite it, you got a small prize. We were there about an hour and a half. This woman really enjoyed doing this, the parents didn’t seem to mind either. Actually, it was the most religious exposure I had as a child. She was a very kind and sweet woman, and well liked in the neighborhood. This would NEVER happen today.

#7 Elderly men innocently chatting up random kids in the streets. My father used to do that, and was heartbroken when it became unacceptable behavior.

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#8 My childhood gp making consistent remarks to our mom about how my dad better get a stick to beat the boys back as my sister and I began to grow up.

before anyone goes there, no he wasn’t a closeted pedophile.  he had no personal lasciviousness to him at all.  that kind of objectification was simply considered a “normal” way to compliment girl children in the 70’s.

to be fair, I’m not sure it’s over.  in the 90’s I was going down the throats of people who tried to make similar kinds of remarks about my son within his hearing.  .

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#9 Playing by myself in the woods at a pretty young age.

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#10 When I was a kid, if a neighborhood kid was playing outside at someones house and got dirty, they got put in the tub and scrubbed down by the matriarch of the house. Their clothes were also thrown in the washer and dryer. No one thought anything of this.

Also, the women in my neighborhood fed lunch to whatever kids their own was hanging with that day.

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#11 I was on a job interview in the 70s. The man said, ‘Why should I hire you? I will train you. Then you will get married and have babies.” I was a college student looking before graduating.

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#12 Cutting through our neighborhood backyards. We all did it. Until we got into Highschool and cars became the norm. You might get hurt today.

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#13 Definitely dropping by people’s houses. My dad was a Boy Scout leader (my brother was a boy scout) and we had teenage boys dropping by to ogle my two oldest sisters all the time (under the guise of a family visit :-)).

The neighborhood was full of kids and we always stopped by rather than calling. You’d knock on the door and call out, “Can Gigglefester come out and play?”.

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#14 TV Specials. Like The Wizard of Oz being broadcast once a year and made for TV movies and mini series that were outside of the normal schedule. Or when Schindler’s List was broadcast commercial free in the 90s.

Also, scheduling your free time around a show you wanted to watch.

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#15 Scolding someone else’s child. I remember getting corrected by strangers.

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#16 When I was a executive assistant I was called “the girl” when my boss was referring me to clients. “I’ll have the girl write up the papers. Also, i was 38 at the time.

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#17 The big paddle that one of the teachers would posses that would be used on your hind quarters at their whim. No parent permission needed.

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#18 We let dogs poop everywhere and never picked it up.

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#19 Teachers laying their hands on kids. In first grade my teacher grabbed me by the ponytail and dragged me backwards across the room. In second grade after a couple tardys my teacher grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me.

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#20 I worked as a temp a lot during the 90s. There were many offices that specified that women were to wear dresses or skirts only; not pants. That would not fly nowadays.

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#21 Riding in the bed of a pickup truck, usually on the tire hub. My mom’s Eagle didn’t have seatbelts in the early 80s.

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#22 Pulling out a cigarette and lighting it without asking if it’s okay.

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#23 Asking people when they were going to get pregnant. Or why they didn’t have any kids yet.

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#24 Bullying. Not only was it acceptable, but it was sometimes encouraged by teachers and parents because it would “toughen you up.” I was a victim of extreme bullying. It gave me CPTSD, actually. And I think it contributed to some of my health problems as an adult. Yet, when my mom tried to get help for me at school and from the bullies’ parents, they told her that kids will be kids and she had to stop trying to fight my battles for me. Now? I asked my young cousin if there were anti-bullying rules at her school (middle school) and she said yes, but they didn’t really need the rule because nobody really bullied anyone anyway. She literally thinks that kids naturally don’t bully other kids! Because the rule worked! It’s mind blowing to me. I wonder who I’d be if we’d had that rule.

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#25 Kids mixing alcoholic drinks for guests at home.

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