13 Activities ’60s Kids Could Do That Are Impossible Today

It seems like every generation was raised on a different set of values. The following generation takes their experiences and tweaks them to fit their parenting styles. This leads to some interesting differences between the decades.

This leads people to wonder what some of the major differences are between kids of the ’60s and the early 2020s. These are the top activities that people claim kids could do back in the day that are wild to think about 60 years later.

Ride in Precarious Car Seats

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Safety advancements in children’s car seats have come a long way since the 1960s. Shoot, sometimes a car seat is simply the lap of someone bigger than the infant. Could you imagine seeing that happen in today’s society? The parents would be locked up.

Also, it must be noted that seatbelts weren’t a standard feature back then. It wasn’t until 1968 that the seatbelt became mandated. Until then, one major pothole could bounce a small child right through the roof!

Playing with Unsafe Toys

Full disclosure: I am not a child of the ’60s. I grew up in the ’80s, but I clearly remember my mother being horrified when my grandpa bought me a Beebee gun when I was around eight years old. The thing was solid metal and could easily do bodily harm, yet my grandpa didn’t see an issue.

That’s how it was in the 1960s, though. Kids would climb jungle gyms without safety nets and swing 10 feet in the air on swings, usually unsupervised. There was also this popular game called lawn darts, which were literal spears thrown across the yard.

Drinking from Garden Hoses

When I was a kid, drinking from a garden hose was still a way of cooling off in the hot summer months, but it was a bit more hazardous in the 1960s. You see, back then, the water from the hose was not regulated and most likely contained massive amounts of lead and other harmful elements.

That didn’t stop anyone from taking a few sips, and for the most part, the generation survived. Still, it is hard to imagine parents letting their kids drink from a hose now that we know how dangerous it could be.

Walking to School Alone

I’m sure there are many safe places in America where kids still walk to school alone, but it is becoming increasingly uncommon. Today, there are too many horror stories of creepers and predators for parents to trust, sending their young children off all alone.

Nowadays, most people would be horrified to see a group of 7 and 8-year-olds walking alone in the morning or afternoon. But back then, you wouldn’t bat an eye at it.

Wandering Around the Neighborhood Unsupervised

Jumping on your bike and roaming the neighborhood with your buddies was a typical day in the 1960s. You could cruise around all day with a couple bucks in your pocket as long as you were home before the street lights came on.

Today, the thought of not knowing where and what their kids are doing would send shivers up parent’s spines. Also, if you let your kids roam, you would probably get some judgment from the rest of the neighborhood.

Not Having a Cell Phone

What is even more alarming about these kids roaming around unsupervised is that there were no cell phones. What would you do if you needed a ride, got lost, or even hurt? Sure, there were pay phones, but if you crashed your bike in the woods, how would you get help?

Cell phones are common in 2024, even among younger kids. They are a great way to track your children and be in direct contact if they need help. So I guess you can let them roam a bit, but you still constantly know their whereabouts.  

Lack of Sunscreen

Science has taught us a lot about UV rays’ adverse effects on our skin. Most of us lather up on SPF-protected sunscreen when we go to the pool or the beach. But that wasn’t the case back in the 1960s.

Nope. In the 1960s, it was all about getting a nice bronze tan. Some people would cover themselves in suntan oil and use reflective boards to cook in the hot sun. It sounds like there were a lot of sunburns sixty years ago.

Playing in Busy Streets

Kids still play in the streets, but these are mostly suburban streets with little traffic or lower speed limits. It isn’t likely to see a group of kids playing in a busy intersection with cars zooming by.

In the 1960s, bigger cities didn’t have enough space for public parks, so kids played in the street. Whether it was baseball, street hockey, tag, hide-and-seek, or hopscotch, these games were played between the passing of cars. The kids would scatter, and play would resume once the street was clear.

Spanking and Hitting

Back in the day, if you got in trouble or did something that angered your parents, you might be the victim of a spanking or a belt whip. It sounds cruel, but it was standard practice in those times. It wasn’t until years later that the Baby Boomer generation claimed it was traumatizing and sent them to therapy.

Physical abuse as a form of discipline is frowned upon these days. It is rare to see a spanking in public or hear about the act without raising eyebrows.

Constant Exposure to Second Hand Smoke

It wasn’t until the mid-1960s that medical experts began warning the population about the hazards of smoking and secondhand smoke. Before that, parents wouldn’t think twice about lighting up around their young kids. I can even remember seeing photos of my parents held by my grandpa as he was smoking a pipe.

Fast forward to 2024, fewer people are smokers, and smoking is banned in most places, especially indoors. The site of adults smoking in front of toddlers can be considered child abuse and extremely irresponsible.

Hitchhiking

It is bizarre to think that hitchhiking was a relatively common mode of transportation for older kids in the 60s. The hippie movement gave way to transients and young adults standing on the side of the road waiting for a kind, and hopefully sane, person to pick them up. The thought of this being dangerous was never an issue.

Since then, there have been too many horror movies for hitchhiking to be considered a bright idea. Instead, we have apps like Uber and Lyft that do background checks on strangers to ensure a safe trip from point A to point B.

Do School Projects Without the Internet

Before the internet, students used to have to visit the library or consult an encyclopedia to research school projects and essays. There was a library system called the Dewey Decimal System, where you would have to find niche books on the subject you were working on. And then, you needed a library card to check out your books.

Nowadays, the internet provides all of the world’s information at the tip of your fingers. In fact, there is so much data available that you have to sort out what is real and what is fake.

Take Care of Younger Siblings

Older brothers and sisters had a lot of responsibility thrust upon them when it came to caring for their younger siblings. Even if you were a few years older, you were expected to help watch, feed, and change the infants and toddlers.

Most parents wouldn’t trust their 10-year-olds to take care of younger children, leading to a rise in childcare facilities, after-school care, and babysitters. But, you have to admit, those young sitters of the 60s did a fairly good job. Maybe we should re-visit this trend.