Were you a wild child?

[Bizzy Lizzy]

I wonder how others found their teenage years. Were you a little wild or were you the serious, sensible and studious type. I grew up with a strict Father who tried hard to restrict me with ten o'clock curfew time even when I was almost 18. I so wanted to leave home and break out although I was not sure what this actually meant. I don't remember binge drinking (perhaps no one remembers that activity) and I didn't try smoking pot although it was the time when lot of youngsters were. How do others feel about those years between say 15 and 20?

[Plantaholic]

Fun, fun, fun. My parents didn't fix a curfew time but I didn't abuse it. I used to stay at a friends house but always let them know. I met my husband when I was nearly 20, bit of a shock for my parents as he was 19 years older than me. I was the youngest of six children so they had seen it all before. I grew up in the 50's, before drugs, we went to the cinema and dancing.

[Elisi]

Yes, I was a wild child BL ! I fought against the very strict discipline of my parents, almost Victorian in fact. There were so many rules and regs, and I felt chained and wanted to be free to make my own mistakes. My sister was more placid
But in fact was severely depressed and although she was not a rebel she suppressed so much she became an alcoholic at a very young age.
I left home after being locked in my bedroom at 16 by an hysterical mother (not helped by her having a terrible menopause at the time) just in case I escaped and a boy/man/male of any species looked at me! My poor father hadn't a clue what to do, so ignored it. I left, I was pursued by mother, so I moved further away, I was followed and eventually at 19 I escaped to London, and it was pretty difficult for mother to follow me there! We all drank Alcohol at parties but never binged. In fact, although life was a bit up and down and I had to work hard to pay the rent, I lived London and stayed for 11 super years, taking some extra educational Courses to catch up and get better jobs, and whilst lots of people smoked 'weed' I only tried it once and fell asleep. Some were Taking 'acid' but not very many and I avoided anything like this. I made two of the best friends and we remain so 45 years on. We were the redhead, the dark brunette and the blonde (me) and we were tall girls and slim and boy did we turn heads when we walked down the street together! Obviously by this time my poor parents had given up on me LOL

[Qwerty]

I had a very placid childhood and my teen yrs weren't much better, I had a mother who was very much Victorian and even when I worked I left school at 15 I was still very much under her thumb I was terrified of her she never liked anyone I brought home inc girlfriends I wished I could have left home but when I mentioned it I was told never to darken her threshold if I left, my parents were always rowing and should have been divorced years ago maybe I would have had a better life at home .When I did get out though I certainly let my hair down !

[Oma]

I didn't have any teenage years I was a mother at 16 before that I was running a house my father had died and my mother had gone to pieces so was up to me , my sibling had all married by then and had there own lives and children , But I don't regret a single minute what I didn't have I didn't miss , yes sometimes when my friends called around and they left to get ready to go out and I was changing nappies I had a little envy but it soon passed . I didn't drink so couldn't see the point of spending time with my drunk friends they just irritated me , don't get me wrong I still managed the odd night dancing at the Disco but I didn't crave it actually me and Brian were quite good dancers in our time we still managed lots of laughs and good times ,

[Guest]

No! I was at a convent school until I was 18 and you didn't argue with the nuns. So there we all were, worked our socks off, focussed on studies and various good works until we left and went to university. And by then those habits had been so well instilled that the thought of being silly never occurred.

However, we were taught how to argue so I turned my spare time to politics and got very involved and then I did two tours of VSO overseas so I had my adventures in a different way.

I'm still up for a good argument / debate and I get very involved with local issues.

Does that make me boring!

[Qwerty]

You must be joking boring not you

[WeeGranny]

I always wanted to be like one of the Famous Five and creep out of the house when everyone was asleep, but our doors had really noisy draught excluders on them and My creeping out would have woken everyone else! I suppose I did rebel a bit,trying to get out with make up on and being sent upstairs to wash it off, staying out later than I should have, but that became a standing joke in the house! If I said I'd be in by ten, parents looked at each other and said : Well that'll be 10.30 at the earliest! Used to go into Edinburgh on the bus and eat mints coming home so no one would smell that I'd been drinking. I think my younger brother had it much easier than me because I'd softened the parents attitude and he got away with much more than I ever did.

[ZIZI]

I am afraid I was a wild child from the age of about fourteen. My dad would inspect my clothes before I went out lest the boys would fancy me, no make up (well not when I left the house anyway), no short skirts (well not when I left the house anyway) I was on a strict curfew which I was forever breaking and getting into BIG trouble for. My parents and teachers wanted me to stay on at school but my parents werealways trying to kill each other and as I got a little bit more confident I felt I wanted to leave home. I left at 15 with a handful of RSA certificates which, in those days, were better than nothing but no longer exist. First I worked as a receptionist clerk for a local company and then decided there were much better places to live than Bath so I went to Twickenham which I knew as my grandparents lived there. I stayed with them for a short while but then got a bedsit and a job in a travel agency (I went to night school to learn shorthand when I was still in Bath).

The travel agency job made me think seriously about the fact I wanted to go abroad so I did, I went to Belgium as an au pair. Detested it of course (was always a mucky Trollope and cleaning up after a family that wasn't mine and for which I was paid peanuts did not suit me). I bought a forged identity card as I was too young to work behind a bar and my ID card gave me away, and got a job in a fab place called "Your Father's Moustache" which sold only beer, big jugs of it and had live music all the time. I joined a band and we had fleeting success in Belgium (so fleeting it got missed by most people!). I still have my "moustache mug" from there. I lived in a flat with a friend which was in the attic of a house in the suburbs of Brussels. I loved that flat even though it was small and had no proper walls, just half walls between the bathroom and sitting room and bedroom so we put lots of plants and streamers to hide the bathroom. Oh the loo did have walls and a proper door.

I met an American backpacker and went to the USA with him only my visa ran out and so I had to go into Canada and creep back over the border (well in the boot of a car). We came back to England and decided to get married much against the wishes of our parents. we had a little hippy ceremony at St Martins in the Fields in London. We were living in a flat just around the corner from Trafalgar Square which came with my job.

We had a wonderful time going to parties, having parties, mucking about etc. yes I did smoke weed, yes I did drink neither to excess ...... Well possibly sometimes. I went to see my grandparents one weekend and came back to no husband. Not unusual as he would sometimes go out with me and I him. BUT he had left. I didn't hear from him again for about three years. He told me didn't like living the "straight" life. I didn't really either but I thought he did so didn't say anything. Shortly after he left, having spent several mornings with my head down the loo, I realised I was pregnant.

And that dear friends ended my wild child behaviour as my son was born when I was approaching my 19th birthday. I still went out and about when I could afford it and husband and I have established that we must have often been in the same places when we were younger but moved with different crowds.

[Elisi]

Such interesting stories. Zizi, I wasn't allowed out in stilettos, or any modern clothes. I was given some really cool jeans and top and shoes by a friend and hid them in a hole in the wall behind one of the local shops, and used to go there to change before hitting the Youth Club, and then back again in reverse order when time to go home! How I got away with that I will never know!

[Daisy]

I had a mixture of being quite wild and having to take responsibility. I loved going out dancing with my girlfriends and had a hectic social life. At the time it seemed fairly radical, and although we drank a lot we didn't do drugs - I've never even smoked cigarettes let alone weed! Then when I was 18 my father died and I became the 'man of the house'. It was an awful time - my parents had been in the process of selling their shop and moving to a bungalow which they'd had built. Mum didn't have much idea - she certainly didn't know how to operate a bank account, use a pay phone or wire a plug or anything like that. We ended up selling the shop for less than it was worth because we were in danger of losing the bungalow because mum was having to mind the shop while I carried on with my (very junior) office job, which I'd only just started. After the shop was sold and mum went back to her job we found she didn't earn enough to get a mortgage on the bungalow, so we had to take out a bank loan until I was 21 and could go on the mortgage with her. I desperately wanted to travel but without my wages mum would have lost the bungalow. She could have sold it and bought somewhere cheaper, but she'd just lost my dad and I couldn't let her lose their dream home as well.

But I propbably worried her silly because I was out nearly every night - there was no point in her trying to put a curfew on me - she knew I'd just ignore it! I was sharing the household bills, doing the decorating, gardening and any odd job that needed doing round the house. I did a typing teacher's course and started teaching 2 evenings a week at night school which brought in some extra money. I envied my friends who went home to a family every night. I think I felt quite disconnected from what I thought of as 'normal' life. I did what I thought was my duty, but I didn't do it gracefully. Nights out dancing and drinking were my 'escape' while I watched my dream of travelling slide further and further out of reach. But then, when I was 23 I met OH. In less than a year we were married and moving to Wales with his job. Mum and I sold the bungalow and she came to live with us. That wasn't easy for her or me, but that's another story!

[ZIZI]

Oh my goodness I sound like a complete reprobate don't I?

[Daisy]

Zizi, no you don't, but you will never sit in a nursing home wishing you'd had more fun when you were young!

[Gemini]

Very boring. Never smoked, never tried drugs, had a few halves of shandy , virgin until I was 19. Boring, I told you!!
I didnt work very hard at school, preferring the social side of being at school, that's the worst thing really!

[Guest]

Very boring. Never smoked, never tried drugs, had a few halves of shandy , virgin until I was 19. Boring, I told you!!
I didnt work very hard at school, preferring the social side of being at school, that's the worst thing really!

19! I can add a few years to that! I REALLY boring.