How naughty were you as a child?

On the whole I was not a bad child but had my 'moments' as has everyone else.
We used to pass an 'abandoned, overgrown piece of ground' on our way to school and one day my big sister saw in there some shiny red apples hanging on a tree so we fought our way in to the tree and took a couple each for our play piece. We were coming out when a lady asked us what we were doing on her land, we were mortified! She said that she didn't mind us having some apples but would rather we had asked first and invited us to come back with her to where the trees were. She then proceeded to fill our satchels to the brim and waved us off to school. What a pain those apples were all day long but what a clever lady to do such a thing as we were never tempted to go back.

Not at all naughty. Dad was very strict but fair and a damned good father but I knew I had to toe the line, 'or else', I haven't a clue what the 'or else' would have been but I sure as hell wasn't going to find out. No it was not bullying nor dominance I had wonderful parents who did their best throughout the whole of their lives for me.

I only ever recall being 'smacked' on the leg by my mum but I knew dad was ill in bed so in my adult years I guess she was under undue stress as it was so out of her comfort zone to have done it. She was a very sweet natured woman.

I was normally a very good child, though sometimes got into trouble for talking at the wrong time.
I'm very ashamed to recall being very cruel aged about 6? to a little pretty golden haired girl ( younger than me) by throwing a ball into some nettles and asking her to fetch it, just because I wanted to make her cry! Isn't that terrible? I have hardly told anyone that as its so shameful!
I did tell my children that aged 11 at boarding school I (as many others had done ) sneaked out of school on a boiling hot summers night with a friend and crept down to the school open air swimming pool for some 'skinny dipping' as its called now. It was an expellable offence but we weren't caught! My daughter was extremely shocked to hear this!

I don't think I was naughty. My parents weren't at all strict and gave me quite a lot of freedom but that was perhaps because they knew I would behave anyway. My school friends used to laugh at me (affectionately) because I continued to wear my beret after everybody else had whipped theirs off once we were out of sight of the school.

When I was very young - about 7 - I did climb over the fence at the end of our garden, despite express instructions not to do so. I gashed my underarm on a jagged piece of wire and had to have several stitches. I remember Mum saying that's what happens when you're naughty. Maybe that accounts for my subsequent wimpishness!

I was very naughty - at school I was bored and therefore got into constant mischief until preparing for exams kicked in. At home I had temper tantrums. I think that's why I ended up teaching excluded kids because I had some idea where they were coming from although compared to most I had a charmed childhood.

Not saying!
However, have hugely enjoyed reading the comments of those posters who are only now coming clean about their crimes!
Juvenile stuff is probably part of the learning process, but it's what makes adults who live a life of crime worth studying, because they never 'grow out of it'.

I particularly liked the tale of the little crafty 3 year old who was covered in tar!?
I do remember the hot bubbly tar at the edges of roads was pretty irresistible in the long Summer holidays.

I was a right goody two shoes when I was a child The worst I can remember was pretending to be fast asleep at nap time (reception class had a morning nap) and when the class went to assembly I played in the sand pit till they came back. I might've progressed from bad to worse but we moved house shortly after the naughty nap and that (and subsequent housemoves with my dad's job on the railways) started me off being rather shy. It paid off because I really got my head down at school. Once my younger sister arrived, she quickly became the rebellious one and I often confessed to her crimes and got a smack so my dad would stop being Basil Fawlty and let us off parade! Pathetic!

I did get tar on my dress once....

When I was about 5 or 6 I would wait for my neighbours to go to work on a hot day, then remove my shoes and socks and dip my feet and legs in their fish pond that was in their front garden. Whenever I needed a few coppers for sweets, I would pick another neighbours flowers from their garden then knock on their door to sell them to them. It always worked, but I'm sure they had seen me pick them. Nice neighbours!

I gave my grandmother's false teeth to the dog, who chewed them, dropped a large stone down the newly installed low level toilet, & cracked it, also "washed" myself in a whole bottle of Channel Number 5, and all before I was 5!

Phoenix sounds like a career criminal in the making!

We lived in a house next to a field and between us and the field was a dry stone wall. There were several lambs in the field and my cousins and I decided we wanted one as a pet. We set to work dismantling the wall to see if we could tempt one through the opening. We were getting on all right till my dad caught us. He was furious, marched us all back inside with the instructions to "sit there and shut up". I don't think the matter was made any better by my older sister and her friends sniggering in the background. We were made to go and say sorry to the farmer, who was really nice about it, considering what we'd done.

When I was about 7 or 8, I sneeked down stairs in the early hours of Easter morning and eat the back part of everyone's Easter Eggs including mine. I thought if I ate mine as well it would take suspicion off me. Needless to say it didn't work and I was punished. hugs

Ah roses, you've caught me out! That, indeed was only the beginning...

I wouldn't have dared to misbehave.

I always thought of myself as a very naughty child. Looking back, I think I was almost unnaturally good by today's standards, but for those of us over 60, such sins as "answering back", "having too much to say for yourself" or making a noise when eating loomed very large. The ingrained sense of guilt remains! Do any other readers of similar vintage feel the same?

Babyboomer I quite understand about ingrained guilt!

I was generally good when I was little. Too worried to be naughty.

However I remember going to a birthday party with a wild west scene cake. I brushed past it and smudged the soft, chocolate cake icing. The mother went mad and insisted on the culprit owning up. I was so frightened and ashamed that I kept quiet despite her tantrums. Took me a while to stop feeling guilty.

I also remember when the teachers asked for someone to own up to a crime, feeling guilty even though I was innocent. Fool!!

I ate my mothers Christmas chocolates after buying them I was tempted to eat them and had no money to buy more. she knew what I was giving her and to this day she has reminded me of my scoffing her chocs. I also threw stones at clean washing on the line, got my shoes muddy and walked on the clean floor, was cheeky to my overbearing granny, fed bits of my dinner to the stray dog, let my pet mice out loose in the kitchen and much more. Little sod I was.

I ate a bit of someone's Easter eggs every day as she didn't seem to be eating them!
Oh, sorry, that was when I was grownup, they were DD's and I should have known better.

I remember cutting the cats whiskers half off with scissors when I was very young...maybe four? Also regretfully I threw a box turtle across the yard when I was about five to see what would happen. I imediately started crying but I often wondered why I did it to begin with.Both times it was like my mind was blank. I'm a very caring and soft hearted person and I especially love animals! I also remember my mom had this small poodle dog and I was actually jealous of the attention she gave it. Once I put a rubber band around its front legs to see if it could get it off. Which it did but still that's cruel! Maybe I'm lucky I didn't turn criminal?? . Never stole anything from a shop but I once put a cousins little doll in my parents luggage while visiting them because she was constantly throwing it up into my face I didn't have one. My mom has to send it back when we got home.

Oh dear, I think we must all be feeling pretty guilty to have remembered these naughty deeds so vividly for so many years. Hardly any of them seem very bad now, and the fibs and cover-ups probably wouldn't have occurred at all if we hadn't been too afraid to admit to what we'd done. I really couldn't help laughing at many of them, especially NannaandGrampy's tale about the green paint! How attitudes to children have changed - when my own children were naughty I used to feel guilty myself in case it was due to the way I was bringing them up. Grown-ups when we were small ourselves were in no doubt that children were entirely responsible for their own naughtiness!

What terrible crimes you all committed.?
Seem pretty normal really, making a mess, making noise, stealing the odd thing, hitting things you don't like ( or putting a rubber band on a dog's legs) although that's very inventive.) Scoffing forbidden things,throwing things to see what happens.All part of childhoods rich tapestry.

I was a bit taken aback by the spitting peas through a hole in a slice of bread, though, must admit...