How naughty were you as a child?

Yes, that was truly shocking!

annifrance take the shame!???

I bet it was for the poor old Aunty, too!

I was about five we moved to a development of new houses in Northamptonshire.
Our house was the last done by one developer and half way up the road, it was a year or so before the next lot were built. This was about 1954/55ish.
I was about six or seven then and we moved away when I was eight.

All the kids, most of primary school age, played on the building site, There was no security on sites in those days th making dens in the piles of bricks and running about on the first floor scaffolding. and lots of minor damage was done. I once got involved with lot's of others in pushing over a newly cemented brick wall.
We had fun, but never really thought about the damage we did.

None of these children were from rough backgrounds just normal generally decent young kids who did not stop to think about the consequences of their actions.
We did have a whale of a time though.

What a giggle this thread is and some of the examples could have come straight out of a Just William story!

The worst thing I did is known as The Incident of the Milky Ways in our family. At my primary school, Primary 6 ran the school tuck shop. It sold small 'penny tray' things like Black Jacks and Dainties, right up to proper chocolate bars like Galaxy Ripples (my favourite), and of course Milky Ways.

When my class got to Primary 6, we proceeded to eat our way through the stock, paying a fraction of the correct price, or giving customers we liked more sweets for their money. It all went wrong when the son of one of the teachers started school and some bozo one of us (not me) gave the little boy too many sweets for his money and his Mum noticed. One of the reasons the child was given too much for his money was the fact his Granny was our teacher, and the bozo thought it was a nice thing to do for our teacher's grandson. Yes, we had teachers who were mother and daughter.

Well, all hell broke loose. A stock check showed hundreds of pounds worth of stuff was missing. The headmaster came to our classroom and at that point I realised we were in serious trouble. Although only a group of us served in the shop, everyone was involved and looking back now I'm surprised nobody gave the game away, but I honestly don't think we realised that what we were doing was theft. After the headmaster spoke we were left in no doubt and scared to death. We had to make a list of things we hadn't paid for and letters were sent to our parents asking for the money. We'd been doing it for months, so of course we couldn't remember and just made it up. I think my list came to about 7 shillings - a fortune to me at 11 years old.

The shame. My delightful little brother (aged 9) who was at the same school and knew what had happened, proceeded to blackmail me for sweets and favours for not telling my parents before the letter arrived. The shame when the letter arrived stays with me to this day. I let my parents down. I probably got a hiding, but it's the shame I remember.

My brothers and I giggle about it now, but it's never mentioned in front of my Mum.

My dad was in the navy and used to bring mum back lovely Venetian glass animals. Lovely that is till I snapped the legs of all of them. Once I started I couldn't stop. The s n a p was awesome ! While we lived in a flat in Malta, the front room sash window would only open a few inches. It looked like a postbox to me so I posted all her love letters out on to the street. They were brought back to her by an elderly Maltese gentleman who sold them back to her !

Well all the smackings and beatings I received from my mother seen to indicate that I was a naughty child but in fact they were mostly for muttering under my breath, as I wouldn't have dared answer back or do anything bad. My two younger brothers, on the other hand really did do some naughty things and they seemed to get away with it.

The only thing I really remember was breaking my arm riding my friend's pony when we had been told not to. We concocted a story about falling over a tree root onto a stone and maintained this lie for years. My justification was that she would get into big trouble if her parents knew the truth!

My mother was so strict, however, that as a teenager I would pretend to be doing 'badge' work for Girl Guides when I sneaked off to the coffee bar with my friends. To her the coffee bar was a den of iniquity!! Even as an adult I was afraid to confess!

After a day out visiting my new GS yesterday, catching up with these posts has made me chuckle and wince in fairly equal measure! Gosh we were a naughty lot - perhaps we also need a thread for our most naughty 'granny moments.'

I was brought up with Victorian-influenced strictness - a definite sense of children being seen and not heard, and together with my siblings, we knew that if we transgressed - even talked out of place - we might get a slap, or worst of all, my father's belt! My mother also had a 'copper stick' used for stirring the boiling washing and we were threatened with that many a time, but I don't recall that she actually used it. It was more a case of 'Wait until your father gets home!' and he had quite a temper at the best of times. That was usually enough to keep us in order.

Also, as the youngest, and one who had witnessed the beatings of my brothers, I tended to keep my head down. I was probably a lot sneakier!