How naughty were you as a child?

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!

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!

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 !

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.

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.

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

annifrance take the shame!???

Yes, that was truly shocking!

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

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.

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!

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.

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 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 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!!

Babyboomer I quite understand about ingrained guilt!

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?

I wouldn't have dared to misbehave.

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

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

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.

Phoenix sounds like a career criminal in the making!

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!

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 did get tar on my dress once....