Column: Childcare has changed completely in recent years

Until about 20 years ago, many children were more or less left to their own devices once they could walk and talk.

Some stories from my childhood sound almost apocryphal now but they are true. I walked two miles to school every day when I was four years old and cycled along busy streets when I was six.

My parents would often go out for an hour or two in the evenings leaving their four children alone in the unlocked house.

At junior school, most of us would leave the playground at break time and explore the intriguing nearby streets. I used buses on my own from about the age of five and trains perhaps a year later. Often I took a train to Oxford or Worthing and went to stay with aged aunts.

Aged eight, I went to Plymouth by myself and was given half a crown to buy a meal. I ordered soup in the dining car but dared not eat anything else in case I did not have enough money to pay for it.

The only warning my mother ever gave me was to beware of dirty old men although she never explained what I should do on meeting them or even how to recognise one.

Children were almost feral. They were to be seen now and then but not heard. Yet in many ways they were more disciplined than they are now. I was never late for school on a single day and missed only a handful through illness.

When my mother unexpectedly left home and my father proved often incapable of caring for us, we never had a visit from social services or expected any. Nearly all children went to school by themselves on foot. Now most are taken there by car.

I know of youngsters who have never been on a bus or train and are frightened of using public transport. It is so rare to see children on their own in the street that when it happens I almost feel like calling the police (in the unlikely event of finding any on the beat).

Mothers happily left their infants in prams outside shops each day while buying groceries. This is now nearly a criminal offence.

An enormous change in society is that most parents now work while domestic duties used to take time for mothers.

It has led to a huge industry in nursery schools where many kids spend long hours.

Grandparents are readily used as child minders, often willingly, but a considerable minority devote long hours to the task.

Children are often taken to see the doctor or go to hospital at the least sign of illness or injury when most minor ailments will right themselves within a day.

Whereas children used to be told to eat everything on their plates, now millions of them have allergies or alleged dietary fads that make this impossible even if it were desirable.

Large numbers of kids are far too fat whereas obesity used to be a rare complaint. Today’s children often have a huge number of presents, not just for Christmas or birthdays but on an almost daily basis.

Few children ever go to playgrounds by themselves and frequently they are taken to theme parks at vast expense. Nearly all the kids I know are wedded to new technology which can be a force for good but which is often scary. Few adults are as quick fingered or agile thumbed as their offspring. Even babies can work out how to use mobiles.

Sometimes there can be a clash between generations over childcare but I think a happy medium will be found that is good both for parent and child. We are starting to see it now.

Some of the things we regarded as normal years ago were by any objective assessment highly dangerous and foolhardy.

Equally a case can be made against aspects of today’s childcare for being far too precious. I think there will be swift but profound movements in the way we all live brought about by our reaction to climate change.

Children will no longer be transported everywhere by car as most families adapt their lifestyles to help save the planet.

They will eat less meat and exercise more than they do now. They will both cycle and recycle. Children and young adults are already campaigning on environmental issues as they will be living for most of their lives in this brave new world. I sometimes look at pictures of urchins in the streets taken a few decades ago and find it hard to believe that I was one of them. But the changes this generation of kids will experience will be far more remarkable than any my generation has seen.