Kids certainly don’t have it easy these days – in fact, many have good reason to be afraid of going to school.

In comparison, the dangers the over-40 crowd faced growing up were fairly tame by comparison, but still occasionally life-threatening. At the very least, it was rare to escape childhood without a few broken bones.

Take a trip down memory lane and recall all the things we were allowed to do and play with in the 70s and 80s (and yes, some of these things span more decades) that simply wouldn’t fly in our more enlightened and child-friendly century.

1. Lawn darts

Javelin darts (or jarts) were actually outlawed in 1988 – and for precisely the reason you might imagine.

They caused thousands of ER visits and a few deaths in the years they were around because they basically just encouraged us to throw sharp projectiles as hard as we could.

2. Concrete playgrounds

According to the New York Times, playgrounds today are so safe that they can actually stunt kids’ development!

But that doesn’t mean we should reinstall the concrete under the equipment.

We all remember how that felt when we landed on it – and the equipment was so unsafe that we all landed on it at least once.

3. Metal slides

What better way to burn your backside than miscalculating how hot a metal slide would be in the summer?

Or even worse, remember those moments when you didn’t glide down gracefully but got stuck a few times because of some sweat on your legs?

Good times.

4. Seatbelts as a mere suggestion

In 1983, seat belts became mandatory.

But before that, you basically had to dig them out of the seat to put them on – and who even wanted to do that?

5. Secondhand smoke

It’s pretty shocking to see people do this today and some states are even outlawing smoking with kids in the car.

But those of us who grew up before the 90s can probably still smell the cigarette smoke of our parents on the way home from school.

It was roughly 1993 when we all heard from the EPA that secondhand smoke could kill innocent bystanders.

6. Tetherball

Did you know there are rules for tetherball?

For most kids, it was just a way to send something flying in the general direction of friends and enemies.

7. Latchkey kids

Everyone was jealous of the latchkey kids, imagining they got to go home, eat snacks, and watch TV without having to deal with their parents upon walking in the door.

Some states now have laws about how old a child has to be in order to be allowed to stay home alone. However, in Kansas, it’s still a shocking 6 years old.

8. Monkey bars

Most of us would dislocate our shoulders if we tried these today, but we found lots of different ways to maim ourselves on the monkey bars during recess.

From climbing on top of them to miscalculating a swing, many of us have vivid memories of sliding right off.

You were just lucky if there was grass underneath instead of pebbles.

9. Sunbathing

The more sun the better before we realized just how deadly those rays are.

Even before the ozone layer depleting was making the news, plenty of people still took their lives into their hands to get that bronze glow (and more than a few “lobster tans”).

Sadly, we’re all paying the price for it now.

10. What’s a helmet?

Helmets were for nerds before the 90s. In fact, our parents didn’t even think to buy us one at that point.

Of course, now that we know more about the long-term effects of concussions, it’s great to be able to protect those little noggins.

11. Jungle gyms

Back in the day, there were only a few cool ways to break your arm and falling off the jungle gym and into the warm embrace of asphalt was one of them.

Did you ever wonder if these things were manufactured by plaster cast companies just to keep them in business?

12. Dodgeball

Ahh, dodgeball. That’s where you really found out who was harboring resentment against you.

If you managed to get through childhood without getting a dodgeball to the face, consider yourself lucky.

13. Riding in the back of a pickup truck

Whoever thought that was a good idea?

It was always wildly unsafe if you used even a little bit of common sense – and yet, we all did it any chance we could get.

14. School lunches

Who likes sodium?

Somehow, even the vegetables (which we never bothered to eat anyway since we could get away with refusing to eat anything green until we had out first heart exam) were chocked full of badness.

We should all be grateful that kids get the option today to have at least one healthy meal in school.

15. Pogo balls

Pogo balls were the coolest toy of the 80s, but no one was a natural.

You had to get at least a few bruises before you got good at it.

16. Slip and Slide

Slip and Slides inflate now to avoid at least some of the injuries that come with hurling yourself along the ground head first.

Remember when you forgot to check for rocks before you put one down? Would it even be summer without bruised ribs?

17. Trick-or-treating with no supervision

If you balk at the fact that there are specific hours for trick-or-treating these days, you really only have yourself to blame.

Aside from the dangers of being out alone as a youngster, we just didn’t have the common sense to stop ringing doorbells after a certain time of night.

It might have been 10 pm but we were still wide awake from all that candy we were already fishing out of our bags since no one was watching.

18. Jumping off everything

How deep is that water? Well, there was only one way to find out – and it wasn’t asking someone who knew.

We pretty much discourage kids now from thoughtlessly jumping off of everything from couches to bridges – and that’s probably because we heard at least one tragic story of how it ended when we were kids.

19. Chemistry sets

Chemistry sets will always be cool, but they’re a little safer these days.

We also tend to supervise children a little bit more closely when they play with them – and that’s likely thanks to an accidental “educational” lesson about chemical reactions.

You can’t just stick anything in those test tubes.

20. Easy bake oven

Remember your first oven fire? It probably happened pretty early if you had the jealousy-inducing fire hazard known as the Easy-Bake Oven.

You could make your own brownies, cakes, etc.

But really the most dangerous part was the disappointment you faced when your parents refused to buy you more mixes or when your sibling baked an action figure in it.

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What death-defying game or toy did you survive growing up?

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