Life seems to be changing at an ever-increasing pace for our children as they wrestle with the pros and cons of technology and an increasingly commercialised society.
They seem to be either glued to a TV/computer/mobile/tablet screen for an unhealthy amount of time or competing to have the very latest this or that to keep up with their peers.
What happened to playing in the streets all day until your mum called you in for tea? And shouts of ‘you’re either in or out’ and ‘shut the door behind you’? Ah, simpler times.
Of course, kids still play out, but they have more options to choose from now.
Anyway, join us as we take a journey from the past to present with a series of stirring images of kids playing outside in Liverpool - from as far back as 1890.
1. 1890
Children play ‘Jacks and Allies’ outside a barber’s shop with its striped pole. | Getty Images Photo: J. Burke/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
2. 1895
Boys playing a game of pitch and toss at the corner of Byram Street and Scotland Road, Liverpool. | Getty Images Photo: J. Burke/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
3. 1900
A child attempts to board one of Liverpool’s first electric trams, in Derby Square. | Getty Images Photo: J. Burke/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
4. 1922
A young girl holds a greyhound, ‘Jassiona’ as she takes it to the Waterloo Cup Meeting at Altcar. | Getty Images Photo: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images