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 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 indoor options to choose from now. Sending a child to their room used to be a punishment, now it means 12 hours straight of Fortnight or Roblox.
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 streets - from as far back as 1890.
1. Liverpool children play 'Jacks and Allies' outside a barber's shop with its striped pole, in 1890.
Image: J. Burke/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
2. Boys using dustbin lids and broomsticks as shields and lances during a game of knights in Liverpool in 1956.
Image: John Pratt/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
3. Children play street football in front of a 'no ball games' sign in Liverpool in 1986.
Image: Allsport UK /Allsport
4. A group of boys play marbles under an arch by the roadside in front of blocks of flats in Liverpool in 1956.
Image: John Pratt/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images