Carefree. Dangerous. And lots of fun. What happened to childhood?

I miss my carefree ’80s childhood. I miss cassettes, rollerskating and riding my bike until dinner time. All of which have been replaced by iTunes downloads, TV on demand and fenced-off play centres.

There’s nothing better than free fun.

This is the conclusion I came to on the weekend as I watched a bunch of kids on the south coast making the most of an unseasonably hot day. Stripping down to their jocks, these country kids, with not a helicopter parent in sight, gathered on the wharf for some old-school fun.

To some, they appeared foolhardy, others quietly shook their head at their flagrant disregard for the unspoken rule of wharf etiquette — you know, the one says stay on it.

On this glorious Sunday afternoon, sitting on nearby rocks with my young brood, I watched kids being kids.

The recent anniversary of William Tyrrell’s disappearance had left me, and probably all of Australia, with a feeling of sadness and over-protectiveness. As a parent, my motto had become: “if you can’t see me, I can’t see you”.

I am the one who had lost all sense of coolness and decorum and would scream out at my children to come back if they’d strayed just a little too far out of shot.

I miss my childhood.

Like cassettes, videos and CD players, my carefree ’80s childhood involved things long gone: rollerskating or riding the bike in the ’hood until dinner time. This has been replaced by iTunes downloads, TV on demand and fenced-off play centres.

On that wharf that afternoon I got a little bit of my childhood back. Kids were allowed to be fearless and they knew how to have fun without money or wi-fi.

Taking turns to run and dive or backflip into the water, I was in awe of these primary school aged kids whose only immediate interest was to out-bravado each other. Bordering on the ridiculous, but no less inspiring, was the young lad who brought his wee bike to the wharf. Poor bloke looked laughable on this tiny BMX with an empty milk bottle curiously tied to the handlebar, but ultimately he was the one laughing the hardest.

Riding down towards the wharf with gusto he jumped off his bike mid-air as he rode/fell into the water. I don’t think the fun police would have approved but his mates whooped in appreciation. The milk-bottle was the flotation device that pointed to the sinking bike and they all took turns riding into the water while their mates pulled them back up. They had swagger, they had their mates and the sun was burning down. What more could they possibly want or need?

Call it stupid, dumb, or dangerous, inexorably it was just old-school fun.