How times have changed!

A comment on twitter just made me reminisce about the holidays of my childhood and that 'oh so familiar' smell that became synonymous with it - the coconut flavoured tanning oil!

Not that long ago (well, ok, it was the early 80s, but, for the sake of my sanity, let's call it not long ago) SPF 6 was considered to be a high factor!

I clearly remember my mum slathering on the SPF 2 Hawaiian Tropic oil and frying her way to a mahogany tan - and she certainly wasn't the only one doing it.

I swear pool sides back then looked like a row of sizzling sausages!

Hard to believe really! That was back in the day when smoking was considered acceptable and people gave their children little snips of brandy when they were poorly.

Now, in hindsight, those things appear foolhardy, let alone down right dangerous, but have we gone too far in the other direction?

While only 30 years ago we'd run around building sandcastles and playing in the sea with just one layer of SPF 6 on, now it's all about SPF 50+.

But, with a worrying rise in Vitamin D deficiency and conditions such as rickets, caused by lack of exposure to the sun, maybe we should be slightly more sensible about things?

You are very entitled to disagree, but I believe that a child with a healthy, slightly sun kissed glow is a good thing.

Just like I think children should have rosy cheeks in the winter.

It shows that they enjoy being active outdoors and I believe a little sunshine is good for us all, both mentally, physically and constitutionally.

What I don't advocate is sunburn. A sunburnt child to me is a neglected one and nothing is more tragic. But then I hate to see deathly pale children too. To me that is also unhealthy.

So I suppose, what it comes down to is being sensible and trusting our instincts.

All too often us mums become victims of the nanny state and told how we should and shouldn't be doing things.

Apart from the fact that this so called advice contradicts itself every few years, it seems to discourage us from thinking for ourselves.

Personally, I think, if you consider yourself an intelligent, caring and mature human being, you should trust the instincts you were born with.

Not to mention the fact that you love your children more then life itself and would do whatever it took to protect them, despite whatever guidelines are fashionable at the time.