AIBU to ask what you used to do when your grandmas babysat?

[Justcallmelu]

I've just had a chat with a friend and we got to talking about playing cards, and I've just gotten flashbacks to when I was a kid. BOTH of my gambling grandmas used to play cards with me for hours! We'd even gamble for matchsticks!

Of course my mother would come in and we'd have to put everything away like a pair of delinquents, but it was the most fun ever!

Anyone do similar? Just my gambling grandmas?

PS I haven't turned out to have a gambling addiction!
But don't play me at poker

We used to pore over the freeman's catalogue and make fantasy shopping lists as if we were millionaires. She also used to let me try her rings on!

Yup, gambling. Taught me to play cards. She had a stock of coppers we could bet with. No matter the outcome of the games, I always ended up with all the coppers and was dispatched to the newsagent for sweeties and a comic (he had a remainder box of discounted ones). She also taught me how to play Patience for when she wanted some peace.

I also used to put in dance productions in her living room. Moved the coffee table out of the way and I’d tumble and high kick my way around. I even had a stage name, Jenny Francisco.

She used to buy fizzy drinks from the ale lorry for me coming over. I was allowed one glass. And she would buy these chewy sweets from BHS, or maybe it was Littlewoods, for me that I liked. Like chewits but a long stick wrapped in wax paper. I always ate the banana or toffee ones first as I liked them best, and left the strawberry and chocolate ones til I was jonesing for more sugar.

She would get me to read our horoscopes from her newspaper out loud.

Tea was never later than 7pm and always something nice.

In the evening, we’d watch Eastenders or Coronation Street if it was a weeknight. Casualty if it was a Saturday.

She tried to teach me to knit, as she was a dab hand, but I foundered at purl unfortunately. Never really got the hang of crochet either.

If it was a summer evening and still light, she’d give me money to run round to the local Italian cafe for a couple of cappies or sliders after the soaps were finished.

Also stories about WWII, my mum as a kid and the struggles of the proletariat in the 1930s. She was a lifelong communist, helped unionist her workplace and fundraiser for the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. That’s how she met my grandad- they were both members of a reading group for working people to self-educate, which became involved in the Spanish Civil War effort.

Playing cards, particularly rummy. Staying up late watching Prisoner Cell Block H and horror films. My nana lived just a tube ride away from central London and used to take me to all the tourist spots during the school holidays. My favourite was the Tower of London because I could say Bloody Tower without getting in trouble 

As she got older she moved to the seaside so I would spend every day at the beach.

Wow Janet your grandma sounds like a legend.
My grandmas were too old and one was to mean to babysit. My mother used to read stories by the hour with my kids, and she would also sit and guard a goal for my son when he was tiny. Even though she couldn't walk, she would use her cane to keep the ball out.

She was Clara. She lived to over a hundred, in her own flat til the end.

I wrote a long post and lost it, but my GPs were fab. They looked after me from 11months- school age, three days a week and then any days I was 'ill' when both parents had to work.

They taught me lots of card games, marbles, Carom (awesome game a little like snooker, with a square board and flat pieces- you flick the flicker and break up the centre and try to get your colour in the pockets). My grandad used to make chapattis with me for lunch. Go for walks to the farm shop for a feast ice-cream and to see a great uncle who was a blacksmith.

If I was 'ill' off school Grandad would take me to London to go to Brick Lane for cooking supplies and visit my uncle at work. I adored my Grandad .

WE used to watch gladiators, blind date and generation game and then pretend we were in them. My mum and dad always got her a box of roses and my Grandma used to share them with us and we would play a game where we threw the wrappers at the bin but usually missed (we would clean up later). Was always great fun.

I never had grandmas look after me, but I did have honorary aunties of grandma age. Aunty Anne had lived in Africa in the 40/50s, she would make us limbo under her shutter doors, hide and seek things under her tortoiseshell rescued from that time m, make ice cream and gardening. She also had teletext on her tv which was a huge novelty to us. She was absolutely amazing and we must have seen her most days when we lived near her, between the ages of 5 and 7.

Aunty Betty and Aunty Margaret were more occasional baby sitters from the age of 7 onwards, when we moved, but they taught me to knit.

Stay up late watching scary films and eating crumpets and Madeira cake. Loved staying at my nans.

Chess, draughts, cards, chocolates, tv, sniggering when they fell asleep and farted, that kind of thing.

We used to do jigsaws , but the really hard ones that had thousands of pieces. I do one every Christmas in her memory, always feel like she’s whispered me a hint when I find a piece after being stuck for ages.

Yep my grandma was an absolute card shark, and we'd always play with her box of change (1p, 2p) and if I won I got to keep it and go to the shop for some more penny sweets. On a Saturday afternoon or during school holidays we'd go to her best friends, and her grandchildren would be there, so the stakes were even higher.

There was always cups of tea and biscuits, along with various homemade cakes too at both houses and every Christmas Eve my grandma would hustle me for the Quality Street, there were some seriously intense games of Stop the Bus when strawberry cremes were at stake.

We haven't played for years, my auntie D (grandma's best friend) died a few years back and my grandma is sadly in the grip of Alzheimer's and no longer has the capacity to play. Still, the memories have made me smile this morning 😊

My baby sitter wasn't my grandma but was the right age. She used to make beads with me out of old magazines and do other crafty things like papier mache.

She had children but no grand children and my grandparents had all died so it was nice for us both to have that relationship I think.

Some lovely memories here. Me and my sister used to stay at my grandparents regularly on Saturday nights. We were allowed to watch The Professionals on telly and my gran would give me a basin of hot soapy water to soak my feet in. She also bought us crisps from Marks & Spencer's - what a treat!! Some nights we had a disco in the lounge and my grandad would stand at the light switch for ages turning it on and off. Miss them both very much.

This has bought a tear to my eye!
There were 6 of us grandkids, all around the same age and our nan used to have us all round for tea once a week.
she played the piano and we would all stand around it and sing along with her.
Then she would give us 'shandy' which was coke and lemonade mixed together, along with a buffet of crackers,cheese,cakes,crisps,sausages, more cake! oh and chocolate fingers.
Then she would get all her art stuff out and we would create masterpieces.
The house was so untidy and chaotic but I loved those days ♥️

Gambling for me too we used to play pontoon for little shells.

I’ve just lost my Nan so this thread has made me a bit sad but also happy remembering her! I used to stay with her a lot as my mum was either working or having a well-deserved night out with her mates. We used to ice digestive biscuits and sprinkle them with hundreds and thousands. Saturday night was telly night - Casualty, The Bill etc she used to let me do the crosswords in her Get a Life magazines if I promised not to read the stories (I did )

Ate prodigious quantities of chocolate and pickled onions! She wasn't very mobile so she'd mostly watch TV and we'd chat or I'd read a book, but she always had a chocolate stash to raid.

My gran was pretty frail so her 'babysitting' us usually ended in her falling over and splitting her head open, so one of us (usually eldest sibling) would accompany her in the ambulance to hospital, while the rest of us stayed at home and watched telly! God knows what my parents were thinking!

One would take us to the local playground, watch telly with us, and occasionally do a bit of gardening which we helped with.

The other would play occasional board games and cook with us, but otherwise let us run wild (we played hide and seek and tag a lot from what I remember).

I don't recall a lot of 1:1 time with either though - we'd join in things they were doing if we were interested, but otherwise do our own thing. There were always games and puzzles around if it was raining, but otherwise we'd be outside, or feeding chickens and ducks they kept.

Both grandads died young, so I don't really remember them.

My dgm used to put on vinyl records (mainly Guys and Dolls) for us to dance to. She also made clothes for my dolls and animals.

I haven't thought about that for a long time!

I was the only grandchild of all my grandparents until I was about 10yo, so needless to say I was spoilt rotten. Lots of sweets and pocket money and attention. We used to play cards, dominos and scrabble and I did knitting and sewing.