Nice little things people did for you as a child.

[sunshinelollipopsrainbows]

I grew up with just my dad who was abusive and I went into care as a teen. I now have 3 little ones of my own and I often feel a bit lost as I have nothing to emulate. It probably sounds stupid but it's a sore point for me.

What little things did your parents or family do for you that were special or thoughtful which you still remember now?

When I had friends over to play, my Dad would come up after an hour or so with a tray of biscuits or cakes, and cups of squash.

My grandad used to look after me while my parents worked, before I started school and then in the holidays, after school etc. He was lovely, and I used to love hearing all of his stories about his childhood.

Both of my parents read to me every night, took me to the library every few weeks to choose new books. I still love reading now.

Just remembered another one from when I was little - we had random "stay up late" Friday / Saturday nights. We always had strict bedtimes so the occasional midnight was a total luxury. Especially the time we were up late on a Friday and mum took a call from her sister to invite us over for the week (it was half term). DM got us all (4 of us aged 9yo - 6 months) packed and dressed, bundled us in the car for a 3 hour journey and we arrived at 2am! Best half term ever - and that's the only bit I remember.

Picnics in the sand dunes
Riding about on the back of mums bike
Car games on journeys
Hot water bottles
Letting me have and then choose pets
Being allowed to watch Dr Who from behind the settee, with a cushion to hide behind for good measure, without being laughed at
Mum having a go on my pogo stick and roller skates out the front with all the other kids there - she didn't care if she made a fool of herself

Thanks for your replies. Ive been sat smiling at them all. How lovely.

You hear and read so much about all of the bad things in peoples childhoods that it scares me sometimes. Im not perfect, but I hope they remember the little things I do for them and know they're loved.

Thought of another one:

Get dressed in mum's bed as it was warmer;
Do a big coat cuddle - where I'd have my hands in my coat pockets, swing them out and forwards, and DDs would dive in for a hug. Still do it now and they're early twenties;
The non-Birthday one and I would make the Birthday one's home cake;
Snuggles on my bed;
Take then seriously when they wanted to discuss serious topics;
Send each other random cards just because.

I loved dogs so my dad would take us to a local dog walking park so I could see them. We'd also crawl around the house with pj bottoms on our heads to be dangling dog ears.

Cuddling on the sofa watching tv with my mum or occasionally sharing her bed and being the little spoon

My granny never had very much money but she gave me her time. She absolutely loved having her four (at the time) grandchildren over every Saturday. She made our favourite lunches, taught us to knit, just treasured us.
I’m so sad her smoking robbed us of her far too young.

My grandparents were always so kind with their time and attention. They always listened, took an interest in whatever we were doing and I remember at 23 visiting my grandparents and they'd still bought me and my siblings an Easter egg. Just the little things like that. So kind. They also sent a little card every single time we passed an exam, eg a music exam/end of year test.

They also did one thing I really loved as a kid; they wrote us a postcard each, instead of just one to our whole family. So me and my siblings each waited for our own, with our own little message every time they were away. I kept all of mine. Being made to feel special is what I remember with them. Wonderful people.

I mean, really, too many to mention. My parents were/are amazing. Kind and generous but also firm.

Dad used to polish my school shoes and bring them in from the (cold) porch and put them on the radiator to warm up before I went to school in winter.

I couldn’t open the plastic wrapper on cereal bars when I started school and dad used to cut a small slit in the packet I could then rip open at break.

Mum used to go out of her way to buy me a special kind of food I loved when she visited one site for work across the other side of the city.

Actually I can’t even start typing all the stuff mum did. So much daily kindness.

My gran used to peel and cut up apples for me! Used to love that when she babysat for me.

You are clearly a lovely mum. I think the greatest gift you can give to your children is your time. Be there for them. Play board games, talk, read stories. The simple things are often the best

We didn’t have much money when I was little but I didn’t feel disadvantaged.
Nice little memories included when we drew pictures, added string to the paper and ran about a nearby hillside with our ‘kites’.
We had a coal fire and honestly the day my mum suggested toasting bread at the fire I was so excited, felt like an adventurer
Walking to and from the library (about a mile through housing scheme) finding various ‘short cuts’ and quirky bits.
Probably the nicest everyday thing was getting into a cosy bed with snuggly pyjamas on and reading a story with my wee cuddly toys.
You sound like a great mum

One of my very earliest memories is being out for a walk with my mum. She had brought some lemonade and I was too little to drink from the bottle without making a mess and I remember her pouring tiny amounts into the bottlecap for me to sip at.

Her and my dad always took us out for walks picking berries and playing poohsticks, nothing fancy or expensive, just quality time.

Warm milk and a biscuit at bedtime; Having my back stroked (I still love it now but it's dh rather than my dad who does it); being tucked in at night; having a bubble bath run for me....
Really little things, everyday demonstrations of affection. You sound like a lovely mum and I'm sure you do lots of things without thinking about it that show your love.

My Granma always gave me a hot water bottle when I stayed at hers. If I was sick she would give me Lucozade and give me the yellow cellophane off the bottle so I could look through it (it was the 70s, coloured cellophane was an unbelievable luxury). She'd bring get well messages back from the people who worked at the chemist.

She taught me lots of card games. We would spend Saturday evening's watching Play your cards right, Family fortunes and Live from the Palladium. She'd get us tiny glasses of sherry and peel oranges into kitchen roll on her lap and give me only perfectly peeled segments.

Sometimes she'd take me to a whist drive or a beetle drive but I preferred being at home with her and Grandad.

She taught me to moisturise, moisturise, moisturise and how to do your own nails. Granma was very humble but she had a lot of confidence and self-respect.

My mum isn't a bad person, just a bit mental/ self absorbed. Thank god for Granma who taught me such a lot.

I never deny my son a carefully prepared snack or a hot water bottle!

My dad would cut the crusts off my sandwiches in my lunchbox and fold a little napkin into a triangle. Sometimes there'd be a smiley / silly face drawn on the napkin and that would make me chuckle at school - and miss him.

Mum taught me to sew and knit, we used to sit and do our embroidery together. I was often poorly, so something quiet to do was lovely.

if she was baking she would make pastry men or little jam turnovers for me with leftover pastry scraps.

She would do my hair for me, or help me with it, as it was long and curly.

She would put the radio on in the afternoons and we would dance, and at Christmas we would sing our favourite carols.

She never seemed to mind about the boxes full of stamps, or all the other odd assortment of my "collections"!

You'll make a wonderful Mum sunshine !

Being taken to school on a sledge in fresh snow so as not to miss the best of it.

OP

My Mum used to bring me and my sister breakfast in bed on Saturday mornings when I was a teenager, boiled egg, soldiers and a cup of tea.
Dad used to call me ‘chickabiddy’, not sure why but it always made me feel all warm and loved.
All our achievements at school were celebrated, however small, and both Mum and Dad went to every parents evening and every concert.
I was a very lucky and much loved child and I miss both my parents immensely.

Letting us lick the bowl out after she made cake icing, giving us tough love and the skills to be fiercely independent and successful adults (mum)

Playing endless games of whist and gin rummy teaching us all to be poker sharks and being the parent you knew would always drop everything if you really needed them to as a counterbalance to mums tough love (dad).

The standout lesson from this thread for everyone is that children care and remember about time and love, not how much money was spent on them.

My dad isn't the most demonstrative but I remember when I went to university he sent me a £100 cheque about two weeks before the end of my first term with a note that said 'I remember I used to run out of money about now'. It made me laugh and he was right!

I'm reading through tears. This is a truly lovely thread
OP I hope you are ok xxxx

Lovely idea for a thread OP - so sorry to hear what you went through I think you are dead right when you say it's the little things that can make kids feel happy. If you are thinking of that you are a great mum.

I think mine would be things people have already mentioned, like warming clothes on the radiator etc. We used to have "treat" teas sometimes during the week, which would be a quick tea like fish fingers etc, but we were allowed to eat it in the living room and watch TV - always an old b&w film like Sherlock Holmes or Tarzan

My mum used to buy me books sometimes as a surprise, even if I hadn't asked for them, I used to love that. She used to write a little message inside the cover - have still got most of them.

She used to do treasure hunts for us as well - except we called them "mysteries" as she used to leave puzzles/clues for us to find.

My dad always used to play games with us (board games, but blind man's buff etc as well) when he got in from work. Also for breakfast, he used to cut our toast into shapes like a house or a star.

They're both still lovely and kind and caring now - eg if I go and stay with them, they put slippers out for me in the spare room and make me tea and toast etc!

Also, this is not a parent but something I always remember: we had a lovely childminder who sometimes used to put a sweet in our coat pocket - she did it secretly, so we'd find it on our walk home from her house.

My mum used to get a Mars bar out from the top of the cupboard and cut it up with a sharp knife, and we'd all sit together and eat our little slices and think it was a huge treat. I still think it's the only way to eat one.

My favourite memories are of walks in the woods, jigsaw puzzles in front of the fire and baking. Once, the three of us all wanted a different cake for Sunday tea. Mum let us each bake a different cake so nobody was disappointed.

My dad had mental health problems which made home challenging a lot of the time, but I remember him letting me stand on his feet when I was small and doing 'the tango' across the kitchen floor. And when I was so lonely and miserable at secondary school that I started coming home at lunchtime, he used to have chips and fresh rolls waiting at home.

Putting my school uniform in the dryer or on the radiator on cold mornings or same with my PJs after a bath.
My parents were into a sport that would be shown live once a year really really early in the morning. Mum would make pancakes and we would all get up to watch it.
Dad would make faces out of the vegetables on our plate for dinner.
Get to pick something nice from the shop to watch a movie on a Saturday night.
Put footprints of coal around the fireplace Christmas morning and dad sometimes put rolled up clumps of muck on the roof and give out about the reindeer pooing all over his roof!!
Other little traditions or sayings that organically grew over the years. 99% of the positive stuff I remember from my childhood isn't about big gestures or flashy presents but the ordinary little traditions that make you feel safe,secure and loved.
Sounds like you have created an amazing home to grow up in,very lucky children to have you has a DM