Was this normal in the 90's

[sparklybin]

I'm trying to sort in my head some of the things my parents did when me and siblings were growing up to see what was normal and was was not.

When my parents used to go into town ie the high street, if they had their shopping to do or something like a bank appointment they would drop us at the toy store and leave us there playing with the toys until they'd finished and then they'd come back. Probably used to leave us for about an hour but I'm not sure if it was longer. We were about 4/5 when they started doing this
I can't imagine doing this. It was early 90's though so I don't know if it was normal or not.

I grew up in the 1960s and 70s and my Mum did on occasion leave us in the library whilst she did errands. Prams were also left outside shops as the prams in those days were huge and access difficult. Also prams were left in gardens for babies to sleep in. My Mum was still suggesting this when my sisters and I were parenting little ones but we didn't do it.

A few years back I was in the Apple store in Regents Street and there was a bit of a kerfuffle as a Dad had left 4 children in there to play whilst he did shopping elsewhere. The staff took care of the kids and he was in some trouble when he came back.

My kids were born 1992 & 1995 and there's no way I would ever have left them unattended in a shop can't believe that many people would have

It was utterly normal in the 60s and 70s to leave young kids alone while parents went shopping, but that was also a time when if a child was upset, adults were allowed, nay, expected, to hold their hand or pick them up in place of the parent. Not a better time, just different and people didn't expect anything to go wrong then, whereas it's the default setting now

@Mygirlruby

It was utterly normal in the 60s and 70s to leave young kids alone while parents went shopping, but that was also a time when if a child was upset, adults were allowed, nay, expected, to hold their hand or pick them up in place of the parent. Not a better time, just different and people didn't expect anything to go wrong then, whereas it's the default setting now

I was never left till I started secondary school in the 60s

Never to a toy store but loads of 20p coins and sat in a machine with short films ( only ever seen this is one place) or the small pretend cars ( like you get with noddy or something now a days)
Left to it till adult returned
Now you've reminded me that's bonkers!

I was going to say that if course it wasn't normal. Then I remembered going Easter egg shopping with my sister. My mum let us go into the shop. We had to meet her a five minute walk away. I was five. My sister was eight. I tripped over and smashed the Easter eggs. My sister went ballistic. I would never let my kids do that today. At 7-8 I was allowed to walk to the greengrocers and local garage to buy sweets which was a five min walk away

@XiCi

I dont think it was normal at all, no. I was pretty shocked to read your story tbh

My mum told me how in the 80s you were not allowed to take prams in shops so you had to leave your baby in the pram outside the shop and this was totally normal

Think this was more 1970s and earlier. The only reason was that prams were massive contraptions that wouldn't come close to fitting in a shop so they had no choice but to leave them outside and nip in. Likely to be a nip in to a local shop in those days, its not like everyone was leaving their babies with the trollies at Asda and doing a weekly shop

I think 70s too, often shops were smaller and mums were in and out quicker. Butchers, bakers, grocers, sort of places not massive supermarkets that people are in for an hour.

Actually doing a supermarket shop with a baby in a pram is a PITA, limited in what you can pick up and can't push trolly and pram at the same time.

I remember the elc and the train set in the 80s but I was never left alone as well as the wooden animal slides in the shopping centre. If we went to a pub it was one with a children's room.

Back in the day prawns were quite big so didn't always fit through doors or around the shop

Prawns? Prams!

I think I remember being left in Tesco to read the magazines…shout, mizz, smash hits! While my parents went round the rest of the shop - but never alone in another shop.

My experience relates to a small rural town in the Scottish borders, I imagine a good bit different from bigger towns and cities elsewhere in the UK.

Not normal in my experience. The only children that were left alone in my experience were not from good homes.

My mum told me how in the 80s you were not allowed to take prams in shops so you had to leave your baby in the pram outside the shop and this was totally normal.
Imagine doing that now!!

My dad did this when he took baby DD for a walk a few years ago. I had to remind him it's not the 80s!

I remember working part time in a toy shop in the 90s, and parents would regularly leave their children playing in the shop. There were signs asking parents not to do this, but they did.

Nope. My childre were raised in the 90s and nobody in my circle would have dreamed of doing this. Jamie Bulger's abduction and murder happened when DC3 was a baby- he fitted in age between my DC - and there was zero chance they were going to be out of my sight!

My mum sent me and my big brother to the local swimming pool every day through the summer holidays (aged about 8) and even approached one of the life guards if he could keep an eye on us, which he did. He also taught me how to swim

We also got dumped at an arcade centre in the town centre in the evening so they could go to the pub. We would all meet up every hour at a chosen location to check in then go back to the arcade/ pub.

So yeh, I would say normal back then too

Sorry, to clarify, we were sent to the local swimming pool for the whole day so both parents could go to work. That's why she eventually approached the stranger life guard to keep an eye out for us

My son was born in the early 90's and I would never have dreamed of leaving him in a toyshop whilst chipping off to do some shopping! thats like using the shop and a babysitter isn't it?! I was born in the 60's and I can't even remember that sort of thing happening even though I lived in a small village & then a town. I mean things were a lot different as in we either had outside to play or,,, well nothing really, that was it.

So we had a lot of freedom and this brought its own risks.

@MaybeAMoaner this still happens in denmark. My sister lives there and says she leaves her daughter outside in the pram while she shops and apparently its completely normal. She also leaves her daughter to sleep outside on the balcony and this is also very normal there.

My children were little in the 80s, and we never did that. They came everywhere with us.

My grandmother used to leave her children outside shops in pram (1940s London) and my cousins too (1960s). My parents generally didn't (70s/80s) but recently found out my mother did leave me in a train carriage (with an old lady) while she popped to the loo. I'd never have done that with mine (2000s).

I was a child of the 70's and this would not have been normal. I was left in the car a few times while they went shopping for about half an hour at a time (in a big city centre) - horrifying thinking about it now. Was regularly left alone at night from the age of 6 on a weekly basis. I was going to the library on my own from about 6 or 7. By about 8 or 9 I would take a bus with a friend to the swimming pool or into town. I think I was a pretty independent child, but couldn't see this happening nowadays

@DidoAeneas

A few years ago I saw a woman trying and failing to get her buggy into a supermarket loo. I offered to wait with her child and she took me up on it - I guess she must have desperately wanted a wee!

Definitely remember prams being left outside shops

Yes I grew up in early 90s and it was normal in my quiet town. I got left in a nice bookshop every time my DM had a hairdresser appt for example. I loved it and the store owner was fully aware and never seemed to mind (I was always left with money to buy a book too)!