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.

Very little Silver Cross in the 90s, small prams & fold up buggies.

I worked at the early learning centre for over ten years. It happened and we would call security. Weird how a poster further up says that it was allowed - it most definitely was not! The amount of times I had to remind customers that we were not a crèche and they had to supervise their own children. As I got older and a bit gobbier I would tell parents that came to “pick up” their unattended child that they were a delight and who would have guessed that a kid so young would love espresso so much that they drank three cups?

I worked at early learning centre from 2000-2013 and it was very much a normal occurrence to find unattended children as young as 5 in the store while the parents had buggered off shopping elsewhere. Kids generally had no idea where they were. This happened multiple times a week.
This was in a middle sized city in a store that led straight out on to a busy high street.
We knew to look out for it and if caught trying to ditch their kids they were firmly told not to even think about it.
The ones who did manage to leave the kids often got back to a police officer waiting for them.

It’s not something my parents ever did but I can imagine it was completely the norm in the 80’s and 90’s

Not 90’s but definitely 80’s we were left alone in cars, outside shops, outside school just waiting for mum to come and retrieve us and it would be hours.

In 90’s I use to babysit 4 x under 8s until 4am every Saturday night. Started when I was 11.

My eldest was born in 1995, no way would I or anyone I knew do that. In my 70s childhood, possibly

My dm always left me in the library. She wouldn't have left me in the toy shop as she wouldn't have wanted me to ask for toys. I wasn't allowed to watch itv kids shows because of the toy adverts.

In the 80s, I remember being left at the Saturday morning matinee in the cinema - they showed children's films and entry was peanuts, so it was common for parents to leave their chidren there. It was pandemonium with popcorn chucking and so on!

I had young children in the 90s and my experience was the opposite. I recall it as the decade when we first started to really fear for child safety. In contrast to my own 70s upbringing. It was the time when the tragedies of Jamie Bulger and Madeline Mcann were in the news, and I remember a very heightened state of anxiety around abduction, and the need to know where your children were at all times. My DC were born mid 90s though so were very young throughout the decade.

Yes - I was born in 1983 and we were often left in the Early Learning toy shop whilst my mum popped into shops in town

I was born late 80s so this would have been in the 90s.

Yes, normal for us (80s). Large town, not big city.

I was born in 1995 and don’t remember ever being left anywhere but my parents were very protective

Out playing on the street going to the park from 3/4 so around 1980 and left in the library / sent to supermarket on my own from 8. When i was at infants my mum walked me to school although friends walked by themselves. I imagine this may have changed after a horrific kidnapping and murder of a little girl on her way to school a couple of miles from my school.

@sparklybin your parents taught you to steal.
I don't think what they did was usual no, definitely not in the 80's or 90's. I just think you had shit parents to be honest. Do you still have a relationship with them?

I was an 80s baby and was left in my pram outside shops. Was never, ever left in a shop on my own though while mum did the shopping! I’d say from about the age of 8 I used to walk to the local library myself but it was a village/small town and not a long walk. I got the books then brought them home. Oh, but I’ve just remembered I was left with my younger brother while my mum and dad worked! Dad would pop in a few times a day to make sure we were ok! Imagine doing that nowadays with an 8 and 6 year old. We were very sensible and trustworthy though.

No.

As a child in the 70s I remember having a lot more freedom than children have had in subsequent decades. Whole days out unsupervised, parents not knowing where we were.

I don't remember being left alone in toy shops or the library whilst my DM went shopping though.

@MrsLargeEmbodied

my ds was born in 1994, i would never have done anything like that

had no one heard of Jamie Bulger, that was 1993 and surely that must have made parents very anxious.

Absolutely this!

My DS was also born in 1994 and no way on earth would I have left a pram outside then, and I live in a fairly boring safe non descript town.

I remember it as a child with the big Silver Cross prams, and also my mum leaving my DB outside the house wrapped up in his pram but this was the 60s not the 80s.

1970s childhood here - left to wander round fairs (tannoy message to come and meet parents in beer tent when ready to leave), left in library and Sat cinema. Would be closer to age 7-8 though. Wasn't left in shops for any length of time.

Also can't remember seeing unaccompanied kids as young as 4-5 in shops in the 1990s.

My children were born in the early 90s and absolutely not normal for our family or the kids friends families.

not normal where I lived in the 90's

I’m 50 and no that didn’t happen to me and i didn’t do that with my DC born in 2000s.
I do remembered being outside pubs in the 70s when children weren’t allowed in! We’d get a bottle of lemonade with a paper straw and a packet of crisps if we were lucky. There were a few of us though plus other kids.

HIPPO

If they just randomly abandoned you wandering the aisle in a store and they left the building then not that's not normal.

Early 90s many stores had 'creches' though where you could leave kids to go shop, basically like a soft play or waiting area play bit where you could leave your kids. They were often DIY'd by the store and weren't very health and safety conscious and I got hurt many times (quite badly once when I fell headfirst onto the store's concrete floor from a scaffolding 'climbing' frame they had built).

No, I was never out my parents sight until I was in last year of primary (born late 80s)
Mum was always terrified we would get kidnapped by a pedophile or murdered, or given drugs.
But she was ahead of her time, carting all her washed recycling across the estate to the communal bins, shopping in charity shops and used furniture stores whenever possible.

My children were babies and toddlers in the 1990s. I would never have left them alone in a shop or in the library. Never saw rows of prams with babies in them either. It was certainly not a 'thing' people did.