Did anyone else's parents leave them outside the pub?

[Itswaytoohot]

They were just talking about this on TV and it reminded me. Growing up in the 80s and early 90s most pubs didn't allow children.

Sometimes my parents would take us anyway and leave us outside with crisps and pop, either in the car park or beer garden. If we got bored we were just told to go away and play.

I also remember being sneaked into the pub once and the landlord coming and telling my parents we had to leave.

Did anyone else's parents ever do this? It wouldn't be acceptable now.

Feel free to add any other things your parents did that would be frowned upon now. Intended to be lighthearted.

Not my parents who weren't pub people but I do remember staying at friends and doing this back when kids were not welcome inside. We weren't that young though (about ten-11).
My husband told me his parents would leave him, age 5, in charge of his two year old brother and go out for an evening!
Also when he was 11, brother 8, his parents bought them ski passes and basically all week they were dropped off for the day unsupervised. They had never skiied before either.
When this was brought up when I was getting to know his family his mother said 'we just didn't know any better'. I'm not sure that you need to be told that a five year old cannot be left home alone in charge of a two year old!

Yes, definitely remember this - late 80s.

Pub beer garden with a packet of crisps and a bottle of coke other than one country house hotel place which had the most amazing gardens to explore and Appletiser.

Definitely in the 1980’s, a vimto with a straw and a bag of salt and vinegar, when it got dark we’d huddle under the light with the moths.

Yes definitely in the 70's. Usually left in the car park (as the pubs with nice gardens never sold the good beer according to my dad) with a bottle of coke with a straw each, some crisps and plenty of arguing with my siblings.

No never . They never went to the pub on their own either . Maybe they went to a Wedding or a work event occasionally .

Yes in fact my parents would call it going out for a bottle of pop. Happened several times a week so quite interesting that it was dressed up as a treat for me. I was always left in the car, can’t remember being either hot or cold but there must have been warm and cool days. Vimto and Smith’s crisps with the salt twist.

No we either went out to eat as a family on the pub, or one of our parents went out while the other stayed home with us.

What a sad thing to do to your kids

I was always sat in a pub carpark with a bag of crisps and a bottle of Coke. If I was lucky the pub had an outdoor attached so I could buy some sweets.
If we were on holiday quite a few pùbs had childrens rooms with comics and a pool table. That was a real treat. Probably talking mid to late 70s.
Oh and my step dad always drove home after drinking. No seatbelts either as they weren't compulsory. I'm lucky to be alive!

Yep,Bottle of coke, paper straw and if a mars vibrating appeared we knew it was gonna be long haul.

Omg a vibrating mars bar !!

Yep! 90’s and early 2000’s. Either outside or shoved upstairs with landlords kids. When it turned 9pm I had to sit underneath the pub table where I couldn’t be seen.

Not a pub but a betting shop

A lot of you were left in cars. Did your parents then drive you home in the car after drinking? A lot of you will say yes 🙈 also the case with me

Yup! 80s child here and pretty much all of my childhood memories outside of the house are being in a pub garden or snug. I remember making robots out of old fag packets.

Also used to get sent to the corner shop with a note from my mum to buy her fags when I was at primary school.

Yes but I choose not to see it as shitty parenting. My dad used to take his dad (my grandpa) to the pub. It was never more than an hour and a half. My dad wasn't a pub goer. It was to take my disabled grandpa out. My mum would be in work on a Saturday afternoon which is when he took us. We did plenty of other stuff as a family. Swimming, picnics, holidays. Different times.

Yep. Mid-nineties here! Left outside or beer garden with half a Pepsi and some 'crunchies' like a quavers knock off. There were a few of us though as my parents friends would also bring their kids and we just played outside the pub from midday until close every weekend.

Yup to parents drink driving too! We went to a lot of country pubs and none of the adults were designated drivers. Don't think that was even a thing til the noughties!

Me and my brother also set up a little business where we roll a tins worth of fags for the locals for 20p or a jar of cockles!

You have a good point. 90s kid and I rember 1 pub had a huge or it seemed it playground. We did similar... I don't think my parents just sat in the bar without actually been in the park.

@TalkingToMyselfAgain your post me chuckle!

Yes, all the time in the 1970s. Left in the car or pub garden for hours in all weathers, and occasionally brought some pop or crisps. Different times, but not everyone thought it was OK even then - I remember once one of my brothers crying inconsolably in the car and an older woman taking us all into the pub and demanding ' Whose children are these?' in tones of outrage. I remember the silence falling and people looking round from the dartboard. (He must have been about 4, so I would have been 6, and if I recall correctly I got the blame for not keeping him quiet!)

We were left to play at the fairground when my parents were on hols and they went to the pub! I must have been quite young at the time.

i remember being really excited if the pub had a childrens room! Otherwise it was in the car with crisps and lemonade 😊

Different times, but not everyone thought it was OK even then - I remember once one of my brothers crying inconsolably in the car and an older woman taking us all into the pub and demanding ' Whose children are these?' in tones of outrage

Just a few months ago when I was walking down the street a five year old boy was screaming and crying at the top of his voice, sounding genuinely terrified, from inside the car, leaning out of the window, 'I'M ALL ALONE! I'M ALL ALONE'. I must have been with him ten minutes, talking to him to calm him down, until his mum finally returned. She's lucky she returned when she did, I was about to call the police as I had my own child I needed to collect and couldn't wait much longer. 'Nice' upper middle class mum. Must say, I didn't realise people still pulled shit like this.

As well as pubs, one holiday my parents let me go and play at the estuary alone early every morning whilst they were still in bed. I was around nine or ten, it was a good walk from our accommodation and I was a non-swimmer.

No! I'm 80s child and this never happened to me.