80s Parenting

[Limpshade]

Today, my DH told me that when he was five years old and on holiday in Europe, his parents went out alone for dinner, telling him and his sister (same age) to lock the door behind them and keep it locked until they came back. DH remembered a rock pool he'd seen that day so instead, he went out to explore it (in the night) and was so long doing so that when he came back, his sister had fallen asleep and he was locked out. He was forced to sleep on the floor of the corridor outside until his parents returned from dinner.

I was . I mean, my mum and dad were definitely "light touch" parents in the 80s but I don't think they'd have ever done this certainly not at a hotel since it was camping every year for us. Was this a "thing" that many parents did? DH seems to think it was perfectly normal (although agrees we wouldn't leave our own kids in this way)!

It was really normal for me & loads of other other kids to travel in London for school. I had a Saturday job in town at 16

Definitely nothing like this, no.
I do remember later, in the 90s when I was early teens that my mum used to work nights and leave me and my brother alone. He would have been around 10 then. It was a couple of times a week I think.

Neighbours never said anything and nothing ever happened as we were sensible kids. I'm not sure my brother ever even knew she'd gone as she left after he went to bed.

I vividly remember my parents leaving me alone in a hotel bedroom aged 4 while they went to the hotel pub. I was upset at first but then just went to sleep.

DB and I were sent to the nearest London park on our little bikes daily. I was 7, DB was 3. No adult.

I used to tube it to school
daily from age 7. By 11 I was also taking DB aged 7.

Used to see friends’ mothers picking them up every afternoon, didn’t occur to me that my parents ever would. DM didn’t work, DF’s commute took him past our schools.

The listening service was only for those parents who were too tight to pay for the babysitting service

Nope my mum always got babysitters in , often a friends older teen when we were maybe 7-8 and teenager 15-17 ish
No one I knew was left either
We were left in car with a lemonade and bag crisps in view of parents whilst they popped in for one drink a most, though mum said in 70's they did leave us in prams outside but we were in view and that was the norm

I lived in a pretty rough council estate but not many left 5 year olds alone
Yes we played out and I was allowed to start going into shopping centre about 11 ish with friends , but at 13 was travelling all over London etc on tube / bus
But hotels did have listenjng services , even in the 90's when I worked in them

I was born in 1984 and although my parents had many failings they would never have me on my own as a child like the way your DH was.

This wasn't normal parenting in my 80s childhood. We sat outside the pub occasionally on holiday, but always with a bag of crisps and a coke and never late. We had a babysitter for any local dinner parties my parents went to until my sister was about 12. My parents used a listening service once, at a family hotel near Croyde.

The listening service was only for those parents who were too tight to pay for the babysitting service

Bit harsh. Maybe they couldn't afford the latter, and it sounds like it was a fairly normal thing.

Not a chance. My parent's still helicopter parent me in my 40s and their 70s 😂

We sat outside the pub occasionally on holiday, but always with a bag of crisps and a coke and never late.

This made me laugh, why did the presence of a coke & crisps make it better?

We were left in car with a lemonade and bag crisps in view of parents whilst they popped in for one drink a most,

so they could see you when drinking? did they drink alcohol & then drive? I'm surprised so many kids were left with fizzy drinks! I wasn't allowed them except at xmas!

I remember my nana and aunt were looking after my sister and I once. I was 6ish, my sister 3. We parked up at a shopping mall and my nana said she was nipping to the bank and to stay in the car. It was blooming hot, and I eventually worked out how to get out to get air.

What felt like hours later, they came back, having had a shopping trip, and drinking in the pub. I thought they had abandoned us at one point!

I also remember getting myself and my sister ready for school and walking up a busy main road to get there.

All of this normalised and minimised. The 80s were a different time!

Of course it made it better for a 6 year old! 😁We were on holiday, playing with plenty of other kids outside it in the garden, but I do remember not being allowed inside the pub. It seems to have been a common 70s/80s thing though and yes lots of people drunk and drove back then sadly.

I think drink driving with dc is far worse than the OP personally.

My mum was a bubble wrapper, something I hated back then but am grateful for now. But in the 60s her mum and dad would go to the local wmc for a few on Fridays and Saturdays and she would sit in the wardrobe holding a bread knife terrified. She would have been about 5.

I was walking to and from school alone from being about seven, and letting myself into the house after school (under the care of my nine year old brother!) for a couple of hours [shocked]

I suppose wraparound care wasn’t a ‘thing.’

Absolutely not normal 80s parenting to leave a 5yo home alone.

Oh piss if with your sanctimonious judging.

@Limpshade
your DH’s parents sound similar to mine. We were home alone during the occasional evening from about 7/8 and locked in the Butlins chalet’s under the watch of redcoats on noise patrol. Totally normal for the times

I was left to look after my cousin from about ten ( she would have been about six) this was in the seventies. The thing that was drummed in was don't answer the door, don't touch the cooker fuckinell can you imagine now , 😁

in 1970s we walked to and from school alone from age about 7, crossing a busy road by the zebra crossing. But my friend posted some photos of our street from when we were growing up. There were only about three cars parke din the entire street. No one had cars in those days so the roads were far safer, even the main roads only had the occasional double decker and delivery van.

My cousin's parents did this on holiday but they were considered quite neglectful by the rest of the family. No idea if it was normal - probably not.

My parents used the listening service when I was a child. Not that they were too tight, but they seriously didn't have the money, and Butlins was a cheap holiday. Also, most people did it... certainly the friends we went away on holiday with.

I also remember hotels still offering this service in the early 2000s when I had my own children. I never used it, but remember friends that did, and it was seen as perfectly normal before Maddie McCann went missing.

It was different though to today. Children were unsupervised a lot more and from younger ages. But I still think in a strange place is very different to being at home.