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Original poster

Crazy stuff your parents did that would have social services out now

491 replies

usernamechanged1 · 10/04/2023 17:00

Dipping the dummy in sugar, fizzy juice for toddlers…did your parents do anything that would be considered shocking now?

For me, I looked after my younger siblings when I was 11 (they were 8 and 5) overnight a few times a week due to clashes of my mum & dad’s nightshift work. No adults in the house, just the three of us. It didn’t cross my mind that it was crazy at the time but when I think back, it was insane.

OP posts:
MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 10/04/2023 17:05

Driving from London to Devon overnight (station waggon) with my two small brothers bedded down in the back luggage area.

Cramming me and my friends into the car (no seat belts, of course) for a school run.

Leaving us alone in the house for a couple of hours early morning to go an collect my father from his ship (Merchant Navy). Altho I suspect that next door might have been briefed to keep an eye on us, I can't be sure.

thecatsthecats · 10/04/2023 17:18

Ooh, yes, travelling in the boot on the odd night.

I loved travelling in the boot. Sad that my children will never know the joy 😂

AnonymousArabella · 10/04/2023 17:21

Just the car stuff. Loads of kids all packed in, sitting the little ones on the bigger ones’ laps, seatbelts if you were lucky. Seems bonkers now.

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khaa2091 · 10/04/2023 17:23

My mother used to put Vaseline on my bedroom doorhandle so I couldn’t get out….

sunshineandstrawberryjam · 10/04/2023 17:24

Car stuff too! Very normal for my parents and friends to host parties. Kids would all be upstairs with a video and sleeping bags, totally unsupervised. We'd watch films and eat crisps and eventually fall asleep and be picked up and loaded into the boot in our sleeping bags and unloaded at the other end.

Mightyouandiconfabulate · 10/04/2023 17:24

40 a day smoking habit, in the house, car, everywhere. Wouldn’t have crossed their minds to go outside.

Physical punishments. We got hit a lot.

Domestic violence. No one seemed bothered or interested. No one.

girljulian · 10/04/2023 17:25

khaa2091 · 10/04/2023 17:23

My mother used to put Vaseline on my bedroom doorhandle so I couldn’t get out….

My parents used to take the whole door handle off my sister’s bedroom door to achieve the same end with more certainty!

Lorrymum · 10/04/2023 17:27

Leaving my sister and I aged 6 and 8 alone in bed while they went out to a social club every week.
I can clearly remember getting our Christmas presents from where they were hidden as soon as we heard the front door close and playing with them.

GettingStuffed · 10/04/2023 17:27

Being allowed to give the milkman's float when he was collecting his money. We'd hang on two to a post.

Hellocatshome · 10/04/2023 17:29

Physical punishment .
Not believing or acting on accusations of sexual abuse.
Leaving under 14s home alone for weeks on end while they went on holiday.
Using children under the age of criminal responsibility to commit crimes.

Lolasgame · 10/04/2023 17:30

Chain smoking in unventilated rooms/car around asthmatic child. Yes the hospital was my second home. Those selfish Boomers 😂

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 10/04/2023 17:32

Gawd, the smoking, it was like walking into a fog bank in our sitting room.

YellowGreenBlue · 10/04/2023 17:32

My brother and I used to walk to school together when I was 4 and he was 5. It wasn't far, but did involve crossing two roads, one of which was a busy main road.

RuddyLaura · 10/04/2023 17:33

Bloody hell @Hellocatshome that all sounds a bit rough 😯

Poor you Flowers

iusedtobeasize8 · 10/04/2023 17:33

Smoking everywhere!

Walking to school on my own when i was 5/6 along a main road.

Leaving us for a week and going abroad when i was 15.

Domestic violence and alcoholism/ drug taking in the home. I never felt safe.

ItWasntMyFault · 10/04/2023 17:33

Sitting on my mums knee in the front of the car without seatbelts.

Sitting in the boot if we had visitors and the car was full.

Walking to and from school by myself or with friends aged 5 (my mum took me on the first day).

elm26 · 10/04/2023 17:34

Smoking indoors, laying across the back seat with no seatbelt on long car journeys, sending me up the shop with a few £ to get fags and milk.

unlimiteddilutingjuice · 10/04/2023 17:35

My Dad once decided that a chip pan fire was a good teachable moment.
So he left the burning chip pan unattended to call us in from the street (where we were playing unsupevised) and watch him put it out.
He lined us up against the kitchen wall furthest away from the blaze and demonstrated the now discredited wet tea towel technique.

FangedFrisbee · 10/04/2023 17:37

unlimiteddilutingjuice · 10/04/2023 17:35

My Dad once decided that a chip pan fire was a good teachable moment.
So he left the burning chip pan unattended to call us in from the street (where we were playing unsupevised) and watch him put it out.
He lined us up against the kitchen wall furthest away from the blaze and demonstrated the now discredited wet tea towel technique.

How do you put one out then? Not that I have one but in case I see a chip pan fire in the street... 🤔

Binfire · 10/04/2023 17:37

Yes to most of these although luckily neither parent smoked.

I wonder what our kids will look back on and be shocked that we did? Maybe sharing their pictures and details about their lives so freely on social media. And probably climate change studf, getting them a new toy every time they go to Home Bargains etc

Onefootinthegroove · 10/04/2023 17:37

Sitting in the car with a can of pop and a pack of crisps while they had an evening out with friends in the pub.

EdithGrantham · 10/04/2023 17:37

unlimiteddilutingjuice · 10/04/2023 17:35

My Dad once decided that a chip pan fire was a good teachable moment.
So he left the burning chip pan unattended to call us in from the street (where we were playing unsupevised) and watch him put it out.
He lined us up against the kitchen wall furthest away from the blaze and demonstrated the now discredited wet tea towel technique.

Is the wet towel method now discredited!? What's the advice now?

In answer to the op, I got sent to the offy to buy my parents tobacco, lighters and cigarette papers

Unicorn2022 · 10/04/2023 17:40

Dipping our dummies in neat alcohol or giving us a tot of whisky as babies so we slept.

Not taking a single photo of me until I was over three months old as they didn't think about it or see the point.

Smoking with me and siblings on their laps.

Leaving us kids in the car outside the pub all day at the weekend and just occasionally giving us a bag of crisps or a bottle of Coke.

Going out for the evening and leaving us in bed at home alone.

HarrietStyles · 10/04/2023 17:40

I was one of four siblings and we would argue over whose turn it was to ride in the boot! The thought of letting my children ride in the boot now 🙈 I know it was acceptable back then, but so bloody dangerous!

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 10/04/2023 17:40

My parents (well, mostly DM as DF was away a lot) operated on a system of benign neglect (this was the 60s) and I've often wondered how often benign neglect tipped into 'thank God she's out of the house and out of my hair' with DM. While we didn't lack materially she wasn't the most maternal and warm of mothers, and I suspect that if she had been born a few decades later she might have been childfree.