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

[usernamechanged1]

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.

That sounds like that running joke from Arrested Development. J. Walter Weatherman: “And that’s why… you always leave a note.”

I had to Google. But yeah just like that

Walked to school alone at 5 years old but that wasn't unusual. Played out for hours on end, exploring what would be called dangerous sites often. Lots of high sugar processed food and drink as well as wholesome, organic local produce... wasn't special then and priced accordingly...

For a bit of context, wearing seatbelts didn't become compulsory until 1983, if I remember rightly. And if your parents had an older car, it might not even have been fitted with seatbelts.

Am I right in thinking that, initially, the seatbelt laws only applied to front seats?

I think you're supposed to have a baking sheet on hand now.

Me and cousins sitting in the back of the car with a transistor, packets of crisps and bottles of pop. Parents in the pub for a few drinks on holiday. We just got out the car and ran all over the park nearby. Dodgy times.

I can’t remember how old I was when it started but my mum made me be in charge of her tablets - which I now know were for high blood pressure.

I was maybe fourteen when I forgot to collect her prescription. She told me if she had a stroke and died it would be my fault.

Oh God. We spent our entire holiday 5 years ago explaining over and over to 90 year old Nana why the kids couldn’t just nip to the shops and get her fags. She’d arrived from Australia with a duty free coffin full of cigarettes and STILL, she expected the kids to be her drug mules.

OK. That makes sense. A barrier to starve it of air. But without the risk of water dripping into the burning oil.

Being left in the pub porch with a Vimto and a pkt of Smith's crisps... for hours.
Being sent with a note to the nearby bookies by a neighbour to put money on the horses .... having to find my own way to new secondary school, " follow the others in the same uniform " It was a train journey and a long walk in an unfamiliar town.

Letting toddlers dip dummy in wine
Toffee dummies
Smoking in the house
Smoking whilst giving baby a bottle.
Giving us cough medicine to make us sleep (it had sedatives in it back in the day)
Smacking (illegal now in Scotland)
Travelling in the car boot

I grew up in 90’s Cornwall so basically still the 70’s 🤣

Smoking in the house
Being in the pub till 2am with my hanging parents
being squeezed into the back of my dads van with all my cousins
Being dropped in to town with all my cousins with a £20 and left for 7-8 hours (ages between 4 and 10)
normalised violence
Being allowed to watch adult themed tv shows and films from a very very young age.
Getting hit with a wooden spoon
Being left with the local alcoholic all day while parents worked

My Dad would frequently whack us both on the side of the head for misbehaving

Once because I pushed my cycle helmet out of my eyes so I could see 🤔

being beat raped made to do all sorts of crimes we was all ways the blame only eating boiled potatos once a day we was pleased to go to school shaving my head bald made to nick clothes from charity shop doors etc etc no med treatment we all ran for the hills when we could the youngest being 14 when she left never had contact again with our mum or dad.

Refusing to feed us as punishment for the most ridiculous of things. To be honest this was better then being hit a fucking tent pole.

Apparently my mother smoked in the maternity suite before and after an EMCS for pre-eclampsia. She worked there and they gave her a private room so she got away with it (80s).

At age 8 I used to take my brothers ( 6 and nearly 5) to school and look after them after school until mum got home. We had to cross a busy A road to get to school. Where was mum - at teacher training college an hour away.

And then both my parents chain smoking cigarettes (mum), cigars and pipes (dad) everywhere. Mum used to put her cigarettes out on the edge of her plate at the end of a meal. Makes me shudder even now.

So many of these things were normal at the time.
If you were naughty, you got a slap & you didn't do it again.
And I do mean a slap - not a beating.
Walking to school aged 5? Quite normal after Mum showed you the route a few times. Pity it stopped - for many reasons.

Despite it all, we survived - even with my DM's appalling kitchen hygiene !

This wasn't in the UK: drink driving home after a big BBQ with friends. There were no taxis. No seatbelts in cars. Driving to school in the next town sitting in the back of the pick up truck wind in our hair. I miss those days. We once fitted 13 of us in a mini to go to a party. Think we were 12 or 13.

We used to go on holiday with another family. When we were out and about, we'd all squish into their car - Dads in front, Mums and 2 kids in the back, 3 kids in the boot.

We had a great childhood, my mum had a massive seven seater with a huge boot and five children. We were allowed to put our heads out of the sunroof as she drove along !

My sister used to have riding lessons and myself and my siblings were all allowed to play in a huge barn full of haystacks for hours.

The riskiest thing mum did was feed us cheap beef burgers twice a week, she was convinced we would catch mad cow disease when that story broke, I dread to think what was in them 😂

From the ages of 2 to 5 had a candle incense burner thing in my room with a naked flame to help my lungs.
Being allowed to cycle to the big forest and play a day during the holidays aged 8 with friends or on own.
Walking to school including crossing an a road aged 5
Walking to the shop (again crossing an a road) to get things for adults aged 7)
Being left aged 8 whilst my parts went to friends for dinner.
Sent to pgl alone aged 8 on a course for a week in the holidays 4 hours drive from home. It was aimed at aged 8-13 most of the others were 13 and teased me for being homesick.
Sat on my dads lap to drive the car with no seat belts etc. I remember doing this near picadilly circus!
Being sent on holiday aged 15 alone as my dad got cancer and they only had travel insurance for him not me and I was sensible! Many of the people( not british) at the place were horrified.
Having to walk round in the cold and wet and collect the pools money on some roads to help my mum get round quicker. No one questioned handing me the money etc as they knew me.
My dm still wonders why I am so brave an independent and don't 'need' her.

Same as many others here: no seatbelts, boot riding. But then I always wonder what our neighbours thought about the screaming from my mother every night from domestic violence. Nobody ever said anything not even my family who all knew. Mid 90s. Anyone else experience that tight lipped family thing with DV?

Sitting on my grans knee on the passenger seat when my dad was driving from Edinburgh to Newcastle. My sister and I took turns about.
Mum smoking 40 a day when pregnant with me and my twin sister. Plus years after, in the house, car. Dad smoked also.

Running about the streets in very hot summers without shoes. We could afford shoes, but felt nice on the smooth tarmac.
Smacked loads of times.

My kids were born in the early 80s.

We put the carry cot with the baby on the back seat of the car - no straps to hold it on.
When bigger, the eldest kid sat on my knee on the passenger seat.
Let eldest child (aged about 9) take next-door's dog for a walk.
Took them to the cinema, with smoking one side, non-smoking on the other (same air!)
Allowed both sons to play a couple of miles away from home (they were about 15 and 13)