Do you tell your children about reckless things you did in your youth?

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My dad told me how he smoked a lot when he was a teenager at school, while cautioning me not to do the same. He also told me how he used to frighten his parents by climbing on roofs, and so on. (I think he only told me the ones he thought I wouldn’t try myself.)

My mum also told me about serious disagreements she had with her parents, but not until long after they were dead, and I was about thirty.

Absolutely not !!!!!!
I can't actually believe i have produced 2 who to my knowledge haven't come close to what i used to get up to , i think their older sibling has a wild streak though .
I have always been pretty liberal with them as i think who am i to dictate with my wild past , they think i'm a completely boring old fart -if only they knew !

I do now

they look HORRIFIED

Love the comment on edited highlights… absolutely the way I’ve chosen!

Tbf not been particularly wild by 90’s standards…might have forgotten how bloody dangerous some of could be considered …. and there’s no evidence 🤣

kids will be kids and take risks whatever we tell them. I always made sure they have uber and know I’ll pick them up, and their friends. Only needed to a couple of times….

I've just remembered some of the wild stories my parents told me, and I have no reason to disbelieve them.

My dad told me that he ran away to Cornwall (from London) as a teenager, and then rang his parents to ask them to pick him up. He says he doesn't know why he did it - he thinks it was to get some attention while his parents were fighting. (They later divorced.)

He also told me that he faked appendicitis to get out of school, and had more success than Roald Dahl did when he tried the same thing; he got as far as actually having the operation.

I think my mum was better behaved, but she told me that she and some of her friends kept ringing the operator (dialling 100) from a phone box in the 1950s, and then got a shock when the operator called them back to tell them off!

For a later story, they also pointed out a park bench where they once had a very serious row (before I was born), which they thought was the end of their marriage.

Some of it but usually I wait until they are past the age of doing similar stupid shit or have just done something equally dickish! There are some things I will take to the grave though!

Yikes, I haven’t even told my husband the half of it!! The kids don’t need to know the deets!

No!

I was at my worst in my 30s!!!!!!!

Same. I didn’t get married or have children until I was 38. Previous years are a closed book 🤫

I did it tonight. Was talking to my son (24 yrs) on the phone about why we think differently about alcohol, smoking and going to clubs ... all by the age of 14.

I've told him little bit about my life over the years and how wild I was.

Age appropriate ones, yes. My small kids don’t need to know about my disco biscuit days just yet. My daughter did see an old photo of my 18th birthday and was outraged I was smoking a “big cigarette”. She literally took the photo and marched up to her dad (who she knows was at the party) and told him off for not stopping me smoking, after she had told me off for smoking 😭.

My nieces and nephews who are older know a lot, their dad (my brother) will often tell them a tale about their “crazy aunty” and her youth. They have absolutely no idea that he was just as bad though which I think is funny. He also ages me up when he tells them things which I think is fair because some of the stuff I was doing in my teens I had no business doing.

My parents were open with us, my mum has always come off more reserved and anti drugs than my dad though… but oh my god I’ll never forget the day I was sorting her stuff out when she moved and there was a photo of her with a bong. I expected that from my dad, but not my mum! I will say I was a tiny bit outraged.

No as I wouldn’t want them to think they could do the same or give them any ideas, I was definitely off the rails, I don’t know how I’d cope if mine behaved the way I did, no wonder my parents hated me at the time.

I did some pretty crazy stuff that I wouldn’t really want my kids to know about, but stories slip out occasionally now my kids are adults. They’re shocked and appalled by them!

Hell no! I’ve told my eldest two some things now they’re in their twenties and not pushing any boundaries.
They have found two videos of me at raves on YouTube and were gobsmacked when they worked out that I was only 14 in one and they were equally horrified when it dawned on them that when I met their Dad he was 22 and I was 17.

An edited version.

Fuck no.

There was no internet and therefore none of the stupid shit I did, actually happened! Hooray!

Yes if there is a learning point to it. For example fool you made of yourself for drinking too much. Your brother didn't try at school so didn't get decent grades and now earns massively less because his laziness took those opportunities away.

I do think it's important they know we aren't perfect though, that we've made mistakes, but we've learnt from them and that's all we can ask from them - to do their best but know sometimes they will mess up and they need to try and learn from it.

No. I'm storing them up for any grandchildren 😁

No but when he was 6 he did the maths and realised me being 22 meant I was 16 when he was born. Then he began asking why he can’t drink wine or watch 18+ movies until he’s 18 when I had a whole child younger than that.

My DD is evidence of what I got up to so a bit hard to hide 😂

Advice on how to respond to this would be appreciated if anyone has any 😂

They don't believe the good things that sound half made up but pretty chaotic. The other stuff... no. No way. Not until they are adults.