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Original poster

Parenting in the past - what were they thinking?!

180 replies

maGicGift · 05/05/2011 14:21

For example... alcohol in baby's bottle to help him sleep, leaving baby in the back garden/front porch for nap time (so parents can't here him cry) feeding baby condensed milk in a bottle instead of formula.

It's amazing how advise changes so quickly - do you have any more funny/strange past parenting stories? Those above were from my Mum/Gran

OP posts:
rosie1979 · 05/05/2011 16:57

A couple I can think of -

My mother was sent to her grandparents when her younger brother was born for 6 weeks! She didnt see her mum and dad once in that time and she was 5 years old.

She remembers it happily though :)

She was a war baby and was breast fed for 6 months, then went on to powdered milk with a bit of cream mixed in.

HellNoSayItAintSo · 05/05/2011 17:02

no, it was intended for ms-childcare=strangers-raising-your-children.

tattycoram · 05/05/2011 17:08

We visited friends in Copenhagen when DS1 was a baby. It was freezing. They borrowed a big pram for us and we did exactly as they did with their baby which was to leave them asleep in their courtyard and outside cafes Shock Apparently a Danish couple did that on holiday in New York and got arrested.

hifi · 05/05/2011 17:13

dm would leave my younger sister in her cot when we went shopping. dh mother and her friend would leave dh and the other baby in a cot together while they went out clubbing.

StrawberriesAndScream · 05/05/2011 17:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
maGicGift · 05/05/2011 17:18

I would love to have brought up children back then, I'm not being judgey or superior, just reflecting on how times have changed, I would love to have that neighbourhood feel in my area and be able to be a stay at home Mum, not feel pressured to go back to work and leave DC with child carers.

I love the fresh air thing, my Mum said her Mum would take them to the end of the garden in their prams and leave them there for 2/3 hrs to nap, whether they slept or not - they stayed there!

OP posts:
AppleyEverAfter · 05/05/2011 17:36

Dipping the dummy in jam/whisky was something my nan did to all her 5 kids! And several of my other nan's siblings and cousins got shipped off to relatives' houses for months on end or even permanently if parents were ill or had too many mouths to feed.

working9while5 · 05/05/2011 17:48

Yes, gawdblimey, of all the things mentioned, childcare is the worst. Feck drugs, drink, violence, vandalism etc. What really matters is that women give up work and stay home with their kids, eh?

I think anyone who makes a comment like yours is clearly terribly unhappy with their own frustrated desires.

working9while5 · 05/05/2011 17:49

And back to the thread...

Dh's mum was told by the GP to give him a raw egg daily for anaemia and cow's milk from 8 weeks.

Yes, he live to tell the tale. But he has terrible stomach problems.

fastedwina · 05/05/2011 17:52

laughing at everyone going on about 'their granny' - makes me feel old as I remember much of all that. My sister left my niece sleeping in the garden in scottish winter time. eventually went to get her and the pram was covered in snow with my niece still sleeping and tucked up snug.

Original poster
maGicGift · 05/05/2011 17:52

Im not terribly unhappy, but would love to be a SAHM... just my personal opinion, we are all entitled to one!

OP posts:
Original poster
maGicGift · 05/05/2011 17:53

but cows milk from 8 weeks, wow! Its the condensed milk which makes me laugh, I cant believe there were instructions on how to give it to babies, does anyone know when formula wa sfirst used? just out of interest...

OP posts:
working9while5 · 05/05/2011 17:56

maGicGift, wanting to be a SAHM is neither here nor there in this context. The comment about not being able to imagine leaving your child to be brought up by strangers is just passive-aggressive bullshit to make working mothers feel bad. It's possible to state the same opinion without being so provocative. The desire to provoke says far more about the poster than the message content.

Original poster
maGicGift · 05/05/2011 17:59

I dont want to make working mothers feel bad - I am one, just saying it would have been nice to bring up kids 50yrs ago when there was no pressure - financial or otherwise, to work, you are reading too much into a casual comment

OP posts:
itisnotacompetitionyouknow · 05/05/2011 18:05

Can't believe how many people are hankering after the "good old days".

Our grannys/greatgrannys in their approach to parenting were at best ignorant, at worst neglectful.

HellNoSayItAintSo · 05/05/2011 18:06

Talk about baby and bathwater. Wasn't all bad was it? Don't be so silly (and arrogant).

fatlazymummy · 05/05/2011 18:06

Why do people think that mothers didn't work outside the home 50 years ago? Plenty of women did. My mother went out to work as soon as her youngest started school. Her mother worked in a munitions factory during the war. My MIL had to work when her babies were tiny. There was plenty of pressure to work. It was called poverty.
Really, some people on Mumsnet seem to view the past through rose tinted glasses.

neolara · 05/05/2011 18:07

Boarding school at 5!

TheOriginalFAB · 05/05/2011 18:08

Some people make their own pressures though. They want all the latest gadgets and fancy holidays. Of course some people could not survive without working but don't let's pretend that all of them couldn't manage on one wage.

gotolder · 05/05/2011 18:09

My three were always swaddled, put out in their prams in all weathers (wrapped up warmly in bad weather)and always put down for a nap after lunch.

The "nap" after lunch saved my sanity. I had 3 under two and a half, no nursery, and that was recharge my batteries time. I never did housework in the afternoons - if it wasn't done it could wait- the afternoons were for playtime with the DCs until it was time to get the evening meal.

peppapighastakenovermylife · 05/05/2011 18:19

That is not what you meant at al magic gift or you would have said that? Besides who does leave their children with strangers? Personally mine go to nursery - maybe it would be cheaper to drop them off in the centre of town with actual strangers Hmm

Anyway ...

working9while5 · 05/05/2011 18:19

Really? Childcare = strangers raising your children.

My grandmother raised all 8 of hers in a home with immense physical and sexual violence, alcoholism and gambling.

She couldn't leave as she couldn't work. Ireland had a "marriage ban" preventing women from working.

I think my father, aunts and uncles would have rathered she had the option to go out to work, somehow.

Nanny0gg · 05/05/2011 18:20

*Can't believe how many people are hankering after the "good old days".

Our grannys/greatgrannys in their approach to parenting were at best ignorant, at worst neglectful*

No. Times change. If you parent according to the mores/customs of the time you are not neglectful.
How can you be, when there are no other options?

Original poster
maGicGift · 05/05/2011 18:25

I never said leaving my child with strangers... I just said a personal opinion, that I would have liked to had kids 50yrs ago when there was less pressure on women to work. No where have I said about leaving my children with strangers... Geesssh talk about twisting my words..

OP posts:
itisnotacompetitionyouknow · 05/05/2011 18:26

I don't think it was compulsory to leave your baby outside crying, or leave them in the house whilst you went out, or leave them outside shops, no matter what the custom at the time was.