to ask the older parents on MN

[VegetariansTasteLikeChicken]

what you did in your day that would have got you sacked from MN today and potentially a visit from ss

I slept on my tummy, mother smoked when pregnant. .. and my nan thinks asprin is the best thing to give a baby for teething. And rice in my bottle from probably day one to get me off to sleep

My parents used to put my carrycot in front of the fire and go to the pictures because I was a good sleeper.

My mum left me at home with pencils and paper whilst she went to the shops (I was about 5) - once I rearranged the furniture and she went balistic because I might have hurt myself.

Being given sweets for school to eat at break.

Everyone smoking and no seat belts in cars let alone car seats.

Going home for lunch from school - on my own at about the age of 6 or 7 and sometimes just buying chips with my dinner money because nobody checked and we all did it - sometimes we went to the park too.

Being smacked for being naughty.

Playing out

Left in my pram outside shops and also in the garden.

Wearing lots of itchy wool and liberty bodices and being very uncomfortable.

I am old though and this is what I did with my DC who are now older teenagers:

Weaned at 12 weeks
On booster seats at 2
slept on my chest for six weeks as babies and then put in the cot in their own room
Made six bottles in advance
Both had dummies
Both, once or twice had phenergen
Neals teething powders

I remember coming home from school (aged 5) with 2 aunts (aged 11 and 12) in thick Yorkshire snow through the steep quarry, and we got stuck in a snowdrift for 4 hours before gran decided to call someone..the sound of those barking dogs in the distance was bliss.

And we got a clip around the earhole for it.

Ooh I've just remembered I wanted to walk to nursery on my own - only about half a mile but I was only 3.5 years old! My mum got a phone call at 9.30 to say I hadn't turned up, came along the route and found me cornered by a Yorkshire Terrier halfway there!

My mum breastfed and coslept. This was in 1970s and 1980s. My maternal granny had breastfed too. My mum never listened to any advice and followed her instincts. She always thinks she knows better than everyone else.

We played out all day, ate frosties, never went to bed till late (mum didnt like routines or discipline).

Bassetfeet I remember the Nappy Bucket for soaking the nappies in, ours was blue with a picture of a rabbit on the side. My sister had to wear two terry nappies because she was born with a clicking hip and that was what counted as a cure.
Actually talking of rabbits I still have my toy rabbit that slept in my cot with me! It's a wonder I didn't lose an eye what with the fearsome wiry whiskers it has sticking out of it. I'm not sure if they are nylon or catgut but they are sharp.

My dad used to smoke roll ups. He taught me to make these for him at about age five. I used to make a number of them in advance and was really proud to help. I've never tried smoking myself...

We were let out to play on our bikes with a bottle of coke and bars of chocolate and told to be back at 6 for tea. We played in rivers , cornfields and rode on random horses we found in fields. It was bliss! (1960's).

And DM was thought to be one of the 'over-protective' mums!

It's a wonder all any of us survived to be adults!

My dad used to smoke Marlboros, every Summer we drove from London to Cornwall while he chain smoked, we weren't allowed to open the windows.

He also used to dangle us over the balcony (second floor) by our ankles, we loved it..

Leaving us in our prams outside shops, apparently mum forgot me once and didn't realize until she'd got home!

My older children loved gripe water. I think there was alcohol in it hence it's been withdrawn - I think.

Used gripe water.
Added brown sugar to baby's bottle to relieve constipation - it worked.
Added baby rice to bottle of milk - got a good night's sleep.

My babies are now 25 & 23 and perfectly healthy.

I have told this on here before, but when I had dd I used to sit in bed and smoke in the middle of the night feeds and think I was ok as I blew it the other way from her head.

I do love reading all these posts.

I was born in the early 80's, bottle fed after 3 weeks and the midwife gave my mum something to dry her milk up.

I played out with my friends unsupervised from about 3/4 years old. Broke my collarbone falling off a slide at 4 and a half.

Went to the shops for groceries for my mum, the shop was over a bridge and I fell in aged about 6 maybe. Lucky people saw and helped me out and I didn't drown.

Bought cigarettes from the corner shops for my mum, sat in the pub all day with tomato crisps and coke with blackcurrant in it while she got drunk.

Was left at home alone at aged 7/8 ish, while she was at the pub, once an old man knocked on the door and tried to force it open when I said that 'no, my mum wasn't in, but if he wanted to find her she was at the pub' Luckily he was so drunk I was strong enough to force it shut on him. If I hadn't I'm pretty sure he would have ruined my life that day.

Rode in the footwell in the front of the car. Everyone smoked indoors and in the car.

I AM lucky to be alive. I am lucky to have never had anything seriously bad happen to me... really fucking lucky.

Oh yes - Phenergan & Medised. Sleep through the night. Weaning by 12 weeks - Robinson's powdered food. Couldn't have waited for 16 weeks!

When I went to a quite posh secondary school my best friends family did things differently...we were accompanied on the bus to go swimming to the local baths... I was aghast I had been going swimming with my brothers and friends for years on the bus by this point!
Benign neglect? It was a great childhood .

In 1995 my GP told me to give ds some warm orange juice with a couple of spoonfuls of brown sugar for constipation.

I used to ride in the hatchback of my mums car, Had baby rice in my bottle to fill me up, was left in my pram outside shops while my mum got a loaf, was sent out without a hat on hot days to make my hair blonder ( i was a trainee vampire from an early age and hated sunlight so this was probably the only thing that prevented rickets.) Drank green top milk, and ate lollies dipped in sherbert.

Vegetarians It was Cow & Gate for hungry babies. Blue lid. Worked a treat for my 2. They always slept well! No lasting side effects for them & a happy babyhood for me & probably them too as they had a good night's sleep & were happy during the day.

I've never had a constipated baby but do they not advise that now?

Someone I know was asking (via fb) in the middle of the night recently if anybody had any prune juice as her 5week old baby had constipation and apparently her dr had told her to do that.

Don't know sock I don't have babies now - who knows what they would tell me

hergracious i too often travelled in the boot. No reason other than i wanted to. I had an awesome set up in there!
I would also lay across the back seats.

I was sent to the shop for my mams cigarettes.

I was born in 1971. There's a note in my HV book (which I have) telling my mother to give me a teaspoon of beef broth - at 6 weeks!

DM slammed the door in the midwife's face when I was 3 days old. The MW barked 'are you feeding that child properly?' (meaning BF) at my DM who has inverted nipples. I'm very healthy for a prior eFF baby cast iron constitution. The sheilds were not what they are today and DM elected not to BF.

However she was my cheerleader while I BF both DDs who are 5 and 3yo.

No car seats, no child locks on the doors, sitting in the boot - oh yes.

DF spiking my drink with double vodkas at a family wedding when I was 10. I was sick in his first ever new car. DM 'had words'.

We were smothered in suntan lotion. I remember having factor 15 plastered on, while DM used 8 and DF was on factor 2. I did get occasional mild sunburn but it would be because a grey day went sunny in the UK.