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

Newyearchanger. Lol at the mixing drinks! My daughter cannot believe that I went and bought fags for the adults! I'm quite jealous of the dink mixing you were allowed to do. My dad would never let me near the Wray and Nephew rum. I guess even he knew his limits!

Not sure it still is 25, I was 30 when I got pg with dd1 in 2003. Midwife then had to check whether I was considered elderly pg but apparently I wasn't.

We loved it...gin and tonics, whiskey and ginger ale, martini rose and biancas . Putting out the peanuts and ashtrays.

70s baby here, I remember (and my elder brothers both confirm) when I was about four drinking white spirit (in an unmarked bottle under the sink) and dad lifting me to take me to hospital with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, ditto lighting fireworks.

Also remember sliding around in the back of the car and sometimes having to ride in the boot.

Happy days

Sorry to carry on with the white spirit episode, I was in hospital for some time after and the visiting hours were very very strict, I have hazy memories of only seeing my parents for an hour a day or something and they would take it in turns to come, but that was how it was and you just got on with it. When my youngest was in hospital we didn't leave.

My parents remember the visiting hour - I had meningitis when I was 18 months old, and was obviously extremely ill. They were allowed to visit me for one hour a day - Mum remembers walking away down the corridor at the end of the day and hearing me breaking my heart . Changed days, thankfully.

Did anyone else play a game maybe called splits where you threw a penknife into the lawn and had to move your foot to the knife and continue?
Happy games with my brothers, who being a lot older obviously always won.
Also camels, my favourite, biggest bro standing at front, second bro bent over with me on his back riding the camel that was so cool

I'm not an older mum but my aunt gave her kids chili con carne at 3 months and as grown ups they hate spicy food

My mum chain smoked through her pregnacies, probably blew smoke in our faces as she fed us. No car seat belts, dad probably drank and drove. All the other usual stuff.

I co slept. Didnt always strap the kids into their buggy and bounced them onto the pavemant once or twice.

Oh yes, th visiting hour. I was in hospital with a burst appendix for about two weeks when I was seven. One hour visit a day.

We played in the street and were left in prams outside the supermarket. Everyone did that back then. In fact I kinda wish we still did, it would be so much easier! Though my dad did go home without me once!

We also went playing everywhere and to the fair by ourselves.

I ran to Brownies in the dark and back in the winter .

Having a baby in hospital was sooooo different in the 1980's to when I had my last in 2008. You were 'confined' to your bed for at least 24 hours after you'd had a baby. The nurse took her away to the nursery and fed her for me. Hospital stay for a first born was a week and you weren't allowed out of the house once home for 2 weeks (in case of infection).

I remember the tv room that was actually a smoking room. A nurse would give first time mums a lesson in how to bathe her newborn, usually in the day room. Visiting hours were strictly adhered to and we were made to have an afternoon nap. Lights out by 9pm and at 7.30pm a trolley would come round with toast, hot chocolate and horlicks. No one was allowed to sit on the bed and got what for if they did!!!

The hospital gave you pretty much everything for your baby including those long wynceyette nighties (remember those?). They even gave me some of those small bottles of milk that you put the teat on the end, oh, and nappies!

Cellular blankets aplenty for baby - plus one for rolling up to put behind their back when they slept on their side (in case they were sick and choked). All babies were swaddled and you were shown how to do this. Also, how to fold different types of terry nappies (kite, triangle, square).

Also back in the day, baby walkers were all the rage. As were playpens baby prisons and no one batted an eyelid if you hung your baby from the door in a bouncing contraption - the latter being good fun if you had older children.

My first DC was born in 1991 - around the time smoking stopped on busses.

You could leave the hospital without a car seat. Infact as I didn't own a car I never brought a car seat so when I went in family/friends cars DC used to sit on my lap

He was weaned at 8 weeks - HV advice - including meat

He was swaddled for every sleep and slept on his side (advice at the time)

You made bottles by boiling water / make up 6 bottles / put in fridge / warm up on the stove when needed.

I did not smoke during early pregnancy but only because it made me feel sick. Started smoking again when I was 6 months. No one batted an eye lid.

Fed every four hours on the dot. Force dropped the mid night feed at 4 weeks - forced dropped the 4am feed at 6 weeks.

Them were the days

We as a family of 3 kids 6, 10 and 12 used to be left on the canal boat (on holiday) while our parents went to pub, the only light was candles and we used to sit and play with them for hours!!! Also travelled in the back of a van with a mattress to sit on (both parents smoking in front!) I used to get dreadful car sickness but it never stopped them smoking!!!!

Lit candles, i hasten to add!!!

My mother used to leave me at my grandmothers house all day when she went out. She would go out and my grandmother would come home from work during her break / lunch to feed me.

It happened for months until I was about a year old. I was just left in the cot to my own devices.

My youngest is only 7, but things must have changed again - plenty of things you lot imply are not done anymore, were ordinary everyday things for us: alcohol during pregnancy, swaddling, both co-sleeping and letting the baby sleep in a different room, napping in the pram in the garden (mind you, I only knew one other mum who did that, and she was not British), reins, playpens, doorway baby bouncers, making up a day's-worth of bottles of sterilised water and adding formula as needed.

My mother worked so when our primary school had the odd day off we were left at home on our own for the day. At 9 I was in charge of my 7 and 5 year old sister.

My oldest dc born 1991 swaddling in cotton blanket was done in the hospital, sleep on side, front was allowed but I didn't like it as it looked a bit dodgy.
I breast fed on demand, about every five inlets, and my HV said ds was fat at four months,I completely ignored her and continued to EBF. He had a car seat and was never left to cry. My mil may have done in differently with four hourly feeds etc but was v supportive all the same.

I was also shown how to swaddle (by the midwife in hospital) nine years ago. Is this not done anymore? I had DD2 tightly swaddled in hospital quite recently & no-one commented on it.

DB's and I used to travel in the back of the pickup whatever the weather. We used to fight over the seat behind the cab when it rained.

I was riding horses bareback before I could walk, never wore a hard hat.

Not only was I put in the pram to sleep in the garden, the pram was left in the front garden. It was just wide enough for the pram to fit between the house and the wall. This was in 1969.

I was born in 69 as the last in a big family - whiskey in bottle, sent to the farm for raw milk, allowed to take boats out on the sea from about age 7 with no life jacket, sitting on my mum's knee in the front seat of the car while everybody else rolled around in the back seat and boot, being taken to parties where all the adults smoked and drank and I fell asleep on the couch, out till dark in the summertime from about age 7 onwards; very happy childhood!

I bet pregnancy was a helluva lot less depressing if you could scoff some decent cheese and a have a glass of wine with no guilt

Yes, but we were told to eat lots of liver...