Were you left in the car while parents went to the pub?

[ruru1981]

Sorry didn't know where else to put this.

I've just seen this meme on Facebook and so many people are saying this used to happen to them.

Quite a lot said they would sit in the car for hours. Some said they shared a drink between 4 kids. Some said they didn't get a drink. Most are laughing about what would happen if it happened these days.

Did / does this really happen?

Am I lucky that this never happened to us growing up or is this unusual?

As someone who has never heard of this before now, can someone enlighten me?

If parents were the neglectful type to leave their children unnatended in a car outside a pub, then drive home drunk, them why not leave the children at home? Surely it's safer for children to be home alone, and not be driven home by a drunk parent?

My mum would tell my dad she'd had enough of us and he was to take us out so she had peace. He would get us in the car, drive to the next village and bugger off into the pub, leaving us in the car. We weren't allowed to get out of the car. Neither of our parents wanted to be bothered with us.

My attempt at holding failed. Sorry. Hope you can make sense of my post...

Bolding, not holding! gah! I'm going back to bed...

i was so lonely I used to call the speaking clock so bloody sad.

I was regularly left in the car with a book during the weekly Sainsbury's shop

No I didn't know this was a thing!

The only person I know that has left her kids in a car while she was in a pub is because she was a single mother and working there to scrape by, no family, couldn't afford a babysitter.

When she told me the story it was about how bad it was at the time. I didn't think someone would do it to have a drink!!

Yes! We used to get a panda pop each and crisps to share.
Sometimes sit in the car unless there was a wall or small pub garden then we would play there.
We're checked on occasionally!

If parents were the neglectful type to leave their children unnatended in a car outside a pub, then drive home drunk, them why not leave the children at home? Surely it's safer for children to be home alone, and not be driven home by a drunk parent?

Drink-driving wasn't the taboo then that it is now, especially in rural areas, mainly on the basis you were unlikely to meet another car so the only person hurt was the driver (& passengers). I really don't think it was seen as neglect if it was the odd occasion, but those that did it regularly were looked down upon.
You have to remember there was a far more laissez-faire attitude to parenting, which was primarily seen as a women's role and therefore not very important. Any dysfunction in a family was obviously the mums fault, and it would her that was blamed for anything, even if it was Dad who was taking the kids to the pub and leaving them alone outside.

Xmasbaby11 have you actually bothered to read any of the thread? A myth is something that isn't true. Countless posters have recounted their experiences. It would seem unlikely that they are all lying 🙄

For the people denying that this was neglectful, I bet you would be on MN shrieking within a millisecond if it was a dog left in a hot car for hours. And yet somehow it's character building to do it to a child.

When I was a child not many people had cars. I know driving after drinking was quite common, probably up to the late 70s? but definitely in the 60s.
The world was massively different then to now.
You cannot really judge against today's parenting or way of life.

I bet you would be on MN shrieking within a millisecond if it was a dog left in a hot car for hours. And yet somehow it's character building to do it to a child

I don't think parents had 'character building' in their thoughts. It was just what people did back then,..and as I have said, mostly it was not leaving kids in cars pre 1970... It was leaving them outside to play.
It was seen no different to the kids playing out day to day, which they did all the time from a young age.
I don't think it was deliberately neglectful. It was a way of life back then

We played out in the street from 4 onwards with lots of other kids and adults in the house/pub.

Different age the 70s and pre 70s.

I was allowed in the meeting room of the working mens club my 'D'dad frequented when he was supposed to be looking after us while my DMum worked. I was sexually assaulted there so remember it well

No never. We were often brought to the pub when we were on holidays (in rural Ireland) if there was a sing song or band playing and kids were welcome. Against the law here now for children tp be in a pub after 9pm.

I do remember when I was a teenager me and my friends used to walk by a pub to the shop and always see and chat to a little girl about 6 playing in the car park. Her mum and Dad were getting drunk in the pub. She was there most Saturdays and Sundays. We used to hang out with her for a while and did call child line about it but I've no memory of what happened.

Yep, in the late '70's I was given a glass bottle of coke with 2 straws and some crisps it was bliss as we didn't have coke in the house. It was rare my parents went to the pub but if kids weren't allowed this was the norm. I loved it! My mum would come and check on me quite often or sit in the car with me for a bit (they didn't stay long) I doubt it would happen nowadays though.

How odd that some posters can't seem to grasp that just because they havnt heard of things or havnt experienced things other people have then they cant be true.

waitforitfdear Yes, it's infuriating to be told that clear memories of what happened when I was a child are merely "an MN myth". How arrogant and frankly, ludicrous, to call people liars because the experiences they report (because they happened) are not the same as your own.

I was born in 1958 and in the 60's we would go on day trips in the van or car. If there was a pub garden we'd all go there, if not we'd get a bottle of lemonade and bag of crisps each (huge treat) and be left in the car for perhaps a half hour or so. There were 3 of us, the oldest 5 years older than I.
Like a say, the crisps and pop were a big deal as only had these treats at Xmas usually. (We were pretty poor but so was just about everyone we knew, perhaps I could even say the majority )
Remembering this, Dad's second vehicle was a small van with only two seats in front. Us kids sat on an old sofa that was in the back but I don't know if it was bolted to the floor.....!!!!
The past IS a different country. Christ, I remember sitting by the side of the road and waiting for cars so we could write down the number plate! We lived in the suburbs of a major city, not out in the sticks!

Me and my two sisters were regularly left in the car outside the pub with a bottle of fizz and a bag of crisps.

Then my step-dad having had too much too drink would drive us all home. This was the mid 70's so no seat belts either.

It was the only fizz and crisps we had so we weren't bothered!

As we got older they used to go to the pub on a Sunday and leave us to try and cook a roast....

ilove exactly very infuriating in RL too those types.

No. We did go to beer gardens just like people do today.

Yep and my mum had to sit with me lol Dad and my uncle used to bring out a coke and crisps for us.
This would be in the 70's

No!

No, my parents never went in a pub, unless they could help it.
Maybe a handful of times all their lives. Mum never went and hated pubs.

Used to get left from about 5 onwards in shops to sit behind the counter( usually Woolworths) while grandad went to betting shops! He used to charm the assistants into looking after me.