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?

It happened to me quite a lot. It wasnt unusual for pubs to have no children allowed when I was young. Certainly my tiny remote village didn't allow children in the pub. We sat in the car, but my dad took the safety measure of parking the car by the widow and he sat by the window.

My parents didn't go to the pub regularly but when relatives came to visit we (me, sister and cousins) would be left in the beer garden while the adults sat inside.

Yes would often be in the beer garden or play area, parents would be eating & drinking inside
Although this was usually when we had visitors

My dad would leave me in bed asleep and go pick my mother up from slimming world a good 10 mins there and back and would sometimes stay for a drink

My mother & step father would put me on a coach for 200 miles to see my father, I was about 12

And my favourite, my mother & step father would go on holiday and leave me in a B&B near to my high school 😳😳
I was 13/14 at the time

Yes but they denied it! Like pp I think the car was preferable to the leaky, cold and dark greenhouse children's room.

Yes, many memories of sitting in the car with my brothers. Always a bottle of coke and crisps. I only remember it being one drink, a couple of times maybe two. I never remember feeling scared or bored or lonely, in fact me and my brothers had a right laugh. In the 70s it was rare to find a pub with a family room and if nice weather we sat in a pub garden. My parents must have only had one or two. They NEVER got drunk but my dad still thinks it's ok to have 2-3 pints and drive.

Yes, every Sunday lunchtime, for a couple of hours. FOUR of us in a Mk 1 Ford Escort with plastic seats. Pop and crisps. Considered completely normal then (late 70s)

"No, because we didn't have a car and my parents never (and I mean never) went to the pub!"

Same here.

Ursula we went to the pub with clockwork regularity and I remember it with considerable fondness.

Not left in the car but regularly put in the bath and left there (with my brother) whilst mum mowed the garden. We lived on a small holding so there was a lot of lawn. Bath was normally tepid before she returned. This was 1970s.

my parents were in the trade and also had their own group so for us we were often left in the car if the adults in the pub were drunk at night and had gotten rowdy but more often than not my brother and I were allowed into the pub regardless. All our family were landlords ( in working dock areas etc ) and that added to the fact that we were also a big group of musicians meant we spent most weekend mornings in various different pubs watching the bands practice while the cleaners tried to eradicate the smell of spilt stale ale and blow the dense clouds of smoke from the rooms ready for opening time. To this day the smell of a pub in the morning makes my insides feel a perfect blend of delight that we were included and horror at what we saw/heard/experienced at such young ages. And my tipple of choice as a kid was scampi fries and a schooner of coke ( for the posh effect!).

Wombling I wasn't suggesting that anyone should do it now, or judge my parenting. But if you want to be judgemental... carry on!!

I agree with Dame :
"we are a lot better for it sometimes, the pandering that goes on these days is what is mind boggling."

Having thought a bit mroe there are still children today where its the norm to be at a pub and out in the garden or sitting with a drink and crisps in the pub - at least these days there are rarely restrictions on children - however many of them are just as neglected, hare round the pub unrestrained and or stuck on tablets and phones to shut them up whilst parents are socialising - only difference to me is that today (and I use the term loosely) they are supervised by parents rather than the pub community

Every Saturday probably for a period of around 3 years. My dad would take us swimming then we'd pick up my grandfather and go to the pub for a few hours. Either beer garden or the car if it was raining.
I say every Saturday but I don't ever remember being cold so I'm guessing it was in the summer only.
I had a lovely childhood and don't think it was neglectful. Although there is a world of difference between taking an elderly grandparent for a few pints so he could socialise and a father going on the piss all day (my dad didn't go on the piss)

We went to the pub alot as children but were never left in the car. My parents would always check there was a family room before going in (usually a conservatory or outhouse with a pool table and other games), and we would all sit together there or in the beer garden. I'm 37 so this was in the 80s.

No.

My mum left me in the car asleep at a service station once while she went for a wee and got a takeaway coffee on a long journey. I woke up and cried and she feels guilty to this day! She's way more upset about it than I was.

We'd occasionally get left in the car locked in at the shops for a few minutes while mum/dad got bread milk but we were 8plus by then and preferred it to getting out of the car.

Yes, sat on bench outside, but these were the days when in the school holidays, I was put out of the house in the morning with sandwiches and didn't return until evening (1960s)

Yep my mum and dickhead (now ex) stepdad used to do it. Me and my half sisters would get a bottle of space special and crisps.

Looking back the saddest thing about this was that I actually lived with my dad and only saw my mum on a Sunday and this was how they chose to spend it. Says it all really

This is one of my memories of being a child in the 70s and 80s.

Sitting on a pub garden bench or sitting in the car outside a pub with a bottle of coke with a straw and a packet of cheese and onion crisps while Mum and Dad had a couple of drinks inside.

It didn't happen that often - occasional weekends and when on holiday. We thought it was a great treat!

Yes. Frequently. My main complaint was that I couldn't have the radio on, as it would run the car battery down! Would have loved it if I'd had a tablet!

I used to LOVE going to the pub! Id get a lemonade and a packet of prawn cocktail crisps and often we went to a pub with an amazing slide in the garden.

We didn't have a car but we used to go for an afternoon walk to a country pub in the summer with my dad who would go in for a pint or two and leave me and my brother outside with a bottle of pop each and crisps.
We loved it. It didn't seem odd at the time.

No never, we lived next door to our village pub but we rarely went. My parents aren't 'pub' people but we'd often have two or three children shipped to one house with a babysitter for a sleepover whilst the parents had a dinner party at another house.

Not the car, only in the pub garden with crisps and lemonade. I enjoyed it when there were other children who were nice to play with (I was a bit of a sensitive soul ).

i think dm must have left the engine running to enable us to have the radio on

Sometimes in the car, sometimes the beer garden, sometimes the games room, depending on the pub. Dad would get tanked and then drive us home at 10ish. Maybe once a week?

Bottle of coke and packet of prawn cocktail crisps were my favoured refreshments. When I got a bit older I moved on to grenadine and lemonade.