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?

Not the pub no. We were left int he car when they visited friends, they would always say they would be a few minutes but would be gone what seemed like hours. was probably only an half hour or so

No I was just taken in to the pub, every Saturday. My mum would usually be at work and I'd be with my dad. I bloody loved it! His two friends would bring their kids and we had a little gang. We would get chips on the way home. Fond memories, love my dad!

Sorry forgot to say we would be there 3-6pm ish and dad would never drive, we used to walk round the corner

Saturday lunchtime was a fairly regular occurrence. Out with Grandparents and a trip to the pub. An orange juice, complete with parasol, sword (tiny plastic thing) and cherry stuck to sword. Packet of crisps. Was allowed to get out and sit on the wall if it was nice.

Beer garden with a big swing, crisps and lemonade. Happy enough to be there, I don't recall being upset about it. Have good memories of swinging really high and also jump offs onto the grass. The pub is still there 30+ years later but the lovely garden is now a car park :(

I remember the pub garden's in winter though. Drizzle, dark bloody cold. I also saw a couple having sex once a bunch of us (4 or 5) started throwing stones at their car then legged it.

My parents didn't really go to pubs, but we would be left in the car for hours while they did other things like shopping, or business stuff (they were self employed).

This was in the 80s and 90s.

We would occasionally get some crisps to share, if we were very lucky. But usually nothing. It was miserable and we would be so bored that squabbles and fighting inevitably kicked off. If we complained to our parents about having to wait so long, we'd get a telling off, as if we were being totally unreasonable

My mum would always be 1-2 hours late picking us up from any after-school or weekend activities. We would have to wait around on the street outside the activity venue or in the car parks. Again, if we complained, we would get snapped at.

Regularly got left in pub gardens in the summer. My parents are 'guilty' of many modern parenting crimes, but this certainly never felt neglectful. It was fun. A bottle of coke and a bag of salt n shake was a treat.

My dad also used to play a lot of cricket and then the adults would go to the pub in the evening. There would be hordes of kids from age about 3-15 roaming around at twilight, outside pubs, on the playing fields, woods etc. No one got lost, no one got hurt. We grew up robust and independent, capable of supervising younger children and finding our own entertainment. We transitioned through from being the younger ones being supervised to doing the supervising as a rite of passage. Compare this to the constant demands for attention, activities and entertainment that so many children make these days. I am pretty sure that the relaxed upbringing of the 1970s was much healthier

No, never

Sometimes I feel like I am from another planet.

Presumably all those parents would then drive themselves and kids home after drinking?

I got left in the car while dm visited her bf who was kept at HM pleasure. .

i was born in the 60's and we never did this.
but we were left in the car out side a big hospital in London when my parents were visiting my Auntie.

We played around in the bar and usually fell asleep on the sofas around the tables.
It only ever happened when on holidays... in the south of Ireland, butlins etc. Never would have happened when at home on a weekend for example.
Although parents would have socialised with the neighbours and we went to whatever house the BBQ/ gathering was at. We loved it! Meant we got to stay up late, drink Coke, eat rubbish and play with the neighbours kids. I only ever have good memories of this. I never felt in danger or unsafe. My parents weren't heavy drinkers, they probably had a few drinks and a wee laugh and a sing song.
The neighbourhood we live in now is similar to the one I loved in as a kid. I've been to neighbours house with the kids and had a drink.... never got out of control drunk, kids never would have known.
I feel many parents these days are too hung up / over protective. I'm a well rounded adult, I wonder if we will be able to say the same about the millennials and the generation we are raising just now??

My Dad never left us in the car as he couldn't drive. He left us in pub garden and we were fine with it - I was old enough to keep an eye on my (much more sensible) younger sibling - we played in the garden area. We never felt neglected - it was the perfect afternoon in the park - beer for Dad and swings and grass for us. Pub gardens were good in our area though. So we were lucky.

Yes, all the time locally and on "family" holidays. I would always be alone too. Also would be left at home alone when parents went to the pub at night. That along with other areas of neglect and emotional abuse left me quite messed up. Alcohol meant more to them than i did, still does.

I'm 36 so maybe too young it it was mainly the 70 / 80s x

No never. Occasionally we'd go to the beer garden for a drink but my parents were always with us.

Occasionally, yes. We'd get a Coca cola with a straw and a packet of crisps. It wasn't for hours and hours. Parents would have one drink on a sunny Saturday afternoon every now and again.
We thought it was a treat!

My mum tells me fondly about the time her parents used to put her and her two brothers in the boot of the car in sleeping bags outside the pub.

They'd bring out crisps and pop and check on them every so often while they slept. She said it was great fun!

Mum used to take me and my sister in the pub!

Oh yes. Lots of times

Never, no.

We used to sit or play outside as the pub we went to had swing boats and have coke and crisps. Not that often, maybe once a month.

This never happened to me, or to my friends that I'm aware of. I had never heard of this happening before reading this thread. It seems pretty shocking!

I'm late 20s, I'm guessing the posters who experience this are older?

Never. But I was a kid in the 90s so maybe it was a more common occurrence before then.

Yes in the 70's. Stuck in the car with a bottle of coke OR a packet of Salt'n'Shake (never both at the same time).

We'd be bored stiff. Then dad driving home erratically down the country lanes, us bobbing about in the back with no seat belts on.

Mostly through the summer.