To ask for your happy childhood ideas?

[ApplesAndPearsStairs]

Please can you share with me some of the happiest parts of your childhood? My children are 3 and 5 and I want to make them as happy as possible.

I had a very happy childhood myself, despite my parents' divorce and being an only child. But I think I'm a happy, positive person. Also I don't remember getting into much trouble at home because I was a good, easy child who knew how to stay in my Mum's good books!

Happy memories for me include:

• going to the playground
• tagging along with my Dad going to hardware shops
• having medium boiled eggs at the table as a family
• having friends over for playdates and dressing up
• making clothes for my old bear on my neighbour's sewing machine
• doing woodwork with my Dad, making a chair, deckchair and table for my bear
• long baths
• reading in the bath
• splashing in the sea at Woolacombe
• playing with my cats
• having my own flower bed at our allotment

And then as an older child from 12+:

• going to the cinema with my Dad every Sunday
• going to art galleries, again with my Dad
• eating my favourite dinners: fish stew, chilli con carne, tarragon chicken
• reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles for the first time
• ice cream

Please let me know your happy childhood memories so I can get some ideas for my own children! Thanks.

Baking cakes, building dens, putting on little shows behind the sofa using teddies as puppets. Having loads of time just playing. Simple things!

Playing in the garden with my siblings and making dens in the bushes

Making train tracks with my big brother and watching his electric trains go around

Singing lullabies to my little brother

Caravan holidays

Baking with my grandma

Turning my brother's bed into a time machine then creeping around the house and trying not to be seen so that we wouldn't disrupt the space/time continuum.

Love this thread as an antidote to #makingmemories

Love, freedom and discipline

I didn't have a very happy childhood so I m determined to give my two one! The things that go down well are camping, anything outside involving mud or water and beach days. They are 11 and 9 so I might ask them what their favourite memories are as they could be different!!

Sounds like your happy childhood had a lot to do with your parents spending time with you, sharing your interests, teaching you skills etc. I think that will have been key! So rather than specific activities, I think your interest and time will be what makes your children’s childhoods happy.

I had a wonderful childhood, and have lots of happy memories, including:

Making dens in the garden and in the house.
Going fishing with my dad.
Walking for miles beachcombing.
Snuggling up watching a film with my mum, dad and sister.
Helping in the garden - planting seeds, then picking beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and digging up potatoes.
Picking a bunch of weeds flowers for my mum.
Playing outside and only coming in to eat or go to bed.

Happy days...

It is lovely reading all of these :)

What has 'struck me' about the above is that nothing mentioned is expensive apart from the cinema where you now have to re-mortgage your house for a family ticket which will be a great comfort to many I'm sure.

Without putting a downer on things, I don't have many happy childhood memories but I am trying to give my DC a happy childhood (aren't we all?) so reading all your experiences/tips are very helpful :)

Long hours exploring, making dens and creating fantasy worlds in garden - winding paths through bushes have more play potential than open lawns.
Camping in garden
Learning the names of all the wildflowers in the lawn
Reading the same books over and over again
Being taken to a narrow country road with a ford, and letting my inflatable "swanny" have a swim.
On holiday (across the bay from Woolacombe) fishing in the rock pools, following the tide down especially on spring tides, collecting sea shells, identifying and cataloguing them.
Helping mother hand-make Christmas crackers with a special device to get the "crimp" in the right place. Doing all the Christmas dinner veg prep on the sitting room carpet watching the Christmas Eve cartoons on TV.
Generally - lots and lots of time for myself, not being ferried to activities all the time. Time to watch, to think, to imagine.

Trips to the library and sitting reading
Playing in the cold and coming home to hot soup with fresh bread and butter
Baking cakes
Beach trips
Playing out with all the other kids in the street
My getting well after being poorly meal - cheese on toast with a poached egg

What a great thread!

I had a lovely childhood - some of my most cosy and ‘secure’ memories are things like

• eating tea and toast in pjs in front of the fire before bed
• being allowed to ‘wait up’ for my dad to get home from work on a Friday night (watching the Late Late Show for any other Irish MNers ) - I never made it past about 9.30pm without falling asleep
• just lying in the garden watching clouds going by, picking daisies, smelling the earth
• reading much loved books

Really all just having time to BE, unrushed, no parental over involvement. Of course I loved spending time with them too!

Meredint - snap totally agree that not being ferried to activities all the time is crucial.

I’m keen to try to give my DS a similar childhood but I think it’s much harder these days when playing out is less of a thing and parents are expected to be far more involved in kids lives.

I read a great book called Simplicity Parenting - can’t remember the author but it’s all about paring downhow much stuff kids have and letting them be kids

Ooh following this! I didn't have a good childhood but am determined that DS will. Only 2 at the moment but we do lots of playing outside a d we had the best time at Llandudno this summer :)

Ah, what a lovely thread. Mine are very similar to others...
Playing outside for hours - I distinctly remember doing this in the freezing cold with fingerless gloves on, 'rescuing' minibeasts etc
Playing rounders with family in Thetford Woods (where there was a large clearing)
Baking
Visiting grandparents and having toast made on the open fire
Going to the cinema with my dad on a Thursday while my mum had her friends round
Friday evening in with my mum watching TV while my dad went out with his friends

So mostly simple, cheap things and I agree, that time with family in a relaxed setting without distractions was just lovely.

And yes, having time to just 'be' without adult involvement or direction.

Going to new playgrounds
Caravan /beach holidays in UK
Visiting library every week and having lots of books at home
Playing outside for hours on end
Day trips and picnics
Being spoilt on birthdays and Christmas (we didn't get much the rest of the year but were spoilt on these occasions).

• my mum taking me to an after school club, arriving with my supper in a thermos flask (always some kind of pasta with a separate dose of peas )
• making ”potions” in the garden with my brother
• helping grow and then pick veg and fruit in the garden
• making jam/jellies/crumble with the fruit
• my dad making eggy bread (French toast!) every Sunday
• special treat Chinese take away on last night before going back to school
• special treat chicken kiev
• special treat bought (!! shocking) pizza

Hmmmm lots of special treat food!

• my dad kicking a football straight up into the air, a special request party trick, we thought he was amazing he got it so high
• learning to play simple card games with both sets of grandparents
• family games during holidays, cluedo or more card games
• little ramekin of rice crispies as first food after I’d been ill and not eating

In summer if we saw a hot air balloon me and my dad would go in the car for a drive to follow it and watch it land ♥️ I loved this and did it with DD this summer.

Oooo and building dens. Garden chairs, big blankets/sheets and pegs. Then hiding in it and reading/playing/having dinner in it

My top tip for giving your children a happy childhood is this: Be Consistent.

If you say you'll do a thing, do that thing.
If you say you won't do a thing, don't do that thing.
If circumstances change, explain why you are doing/not doing the thing.

If a child is not allowed to do a thing, they are not allowed to do it.
If they are allowed to do it, they are allowed to do it.
If circumstances change, explain why.

If they argue that they should be allowed to do a thing, listen to them.
Don't get defensive if they question your choices.
Don't see it as "backing down" if you allow it after hearing their point - see it as having new information.

Everyone should be proud to consider themselves as a person who would change their mind if new information came up.
There is no pride in sticking to what you said to the bitter end, if circumstances have changed or new information has come to light.

Picnic tea on a Sunday night while muDas dried our hair with the hairdryer
Treasure hunts where my Dad wrote the clues. We were only finding our own stuff like a teddy. When we were older, we'd do a treasure hunt for them too
Being given a road map and following where we were driving on the page
Mum flipping pancakes

Yes, learning and playing card games with grandparents! Wow, am feeling very nostalgic now.

Thanks everyone! Some thought-provoking ideas here.

Playing for hours on and around my Granddad's farm in the long summer holidays with my brother and cousin.
Going to the rocky beach with the local kids - just us, no parents any where near and rock pooling and playing.
Extended family events - meals out etc.
Football matches with my dad, days wandering in the local city with my mum.
Playing with friends, no homework and complete freedom to come and go at leisure without pre planning play dates etc.
Sailing with my friends in the sea in boats on our own at 11ish. Again felt very free.
My children don't have the freedom I did, which is a great pity, but we do much more things together as a family so I hope that will be good for them in a different way.

Camping in the back garden.
Chickening out of camping in the forest (across the rd from the house).
Spending all day in the forest/walking. Drinking from streams.
Blackberry picking.
Caravan holidays.
Going to Swanage and going on the steam train.
All other steam trains.
Museums.
Model villages.
Tintagel castle!
Seaside visits, in any weather. I remember sitting on the sea wall at Southend eating hot sausages from a flask or sausage rolls and tomato soup.
Bike riding.

Reading. The amount of books we had was unbelievable. Loads and loads of famous 5 etc.
Canal walks.
The hot buttery toast only my mum can make - no one else can keep it hot.
Trips to the park & roller skating.
I remember being really small and we had a hamper and Christmas. Me & my mum stayed up late and ate the cheese & biscuits.