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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask what weird/stupid stuff you did as a kid

381 replies

Bantameggs · 14/04/2019 19:47

I think I was a bit of a strange child although maybe I’m not the only one.

One of my favourite things to do aged about 5/6 was to steal a bar of soap and some scissors, find a corner to hide in and shave wafer thin slices of soap off until there was nothing but a big pile of soap flakes. I got into trouble every time but it didn’t stop me.

Our family car had two rear facing seats at the back and if I was sitting there I used sit dead still and make blank-faced unblinking eye contact with the people behind for as long as possible. I think I managed it for about an hour once.

Once aged about 10 I set out to drink as much water as possible just to see how much I could drink. I managed a few litres (I’m aware now that I could have killed myself)

I brought a large dehydrated dead fish I’d found on the beach to show and tell at school when I was 7. Unfortunately it was the last day before the summer holidays and I accidentally left it behind. I think they had to get someone to come in in the end to deal with the terrible smell.

When I was 12 I coloured my entire face in with bright pink lipstick. It took about two days to get rid of completely.

Was anyone else a little weirdo? I think I’m pretty normal now btw!

OP posts:
Roussette · 15/04/2019 07:56

I am laughing out loud at some of the postings since I was on last night!

This next one I have no idea if we kids wanted to do it or our parents wanted us to do it but it is Shock

We lived not far from a huge beach you could drive on. My Mum and Dad would drive us all there (no seatbelts of course and me the youngest sat on Mum's lap in the front).

Parents always wanted us exercised and exhausted so we would go to sleep at bedtime. DF would drive onto the beach with the car, us kids would get out and each grab a door handle and he would drive. We had to hang on to the door handle, run alongside the car and keep up.

They would be shouting out the window 'Keep going, faster, faster!'. My little legs would be pumping hard, older brothers and sisters kept up longer, I would eventually have to let go and collapse on the beach.

My enduring memory is the car in the distance with my siblings hanging on for dear life running as fast as their legs would take them.

Shock Someone would call the Police nowadays.

Tashface · 15/04/2019 08:04

I was horse mad but didn't have one. So I made a mini gymkhana on the dining room table out of blu-tack and colourful plastic cocktail sticks, and attempted to coax my hamster round it by holding treats in front of her.

I had a lovely little ceramic horse ornament and spent ages making a tremendous stable for it out of a shoe box. Used real hay for the sleeping area and then proudly positioned the stable on my bedroom shelf. Went to 'muck it out' one day and found a load of maggots in the hay.

When travelling in the car, I used to pretend to be a horse jumping over jumps. So every time we drove past a lamp post, or a bollard, or a person, or a side road (any kind of 'thing' really) I used to lift my toes to 'jump' over it. My left and right feet operated separately where necessary, depending on which side the thing was on. I continued to do this this well into my 20s.

I wrote extremely lengthy horse stories where I was the main character and owned the most fantastic horse of my dreams.

ClinkyMonkey · 15/04/2019 08:26

I ate uncooked food straight from the freezer - mostly peas and sweet corn though, so no harm done. Can't imagine what process of elimination I might have gone through first!

I also used to try and freeze stuff that wouldn't normally be frozen, like dollops of black treacle and golden syrup - probably thought I could make toffee.

I jumped into bed from a couple of feet away in case someone or something would grab my legs from under the bed. I also kept my distance from parked cars for the same reason.

I constantly ran my nose up and down my forearms and sniffed them. I still do this.

formul1isSoBoringNow · 15/04/2019 08:47

oh my, I have loads Blush many of the same already posted. sucking the flannel, making square bread sweat things, getting all the teddy on the bed not leaving any of them left out. lots more already posted.

when I first started infant school I'd put my head down inside my top and pretend I was drinking my own breast milk, I remember my teachers face when I told her what I was doing(I didn't do it again after that look!) I don't know why I did this, as I far as I know I was bottle fed.

from the age of 5/6 I refused to wear dresses/skirts anything girly.

use to think if I thought hard enough when wearing my Parker with the hood up I would sprout horse ears and nose. I was always disappointed when everyone said I wasn't a horse.

a friend and me had imaginary friends from another planet, they were also our boyfriends, mine was called Ahseeha.

same friend and me would turn the arms of sofa into horses and were jockeys racing.

we'd also spend hours looking at a ditch and telling story's about which little people lived in which tuffs of grass and what they were doing, going and why.

Our bikes and scooters were really horses we named. We'd pull mini wheelys to portray when they were playing up.

When I got a new wardrobe it was really tall and had a shelf at the top, I decided that should be my bed.

I turn part of my bedroom which was long a narrow into an old gypsy caravan, I had the kitchen stool with the fold out step for my seat to drive the horse and made door out of a dressing gown belt and a large piece of cardboard. I imagined roaming the country side foraging for food. the game went on for weeks.

before I started school I remember making a concoction of lemon juice shampoo, perfume, I then weed in it and later painted the wall in the living room behind the telly with it, thinking I'd make the room smell nice.ShockConfusedBlush

BikeRunSki · 15/04/2019 09:00

The car on the beach is nuts! Grin
my dad would so have done that if we’d lived there

Imoan123 · 15/04/2019 09:10

I used to shave bits off a rubber and also made mud pies. There are even Instagram accounts that cut up lush products.

hideandgoseek · 15/04/2019 09:41

@letsgomaths I didn’t! The lure of my bed was too much Grin

bobstersmum · 15/04/2019 09:46

I've just remembered another, when I was lying in bed at night with my ear to the pillow, sometimes I could hear what must have been my pulse (from my temple or something?) and it sounded like little footsteps crunching through snow, I used to imagine there was a little man in there walking through the snow at night across fields and hills trying to get to his destination, I can still picture his outfit with his backpack on and his trapper hat.

bobstersmum · 15/04/2019 09:48

Is anyone else reading these and wondering what absolutely bonkers things your own children are doing or thinking without us having any idea?

JustDanceAddict · 15/04/2019 09:49

Used to fill sink with water and put talc in it. Very nice sensation.
Ate raw spaghetti as a snack
Ate cold baked beans
Eat crisps and cheese together

These are v food related.

JustDanceAddict · 15/04/2019 09:53

I was also obsessed with the Mothercare catalogue! Lord knows why...

Siameasy · 15/04/2019 09:57

I was also obsessed with the Mothercare catalogue! Lord knows why...

Me too. The girl models had these white shoes on, like ballet pumps. I was obsessed with having shoes without a strap so I used to stare at these shoes for ages. This would’ve been c1981

JustDanceAddict · 15/04/2019 09:59

Oh yes we did the jumping from highest stair thing too - as did my kids!!
And my friend and I aged about 11 have our cat a bath 😆

JustDanceAddict · 15/04/2019 10:00

siameasy yes would’ve been around then. It was A5 size wasn’t it? I liked the babies layette!!!

RestingBitchFaced · 15/04/2019 10:04

Me and my brother used to climb out of the bedroom window, walk along the windowsill and go back in through the other window. The lady across the road used to come and tell my mum when we were doing it, really didn't see the danger then! I would have a heart attack if my kids did this!

Wonnacott35 · 15/04/2019 10:31

Ran across a motorway - what an idiot

BikeRunSki · 15/04/2019 10:33

Eat crisps and cheese together
Nowt odd about that

AGnu · 15/04/2019 10:35

I've thought of more...

One summer holiday I decided I wanted to make myself an igloo shaped structure that would be my secret place I could hide. I'd wait until my dad put his newspaper in the recycling then snuck it upstairs to my room. I spent weeks carefully rolling up sheets & sellotaping them together until it eventually dawned on me that it was v wobbly & wouldn't be strong enough to cover in several layers of newspaper. It also had a terrible habit of collapsing any time I tried to crawl inside it. I genuinely didn't think anyone would notice I was doing it. I was old enough that my parents didn't put me to bed anymore but I'm sure my mum must've come in to put clothes away.

That same summer I decided I wanted to decorate my room. I didn't dare ask my parents though - I was always worried about asking for things that could be expensive/time consuming, I just didn't want to be a burden to them. Instead, I got sheets & sheets of paper & spent many hours badly drawing pictures & writing inspirational quotes & bluetacking them in "artistic" ways around the room. I think I covered my whole room in the end, including the back of the door. Again, I thought no-one would know & was felt betrayed when DM commented she liked something I'd done... It was like she'd read my diary or something - how dare she notice?!

When I was quite young my parents had to hide all the tissues for a few years. Any opportunity I got I'd shred them into as tiny pieces as possible, spend a minute or 2 gently patting the soft pile before scrunching it all together into a tight ball. I also occasionally shoved wodges of shredded tissue up my nose/in my ears.

BikeRunSki · 15/04/2019 10:35

DBro used to walk along the parapets of Chelsea Bridge. Just a few m, but good grief, how he didn’t fall in I have no idea. He is 6 years old, and I still suffer a bit from big brother adoration, but even aged 5 orb6, I realised that this was a stupid thing to do.

LadyMonicaBaddingham · 15/04/2019 10:38

I am still CRYING at @Tunnocks34 eating the buttons from the remote control...

I used to use wet loo roll to make 'plaster casts' for my dolls, then write messages from them on each others... The Sindy house must have looked like a bloody rehabilitation clinic with all of them in casts on arms, legs, torsos. I did a whole head cast once, with eye holes and everything, but it pulled most of the doll's hair out when 'the surgeon' (me, obvs) cut it off to 'check the healing process'... Blush Blush Blush

Hairynick · 15/04/2019 10:48

Sew my fingers together, it through the hard skin so didn't hurt a bit Grin

thenewaveragebear1983 · 15/04/2019 10:56

If I struggled to sleep I'd pretend I was homeless, or on a train journey somewhere or sleeping on a ferry (ie really uncomfortable places). When I was waiting for a bath to run, I'd pretend I was a hostage/kidnapped and locked in this tiny bathroom. I'd wear my nightie in the bath as well?

My sister and I would play very elaborate games based on characters from films. Nancy from Oliver and truly Scrumptious from chitty bang bang were our favourite ones. We'd tell people on holidays that those were our names. We'd also do things if we were left at home if parents went out (so must have been 10/11 at least) like heat lemonade in a saucepan and drink it, or make a jelly and drink it before it set.

Lots of counting and tapping things.

I could cross my big toe over my second toe and click it, I could do this 100 times a day or more. I now have quite a painful arthritic bunion joint there so wouldn't recommend that one!

LoadOfUtterBoswellocks · 15/04/2019 11:58

Well for a good couple of years I was an actual hamster/gerbil. It was OK, but it was very frustrating to be treated like some sort of human. I would get quite indignant about it.

YY to PPs who had invisible scythes or horses going alongside them on car journeys. I was just thinking about this this morning, wondering if anyone else in the world did such a thing. Sometimes it was a man roller skating. I could lift him via the power of buttock clenching to jump over lorries, hedges etc. to avert disaster.

Couldn't have teddies UNDER the duvet, as they wouldn't be able to breathe.

missteddy · 15/04/2019 12:17

I used to have a lovely big dollhouse and my people that lived in it were little Simpson's characters, even though I renamed them.
I'd always have the wife kick the dad out and he'd move into a flat that I made from a shoe box with his young Barbie girlfriend and they would argue every time he picked the kids up from Marge!

I'd also sit in my wardrobe for a few hours when my mum babysat this girl I didn't like so I didn't have to play with her. I'd ask my mum to tell her I was at my dads house! Haha

OopsOhNoZHM · 15/04/2019 12:25

I did the same with car journeys - imagining something running along beside us, weaving between the lampposts or jumping from one to the next.

Sucked water out of the flannel.

When I was in infant school I would do the zip right up on my coat, pull the hood up, snuggle right down into it so my face was covered, then just lay on the playground for all of break.

In juniors I believed I could fly, I would run and jump and it always felt like I was going higher and staying up for longer than I was.

A lot of my play revolved around being kidnapped or forced to do something.

When I was around 4 i would spend all day in and out of the bath and sink, I was a complete water baby. When the water got cold I’d let it out and rub the soap around the bath so I could slide around.

I would climb anything and everything, that went on for years. I climbed a conker tree when I was 11 and for the first time, I fell out of it. I fell the height of a house, straight into a load of bushes thankfully so walked away with just a sprained wrist. So bloody lucky. Earned me the title Conker Girl for the rest of my time at secondary.