Putting child to bed in the dog basket

[BellyAching19]

When I was a toddler I used to be put to sleep in the dogs basket. We were living in an old Georgian estate at the time with no heating. It wasn’t our house. It was a big spooky house in the middle of nowhere with an agar in the kitchen, coal fires and obviously no double glazing. Very little furniture. Wind howling through the windows, no neighbours for miles. The theory was that the dog and I would share body heat.

I’m a little shocked but at the same time, AIBU to think the old simple way of living was actually quite romantic?

How old are you, OP?

You and Clare Balding.

We used get bathed in the big butler sink in the scullery. Water heated by coal stove and washing done in a copper boiler on said stove.

You remember so much considering you were only there whilst they tried to sell it.

I still try to get in bed with the dog 😂

I assume you have a good immune system. That's what I heard it was for.

Cute story. I also traveled in the back of a van with no seats and in the tipper bit of a tipper truck. The latter was really cool. A soft top with no seats.

The miners' houses had tin baths kept under the kitchen sink, filled up using jugs and pails and used in front of the fire.
It was quite common for babies to be placed in a drawer or dog basket. Although not usually a basket currently used by the dog. Obviously the drawer was removed from the chest of drawers and placed on a table top or floor.

No prob as long as you kept up the worming tablets and the flea treatment.

The dc in my family have always been obsessed with going in the dog beds, although we don't put them to bed in there.

Yay a random clicky link!

I also traveled in the back of a van with no seats

When my brother and I were little my parents had a minivan and would put us to bed on a mattress in the back and drive through the night when we went on holiday. We always had camping holidays and I cannot fathom how they managed to fit everything in! I remember sleeping in the back though and thought it was so exciting.

Having actually grown up in a place where that would have been done (and I did spend my infancy scrabbling around in the filth at ground level with the animals), I have to say it's not in the least bit fucking romantic.

A kid choosing to snuggle up with the dog or in the cat's bed as if any self respecting cat would sleep in one anyway is completely different.

Haha loving the outrage at my spelling mistake 😂

I don’t actually remember these times (in response to whoever said I remembered a lot) I was recently told about the dog basket thing.

I remember bits of the house ... the massive long wooden table in the kitchen, the scary fireplaces, the long country lane but it’s all vivid memories.

We did revisit the house a few years later while it was still in a state and nobody lived there. Can’t remember why we went back but I remember the huge fireplace in one of the living rooms that looked spooky as fuck!

(I was clearly wrong about the nurse thing, I’ll blame my autism again)

And I still think it’s romantic! But then I am fascinated by the olden days, Victorians, Georgians, tudors etc ... I love it

That’s totally cool. Now we adults the dog wants to sleep in our bed! ( she gets away with it😳)

You remember so much considering you were only there whilst they tried to sell it.

I think we are generally more likely to remember those events/times from early childhood which weren't part of the everyday.

OP, I used to take myself for naps in the dog basket, with the dog, as a toddler and beyond. It was warm and cosy, and a happy memory for me. Some cousins of mine used to take turns spending the whole night in the dog bed with their dog on alternating Fridays when they were a little older!

But I wouldn't let a child do it because I have come to think it's too risky – stakes too high – and not fair on the dog either.

However, as it all worked out for you, OP, what a great memory to have!

I think that sounds lovely op , I bet you felt safe and secure in dog basket .
Struck a cord with me as daughter sent me a photo this morning of grandson asleep in dog basket looking very snug , the dog was snuggled up in child's bed though 😬

When picking potatoes the farmer would transport us in a horse box with straw bails to sit on.

I used to sleep with my dog every night when I was about 10/11 snuggled up on his cushion with a blanket over us I have St Bernard's now so basically use them as a blanket on the sofa in winter

The dogs bed of my childhood was pallets covered with a rug in front of the Rayburn ( only source of heat in an old farm house). Would have loved to slept there instead of my, literally, freezing room but it wasn’t comfy.
Not sure why people think it’s odd or unhygienic though.We all shared the same space and the dogs didn’t have coughs, colds chicken pox etc like my scabby school friends.

my family believe in woo

Er - sorry, what?

No prob as long as you kept up the worming tablets and the flea treatment.

Hopefully the dog had also been subject to the same parasite control.

Not sure there is anything romantic about the poverty of the olden days but yes there is something romantic about snuggling up all warm in front of the aga or a roaring open fire. I suppose it's the nostalgia that's associated with these things.

People really haven’t a bloody clue how many families lived, years ago. I grew up sharing a room with five siblings, my uncle in the tiny room across from us, my parents in the downstairs room, the living room/kitchen was all one and the size of a regular bedroom. We washed in a tin bath in front of the fire in the winter and the bigger bath in the yard in the summer. We had no electric and fetched water from a well. I remember my parents getting a generator and it would only run long enough for the news and bedtime. Granted we were poor even by the standards of those days, but it wasn’t that uncommon. I’m only 51yrs old, so not that many decades ago.

recrudescence 🤣