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?

😂😂 and the spelling outrage continues!

“She made a spelling mistake!!! Take her outside and shoot her immediately!!” 😂😂 hilarious!

I swear predicted spelling has been smoking something on Mumsnet. Case in point, Mumsnet just got converted to Munster on my iPad. Relax guys, this ain’t the SATs.

Doesn't surprise me, my nephew regularly slept in the dog's bed as a toddler, he chose to (dog preferred sofa!)

she’s obviously led a sheltered life

Quite the opposite if we're suggesting that the early 80s was a time when putting a toddler to sleep in a working farm dog's bed was just part of an 'old simple way of living' which 'was actually quite romantic'.

I'm slightly older than OP but my cousins would all pile in together for warmth in winter - six of us in a double bed when I was there - and when we got snowed in once with a family reunion the adults got all the beds and the kids had to made do - one cousin and I slept in the dog basket for two nights (Alsatian so large basket, we were 8 and 5,dog was mildly miffed and curled up next to us).

In inns and even boarding schools to Victorian times, sharing beds for warmth was normal. Now it takes exceptional cold or bad insulation to remember that, eg camping. I got together with my first boyfriend thanks to a freezing country house and only a single bed available, so have a fondness for the concept.

Very weird OP

Husky will regularly snuggle up with My 6month old. Don’t see who it’s unhygienic?

I was raised in a cat hammock.

What do I win??

I too grew up in an old farm house with no heating and only a Rayburn.
We had a black Labrador when I was a baby. I wasn’t put to bed in with him at night but often during the day.
This was in the mid 70s.

Dd used to sleep in the dog bed often. She's 14 now, stopped when she was about 8.

I think your family were doing what was common then, and their best to keep you warm.
People lived different some years ago and every place had their own way . Common to have wrapped babies in olive oil and newspaper. Sleeping in drawers was the norm .
I am sure your dog kept you v warm as a few weeks ago i fell and was unable to get up. I lay almost 2 hours and there was an open door near so i went into shock. My little dog who had pushed a heavy stool from my arm with her wee head kept cuddling close to me and kept me warm and if was not for her and all the she done i would have been a lot worse.
So yes i belive you and realise maybe we are fortunate to have lived through memorable times.

@liverbird10

Three furballs and half a dead mouse?

I used to snuggle up with our German Shepherd on cold evenings, but come bedtime, I'd have to go in my own bed.

I used to take the cat with me though. He was a very long-suffering cat and used to lie beside me, under the covers, with his head on the pillow. It was great, like having a hot water bottle that never goes cold. You needed that in a huge, draughty flat with 14' ceilings and no central heating, especially during the winter of 62-63, when it was bitter cold for about 2 months.

Apparently I regularly used to be found asleep in the dog's bed cuddled up with my gran's Border Collie when I was a toddler/small child and had to be picked up bodily and carried to bed or I would have happily stayed there. I can't really remember as I was too young but it's passed into family legend now, and there's an old photo of it knocking around somewhere.

It always amuses me on MN that someone posts a mundane AIBU, e.g. "WIBU not to want to let this person into the queue ahead of me" and people will fall over themselves to come up with the most unlikely and quite frankly bizarre backstories as to why that poor person might have needed to be served first, yet the minute someone posts something mildly not the norm but hardly completely unbelievable, they get ripped to shreds, outright disbelieved and have their spelling forensically analysed.