Weirdest things you've seen other parents do as they bring up or care for their DC?

[FortunesFave]

Here are mine.

I was in a public toilet in the cubicle and heard a woman come in with a small boy.

They went into a cubicle together and I heard her ask him repeatedly "Do you want to dirt!?"

She meant poo!

"Do you want to dirt???

Omg.

Second is SIL. When her DS was little...around 2 or so, she'd put chips for him INTO A BOWL OF COLD WATER so they'd cool faster.

Dump the cooked chips into a bowl of water. Leave them there for a bit and then drop the soggy pile onto a plate for the poor child.

WHY? What are yours?

[Pottedpalm]

@MangoSeason

Mum and dad would wear swimsuits in the shower when showering with their toddlers.

She was extremely proud of the fact that none of her children had seen her naked since they were babies and none of the kids had ever seen their dad naked at any stage.

The hang-ups those poor kids are going to have.

Not necessarily; I never saw either parent, or indeed any adult, naked while I was growing up. I don’t have any hang ups about bodies, or nakedness.

[EmeraldShamrock]

Suck a snot from her newborn child's nostril.
I bought her a sucker for baby 2, she preferred her own method.

[Hopeisallineed]

@crazyguineapiglady ever heard of aspartame? It’s in most ‘sugar free’ squashes and sodas. Google it and you might change your mind.

[Lostmarbles2021]

I find it interesting that there are a few examples on this thread where one person says ‘that’s odd’ and another person says ‘I do that because of this’ about the same behaviour.

E.g. referring to ‘poo’ as ‘dirt’ - using another word for ‘poo’ because of a child’s phobia. Eating a full picnic after school - feeding child after school to avoid ‘hanger’

It reminds me that all behaviour has meaning once you understand the context. We all do things that others might view as ‘odd’ but there is usually a reason that is meaningful to us.

With the exception of abusive behaviours we should perhaps all just accept that there are differences in approach and live and let live?

[ElizaDarcysDeeds]

Some of these posts are verging on racist. Early toilet training and using different words for going to the toilet are cultural differences.

[Pottedpalm]

@EmeraldShamrock

Suck a snot from her newborn child's nostril.
I bought her a sucker for baby 2, she preferred her own method.

This is disgusting.

[ememem84]

@Bloodylovecheese

Not quite on the same scale..but a girl at work used to have her mum prepare her lunch box every day. She would have a peeled satsuma wrapped in clingfilm in the lunchbox...she was 21

To be fair that sounds amazing! And I’m not ashamed to admit when DH ds and I moved in with dparents for a few months whilst we waited for our new house dm made DH and I lunch boxes every day. 😂 didn’t peel fruit for me though. Must have a word 😀

[yomommasmomma]

@EmeraldShamrock

Suck a snot from her newborn child's nostril.
I bought her a sucker for baby 2, she preferred her own method.

This is very common practice in a lot of African countries. It is also very effective and God forbid we in the UK can actually learn something from another culture.

[QuickityQuackity]

@GoldChick

It's hard enough figuring out parenting without worrying about being judged as weird tbh

This.

[therespectablecardigan]

Dd spent quite a lot of time in hospital as a toddler so I saw some really odd things there.
The saddest one I saw was a boy who had leukaemia and his tonsils had to be removed as they'd become dangerously enlarged. I heard the doctors telling the mum that it was a high risk op due to potential for haemorrhage and his platelets were low. Mum then announced she was leaving as she was going to a music concert, so could they make sure to start the op before 1pm as she had to go to get her tan sprayed and start drinking with the girls before the concert. The boy was crying "don't leave me mummy" all morning, and the mum just kept saying it wasn't fair on her to miss it as she'd been looking forward to it all year. She kept badgering nurses to phone the surgeons as she "needed to leave", all the whilst the boy cried louder. Thankfully the boy was taken into theatre before 1pm so his mum was with him, but he came out on his own and didn't have anyone with him until late the next day, when the mum staggered into the ward

A weird one was a boy who had just come back from theatre and his mum was trying to force feed him a king sized Mars bar, a sausage roll and a bottle of coke as "you need a decent meal or the anaesthetic will curdle in your stomach". The poor boy kept insisting he didn't want to eat yet and the mum was getting irrate with him, saying it was really important to have a proper meal 😂

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

@Bloodylovecheese

Not quite on the same scale..but a girl at work used to have her mum prepare her lunch box every day. She would have a peeled satsuma wrapped in clingfilm in the lunchbox...she was 21

I used to work with someone whose mum was still preparing her lunch box every day when she was nearly 50!

[CecilyP]

JapanJetplane

I saw a Tiktok where one woman was giving her 9 month old daughter three full bottles of squash every day alongside her milk and meals. Literally just a recipe for diabetes and obesity.

Not necessarily that, but definitely a recipe for severe tooth decay!

[Benjispruce4]

Parents who allow toddlers to run around and be noisy when they are in school assemblies/performances or church etc.

[yomommasmomma]

@ElizaDarcysDeeds

Some of these posts are verging on racist. Early toilet training and using different words for going to the toilet are cultural differences.

Exactly this, we have to accept that our ways of doing things aren't always the best

[ememem84]

@OwlinaTree

I think you are perfectly reasonable to stay with your child if they need an EpiPen.

Agree. Mine are at the age where we still stay for parties. But if one of their friends needed epi pens I’d be most grateful if the parent stayed no matter how old.

[yesterdayisinthepast]

@Bloodylovecheese

Not quite on the same scale..but a girl at work used to have her mum prepare her lunch box every day. She would have a peeled satsuma wrapped in clingfilm in the lunchbox...she was 21

@Bloodylovecheese what's wrong with that??
A lot of parents still enjoy preparing lunch for their child when going to work regardless of age. When I used to live at home, if my mum was making something for her dinner she'd usually make me something to take to work the next day. I was 19/20.
It's more thoughtful than anything

[EmeraldShamrock]

This is very common practice in a lot of African countries. It is also very effective and God forbid we in the UK can actually learn something from another culture.
That might be the case, it isn't the reasons she does it, she is very easygoing whatever's handy/easy for the job.
She'd clean an arse with her used top.
She is not African she is N. Irish.

[HoppingPavlova]

This is very common practice in a lot of African countries. It is also very effective and God forbid we in the UK can actually learn something from another culture.

Sure it does the job. The thing is we have alternatives that do a much better job readily accessible for next to no cost, so why you would do that instead is.

[GoldChick]

@SapphosRock

I am currently breastfeeding my toddler in my own front room wearing a face mask. He has the norovirus and I don't want to catch it.

I'm sure if people saw us they would think it was was v odd.

I think that's very clever and the young uns are used to seeing people in masks now

[Mumski45]

With respect to nappies and cultural differences. I visited China 15 years ago when DS was 15months. It was quite normal for babies not to wear nappies. They wore tights which folded across the bottom to keep baby warm but every so often you would see a baby held over the gutter in the road with the fold opened up to pee. This was tiny babies up to toddlers. Never saw how they coped with a poo but they must have had something worked out.

[Newmumatlast]

The squash comments all really concern me. My child won't drink just water. Yes I started with just water but my partner drinks lots of squash all day and she was taking some from him. I'm not happy about it but it happened and now she refuses water. Entirely. Even really really weak squash. I have tried to make it better with higher juice content rather than crap squash and no aspartame but I actually feel really crap about it and sad that I'll look like an awful mum when out but I actually think I am a good mum. My child has quite a few issues around food and is really particular but so is my husband who has additional needs so I am conscious she may have either picked that up from him or it may be that I need to watch for additional needs. I am trying to get her into nursery in the hope peer pressure with other kids will help. Any advice I'm willing to take but don't think that people are always doing things they're happy about and arent having a real struggle behind closed doors.

[randomthings]

@GoldChick

It's hard enough figuring out parenting without worrying about being judged as weird tbh

Yup

[Redredwiney]

@HoppingPavlova

This is very common practice in a lot of African countries. It is also very effective and God forbid we in the UK can actually learn something from another culture.

Sure it does the job. The thing is we have alternatives that do a much better job readily accessible for next to no cost, so why you would do that instead is.

Ah yes, west is best….

[randomthings]

@Benjispruce4

Parents who allow toddlers to run around and be noisy when they are in school assemblies/performances or church etc.

Well you are certainly not ' suffer little children to come unto me' are you?

[yesterdayisinthepast]

@EmeraldShamrock

Suck a snot from her newborn child's nostril.
I bought her a sucker for baby 2, she preferred her own method.

@EmeraldShamrock this is very common in both Caribbean and African cultures. Just because we live in the Western world where there's tools for near enough everything, doesn't mean people have to use them.

What do you think people before did before there were products available to remove snot? Just let their child struggle to breathe because of how blocked their nose is..?

I live in London and my dp and I both suck the snot out of our DDs noses when needed