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?

A woman I knew used to sanitise her kids hands all the time, before snacks, etc. Constant. She tried to do my kids hands too!

The result of this was they were ill all the time. Every bug going, they got it.

She was an anti vaxer too. I don't see her now but I wonder how she got on with the pandemic.

My SIL got pissed at my MIL for feeding the 18mo sugar free squash while she was babysitting because it's 'unhealthy', and then gave MIL left over Chinese takeaway to heat up for the babies lunch.

I think I'm the weird parent.
I've never sucked snot out my children's noses using any method. I've only wiped with a tissue or a flannel.
Squash is fine and has saved two of my children from becoming severely dehydrated when they were toddlers and very ill.
I hold my Year 6 child's hand, he wants me to. I'm not going to say no he can't.

I know people think it's odd that I've never given my children chicken nuggets, ham out of a packet or hot dogs because those foods make me heave.

@EmeraldShamrock I’d ignore those who start making comments about children’s eating and drinking habits as it’s completely off topic and doesn’t make sense on this thread - because children being fussy eaters or not wanting to drink plain water is hardly ‘weird’. It’s very common. So is parents trying to work around this.
It is possible to have light hearted conversations about these things. Here’s a weird thing parents sometimes do - join a fairly light hearted conversation about different parenting approaches and start lecturing people on the ‘dangers’ of artificial sweeteners. Some people just can’t read a room - whether it’s a chat forum or real life.

@Bentoforthehorde

I'm that weird parent. I don't keep toothbrushes in the bathroom, weirds me out. They go into the dishwasher after use and then into the cutlery drawer.

@Bentoforthehorde I immediately worried that I only run the dishwasher once a day. But I assume you have multiple toothbrushes in case one is ‘in the wash’?

What do you do if you’re on holiday?

@darklindor

I wish I'd known about snot sucking when my children were born in the seventies. Can you do it through a thin piece of muslin?

I don't know about the muslin but so sorry this is too much information but it helped me stop gagging right. So I fill my mouth with my own saliva, then quickly suck what I can get out and spit. That way you dont taste anything. I still gag but only if I think about it too much now 😅

I knew someone who for some reason used to make her kids stand in the corner to fart
She’d go mental if one just slipped out
They are adults now and still hold them in around her

@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.

I seem to recall my mother doing this with one of the grandchildren, NW England.

I know someone obsessed with calorie counting.

She weighs and portions out all of her children's food to the last calorie.

Everything must be homemade.

If one of them goes to the grandparents house for a sleepover there will be no pizza or snacks. Kids are sent with their portioned and weighed out quinoa/polenta/veg slop. Kids choose nothing.

Meal times are horrifically stressful in that house.

The children are now weird with food.
If we eat with them without their parents present..its like they cant understand why there isn't a fight happening and will look for one.

If I hold a punnet of strawberries or a pack of blueberries in front of them and tell them to help themselves..they first look at you like you're mad to offer and not just hand the 4 actual blueberries to them....then they will get a crazy look on their faces like they are doing somthing wrong and grab fist fills of the fruit and ram it onto their mouths whilst looking around

Into*

I've heard some call a wet and shitty nappy a meal deal.

@MrsWorriedMother

Not weird as such but felt sorry for the child.

Was in M&S yesterday and there was a mum with a buggy and a five(ish) year old daughter. The daughter was asking if she can go on the moving stairs to the next floor but mum said no as she had the buggy they had to use the lift. That was fair enough.

Our paths crossed a few times in the store and each time the mum was way over the top saying she must hold her hand as the floor is slippy and she will fall. It wasn't wet and slippy. She was saying this in a very jittery anxious manner.

Then she was saying don't go too close to the clothes rails cos they will collapse on her. Again in a very panicky jittery way.

She was generally way over the top and highly anxious and this was being projected onto the little girl.

This could be me but I don't have a younger child and my DD is 7 but looks younger.

She has quite severe Hypermobility and Shallow Hip sockets, so I see shiny floors as a hazard to her, if she were to slip on the floor she could fracture or dislocate her hip which would not only be painful but could result in her needing an operation.

To look at my DD appears "normal" and you can't tell, plus she's a normal 7yo and wants to run off in those situations, so no this isn't weird or odd to me.

Yeah we have a lot of them, as for holidays actually that's probably another weird one.
My oldest 2 dc have been on holiday twice when they were very young, the youngest 2 have never been on holiday.
We don't go on holidays, never seem to have the money or time but my passport expired around 2003, I'm not much of a traveller. Hypothetically though they would just go in the dishwasher or be washed Nd put back in the bathroom bag thing?

@MsLizard

I've heard some call a wet and shitty nappy a meal deal.

Oh my god that’s revolting.

@SixTwirlingTutus

[I am waiting for someone to come onto the thread to say they know someone who for the 12 year old still checks the temperature of cold drinks for him and adds boiling water if too cold. That would be me... he has something called cold urticaria which means he has allergic reactions to the cold. But I don't feel the need to explian that to everyone and am perfectlky capable of seeing the looks on people's faces!]

anyway- mine is a friend of ours who has body issues and since their DC was aged 3 years takes them on insanely long walks every weekend.... literally boasting about the 18 milers they did. After they insisted we walk from the train station to a castle rather than take a bus when their child was aged 4 and it took us nearly 3 hours and the poor mite was sobbing with distress I decided that our friendship might be based around coffee dates.

You are not alone with the cold urticaria. Trying to explain to the school why pe could not be done outside in rain was great fun

I've been in one or two parts of the world where babies do not wear nappies, ever, in the villages. They are "held out" and taught to go on cue from birth, basically. It does them no harm. I did what I called "potty practice" from early on with mine, and they were able to use the potty/toilet from very early. I was happy with it.

The weirdest parent stuff I have every seen is on a Facebook group that I lurk on for LOLs, on Respective Infant Education (RIE).

Every single thread consists of a bunch of neurotic first-time-mothers really really REALLY overthinking the most trivial and mundane interactions with their kids. Example: "How can I respectfully help my child to navigate her Big Emotions without making her feel that she is responsible for my feeling as an adult? etc etc etc etc" (about some bratty toddler who throws tantrums all day long)

@Yourstupidityexhaustsme

A woman at my niece’s primary school stops on like the little courtyard/paved area outside the school reception and has a picnic with her kids every day at pickup so they ‘have enough energy to get home’ they live a ten minute walk around the corner if that and I’m not talking a little snack - there’s sandwiches, frubes, crisps, drinks, biscuits etc.

It’s wild the time it just take her to prepare before collection.

That’s lovely - what wonderful memories her children will have of school pick up. I love that.

That’s lovely - what wonderful memories her children will have of school pick up. I love that.

I’m sure the caretaker’s thrilled as he waits for afternoon tea to end each day.

I know I have been considered as a weird mum. I took my DC out to the park in all weathers (appropriately dressed) every single day, often twice (only exception was in a heatwave). In rain, wind and snow we are usually the only ones there.

We live in Paris and I am the weird English mum. But it turns out my DC have AdHD and being stuck in a flat all day was just not possible. I honestly don't care what the others think

@Lostmarbles2021 the voice of reason. If only everyone thought this way, the world would be a much more tolerant place

In my house pooing was very normalised. Now my very grown up DC message each other when they've done a particularly good one especially if the paper comes back clean.....

My SIL, I love her but she’s seriously risk averse with her kid and she projects a bit of this in to ours when he’s absolutely fine. Examples like “don’t climb on that chair you might fall”… he’s getting on the chair to sit on it for his dinner. He’s 2 and quite capable of getting on a chair himself, does 3 times a day…

@MassiveHoard

For me, when I see something I think of as odd it's imagining what the possible explanations might be that's the fascinating bit. I'm absolutely sure I've been seen as weird in my time but there is usually a perfectly justifiable rationale for whatever you think is odd. The judgement part displays a lack of curiosity about the experience of others.

I absolutely concur with that @MassiveHoard.

I can be a right judgmental cow sometimes but like you, I spend more time wondering what journey has led up to such parenting decisions and behaviours.

I’m also a nosey procrastinator so that helps.

Sister's friend hand-feeding her ten-year-old son pizza because he didn't want to put down his video game controller to eat. Apparently she does this almost every meal because he "won't eat" otherwise.

@Crispynoodle

In my house pooing was very normalised. Now my very grown up DC message each other when they've done a particularly good one especially if the paper comes back clean.....

@Crispynoodle we call those Ghost Poos.