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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To sometimes wonder what my mum was thinking?

334 replies

AintNobodyHereButUsChickens · 15/01/2023 22:52

I was born in '91 to give you an idea of just how young I was.

She used to let me stay up and watch murder shows with her like Jonathan Creek and Midsomer Murders Confused I'd actually go into my primary school the next day and discuss the previous nights episode with the dinner lady who also watched MM! I have an 11yr old and I wouldn't dream of letting her watch either of those shows! She'd also record stuff like South Park and Stressed Eric etc (she watched them herself so she knew full well what they were like!) so we could watch them in the mornings.

There is a particular episode of JC that gave me nightmares for years, I man had (I think) been trapped in a cellar which flooded and he drowned. I still remember the moment they opened the door and he was at the top of the stairs with his arm outstretched, and he was all yellow and waxy looking 🤢

It's only recently that I've begun to wonder what on earth she was thinking! I'm not sure if there's even any point asking her because she'd probably get all defensive and tell me I was attacking her parenting 🙄

OP posts:
BanningTheWordNaice · 16/01/2023 08:22

The episode with the dead body that floated to the top of the stairs was in 1997 - I remember it because I was absolutely terrified (I was 6). No idea why my parents let me watch them 😂 obviously as an adult I recognise they’re not scary at all.

theemmadilemma · 16/01/2023 08:26

I was born in 76 and raised tucked next to my mother watching Poirot at 5/6. By 8 I was devouring her Agatha Christie collection of books.

It was perfectly acceptable/normal at the time, and we were taught tv wasn't real life.

strumpert · 16/01/2023 08:28

Also poirot (both the David suchet but Ustinov before that) and the proper miss Marples with Joan Hickson.

theemmadilemma · 16/01/2023 08:28

Ok, I can't have been 6 for Poirot, but similar. 😂

Strugglingtodomybest · 16/01/2023 08:28

Yanbu, I wouldn't let my DC watch South Park at the age of 5/6. I can't comment on the other shows because I've never seen them. They could basically watch what they liked after year 6, but at age 5 I was still strict with what they watched.

OoooohMatron · 16/01/2023 08:31

I think those shows are pretty tame TBH. I used to cry over Worzel Gummage and that was meant for kids!

ANiceBigCupOfTea · 16/01/2023 08:33

My mum allowed me to stay up and watch similar but I've never really thought anything of it tbh.

WandaWonder · 16/01/2023 08:37

You mum sounds cool and has has great taste is tv, I watched stuff like that with my parents and enjoy them still now I am middle aged myself.

Weddi · 16/01/2023 08:40

Are you scared for life now or something?

I watched stuff like this and I was born in 93, I’m not damaged by it so no harm done. My DC have watched stranger things which is far more gruesome than midsomer murders.

Weddi · 16/01/2023 08:40

I meant scarred, obviously.

BordoisAgain · 16/01/2023 08:43

ChopSuey2 · 16/01/2023 00:31

You know what did traumatise me? Those safety videos school showed before the school holidays about not playing on train tracks, at power stations, bonfires etc!

Haha, I was about to say the same.

Primary school kids forced to sit and watch watch videos of kids being maimed and killed in all sorts of gruesome ways!

Saying that, I'm still not over Artax in the swamp of sadness 😭

ImBlueDab · 16/01/2023 08:45

I was (still am), a big reader. My mum was into horror books and would often give me Stephen King, James Herbert books to read when I was 12+. I also remember her giving me her old romance novels, not the Mills and Boon type, but the ones with sex scenes in it, think 'throbbing manhood' or even ones with vikings in it, where the head Viking, all masculine would 'take' the Virgin Princess.. no wonder I have a warped sense of romance and sex. My dd is 15 and I'd not even consider encouraging reading that sort of book.

BordoisAgain · 16/01/2023 08:46

Bikeybikeface · 16/01/2023 07:41

could have been worse op, she could have showed you watership down 😂

Hey kids, let's watch this cartoon about fluffy bunnies

😍
😧
😲
😫
😱
😭

knackeredcat · 16/01/2023 08:49

Blimey, so much of this TV I'm going to make a point of watching again - thanks everyone 😃I'm already rewatching Prisoner Cell Block H and about 30 episodes in

YY to the Public Information Films that popped up at all times as fillers. I definitely never owned a frisbee as I always associated it with "Jimmeeee" getting frazzled when going to retrieve his from the substation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_Safe_(public_information_film)

And of course in Northern Ireland we had our own graphic PIFs encouraging people to report crimes via the Confidential Telephone (including scenes of shooting and kneecapping), and even more graphic road safety ads which wouldn't have been out of keeping in horror films.

Speaking of which, Mum didn't seem to mind us watching old Hammer horror films. Vampires, satanic rituals, stakes through the heart, all OK. Any hint of nudity and the TV was turned over. A bit strange for children whose age was in single figures!

strumpert · 16/01/2023 08:52

Omg @knackeredcat yes. the one with the car that went over the hedge and totalled the wee boy playing football

SugarQills · 16/01/2023 08:52

When I went to stay with my grandparents I used to sit there silently when frost started and hope they didn't notice I was still up!!

Hankunamatata · 16/01/2023 08:56

SugarQills · 16/01/2023 08:52

When I went to stay with my grandparents I used to sit there silently when frost started and hope they didn't notice I was still up!!

Me too lol

CanofCant · 16/01/2023 08:59

PlaitBilledDuckyPuss · 16/01/2023 07:17

Thanks for the suggestion; unfortunately it can't be that one as it didn't air until the 90s and this was definitely pre-1985.

Show quote history

Definitely pre-1985? Hmm, I'm intrigued now. I have loads of snippets of unidentifiable TV shows in my memory and I hate it when I can't figure out what they were. Google is no help.

I agree with pp, this has made me want to rewatch all these programs again, great suggestions on here. Very nostalgic.

CanofCant · 16/01/2023 08:59

Oh God yes, Watership Down definitely left its mark.

19lottie82 · 16/01/2023 09:01

My father, a respectable university professor, let me buy a pirate copy of Pulp Fiction, when I was 12. Luckily, most of it went over my head. I rewatched it for the first time about 10 years ago and wondered what the hell he was thinking!

I remember is was pretty common common place for my Mum to let me and my friends rent 18 rated horror movies from the local video shop. She was quite strict in other ways. I guess things were just different back in the early / mid 90s!

Treetrim · 16/01/2023 09:02

That was completely normal and I would have watched similar at that age

Tigger7654 · 16/01/2023 09:03

Tbh mainstream TV hadn't really been around that long if you think about it and parents didn't always realise the effect on kids, the dangers of kids watching inappropriate TV weren't highlighted for most people until the Jamie Bulger case.

I'm only 13 years older than you but when I was very young we had a black and white TV and only 2 channels, there wasn't much choice and kids TV was quite limited and only shown in the daytime so you ended up watching more adult shows. There was no 24 hour streaming or dedicated channels to one genre 🤷

Tigger7654 · 16/01/2023 09:07

OoooohMatron · 16/01/2023 08:31

I think those shows are pretty tame TBH. I used to cry over Worzel Gummage and that was meant for kids!

Me too but the changing the head thing was terrifying!

RudsyFarmer · 16/01/2023 09:08

I remember watching Twilight Zone and Hammer House of Horror as a kid. I’d stay up late and watch it alone at primary age. I too wonder what my parents were thinking but I don’t remember any ill effects from it

if it’s bothering you now just ask her.

TerraNostra · 16/01/2023 09:08

I’m intrigued at post after post after post saying that there was no kids’ TV in those days so everyone just watched what was on.

OP was FIVE, not 10. most people are sharing memories of when they were older children who might reasonably have still been up when the adult TV started.

But Jonathan Creek etc were never on at a time when a 5 year old would still have been up unless ill or something. And by the time they finished it would be 9pm or thereabouts ant the earliest! Apart from anything else, most parents would want their child tucked up in bed so they could watch TV in peace.

Unless you were watching it on video OP?