What things have changed?

[JustForABitofFun]

AIBU to think that nowadays children's services would take us away from our parents?

When my eldest brother was a baby (in the late 1950s) my parents lived high up in a tower block in central London. So that my brother could get some fresh air, my mum would leave him in his pushchair on the pavement downstairs near the entrance to the flats. She would then go back up to her flat and just look over her balcony occasionally to check he was OK.

Can you imagine doing that now?

Has anyone got other examples?

we used to play tennis in the road, and take it in turns to be lookout, and shout "car!" if anyone say one coming

That is odd though, why didnt she just strap him in his pushchair and put him on the balcony? Or take him for a walk? I dont think that has ever been normal

Mums used to leave pram and baby outside shops often with the dog tied to the pram also!

I used to go to the village shop (alone) with a note and a pound note for 20 benson and hedges.

There was almost no vetting of packed lunches - lots of kids had a terrible, terrible diet. Jam sandwiches, a packet of heavily salted crisps fried in oil, a chocolate bar, some raisins - not an unusual lunch in the 90s. When i compare it to today, most of the children eat more fruit & veg, healthier sandwich fillings, and have a low sugar yoghurt rather than crisps or chocolate.

School dinners were no better and were mainly something with chips & tinned things like beans or hoops.

My parents were middle class professionals and even then we ate quite a lot of oven bakes - nuggets & chips etc. Far less variety of veg and salad - as a child i mainly ate peas, broccoli and carrots, my kids get a much wider selection of greens, plus they eat lots of salad - peppers, celery, carrots, cucumber, beetroot, tomatoes.

@Nimbostratus100

Sorry, I'm probably misleading. It don't think it was a balcony "as such" that you could fit one of those big prams on. Mind you, I don't know how she got that up and down the stairs. I'm assuming the flats must have had a lift.

Apparently it was normal as lots of other mums did it too.

It was a very different time back then!

My grandpa forgot me outside a shop. He had taken me for a walk in my pram and went to get the paper. Came back out and forgot me and had to be sent back by my granny. 😂😂😂

My DC has a jam sarnie everyday. That or marmite.

He does have fruit and veg with it though

I also used to go to the shop , long walk down a main road , aged about 7 , with a shopping list and money in an envelope. I used to give it to 'aunty' Joy in the shop, she'd get the items and put the change back in the envelope.

I recall that you would often see parents really reprimanding/hitting their children. Nobody thought anything of it, particularly as schools would use a cane on children.

There was almost no vetting of packed lunches -

Who is 'vetting' packed lunches?

My father in law once asked if my then-husband (now ex) and me if webever just put our baby in the cot and went out to the pub for a meal. My own father was born the same year as FIL and wouldn’t remotely consider doing such a thing or suggesting such a thing.
Apperently my ex remembers standing in his cot screaming for his mother over and over again for what felt like (and probably was) hours. They would routinely plonk him in the cot and leave him alone in the house (1960s) and I can honestly say, the man has enormous attachment issues because of this. FWIW my father in law was as lovely as humanly possible. Such a loving person. He’s passed away but I must say that I loved him to bits! I’m not from the UK and my upbringing was different but still, I think leaving a baby alone in a cot wasn’t normal back then. It was an odd choice, even in more lax times.

And I would go and buy cigarettes for my nan too ... a pack of 20 Players No 6

Oh my God! My post reads like I’m drunk texting! 😳😳😳
Sorry about that! I hope you get the gist!

We often went on holiday with a caravan attached to the car. Us kids would be IN the caravan instead of the car for the entire journey.

Ha ha. They weren't worried you'd open the door on the motorway!?

Bet that was a rare sight.... a man pushing a pram!

Me and my brother would argue over who would travel in the boot if my nan and grandad were coming with us anywhere on a day trip 😂

@IDontCareMatthew he was considered a weirdo for doing that (and changing nappies) He did both for my parent as well as me.

I remember slipping and sliding in the back seat in the leather seats.....no seatbelt requirements back then....all to the smell of my mums cig smoke

It's odd to think that when I was a kid I'd go on the back of my brother's moped with no crash helmet.

And we didn't have to wear seatbelts in cars either!

Knowing my parents they were probably hoping we would 😂

I also used to buy my mum’s cigarettes when I was 6 or 7. I used to cycle around our estate and go into friends houses and vanish for hours.

And I also came on to mention that before seatbelts we used to love sliding around on the leather seats of my dad’s car, but someone else has just said that too!

We usedto travel to school netball matches by sticking 5 of us in the back of a parents or teachers car. In the 90s! I can imagine the reaction of Ofsted now..
(We also had 40 in my class in the afternoons.)

DH was left outside a shop by his Aunt.

Only 10 years ago, busy shop in the village I lived... you could leave sleeping baby in pushchair by the checkout. (Especially the one with two floors!)

We used to go ice skating on the local dam, further away from and houses or help. No phones of course. And it was a game to see how far you could go out whilst hearing the ice beginning to crack..

And in the same dam we went swimming and paddling in summer, getting changed out our cozzies in the long grass..

Jesus why did that bottle appear on my post, we weren't drinking