What is one thing you didn't have as a kid, that you would like for your child.

[Beeblebear]

My husbands answer to this would be the name Luke Skywalker. Luckily I uaed my labour veto for this one.

Praise and recognition of real achievement and effort - not a constant process of the bar being set higher and higher each time they jump.

"you must get an A in this test"

"what, no A+??"

I don't think there's anything I didn't have, nothing important.

um... we were poor, I would like it if my son didn't feel like he couldn't ask to contribute to the end of term class present (if kids still do that?) - I don't want him to feel like he can't ask for money for a school trip, or indeed that he can actually go on the school trips.

that's about it. I had a happy childhood but we were poor.

One of those enormous Barbie Houses.

Rollerblades, all my friends had them and I wasn't allowed. I asked every Christmas and birthday for years.

Siblings
Two parents
To not feel guilty or responsible for their parent
To see some of the world
To get the actual proper brand of toy/clothes/whatever, not the cheap version

Another one for mr frosty ( how good was their advertising !?)

my childhood was good but parents had very little money so I would like my dc to have opportunities to do after school activities and a proper holiday. they mattered at the time but I doubt I am a worse person for missing out.

A dad. A pony. The feeling that she can do anything if she puts her mind to it.

oh yeah, worst part of family life for me was having a procession of other families to try and gel with when parents got with other parents etc. I think even if me and DH divorce, I wil NEVER try to jam two families together.

I had a Mr Frosty and he was crap. I waited and begged and pleaded and got one for my birthday. Oh the let down! Oh the power of advertising :o

I did long for Playdough though and wasn't allowed it because it was too messy. Also those playmobile people. So DD will have those :o She will also be allowed to jump in puddles and paddle whenever she wants and if she gets cold / wet / needs a change of clothes I'm sure she'll survive

The knowledge that a girl can do anything she wants, and that they don't have to choose between a family and a career (for my girls, obv).

We were poor, so I missed out on lots of material things that my DC have, but that is the thing I wish I'd had, that I didn't. My parents believed strongly in gender roles. To them, it was wrong for a woman to want to work.

Ask DH the same question, and I think he'd say to feel loved and protected.

A brother or a Sister
Not everything they want but moderation so that they understand the value of things and appreciate what they do have more.

A red and yellow car that you push with your feet. I thought they were the bees knees!

I had a mr frosty and it was pretty rubbish.

As like my parents my husband and I have separated (much to my distress - divorced parents are the last thing I would ever have wanted for my children) I will say an amicable divorce. So far so good.

a fridge full of food.

A hug, kiss, support, no conditions and my time.

Financial stability. My parents ricocheted from being really very well off to being bankrupt several times throughout my childhood and it was really bloody hard - they were an absolute nightmare at hanging onto money when they had it so threw huge parties and took ridiculous holidays and then the business would go downhill and we'd suddenly have no electricity and seeing the house being repossessed. My husband thinks I'm a bit of a tyrant when it comes to money (I'm honestly not, he's just a spendthrift) but there is no way on god's earth that I will ever let my daughter worry about if there's going to be enough money to buy food for the week.

My parents were always very strict with times i had to be home at. I also had little confidence. In the end i would pretend i was busy instead of going out with friends because i was too embarrassed about going home so early.

With hindsight i actually think they got it right. I just hung around with kids whose parents let them stay out stupidly late (11pm when 13 andfree to roam the city - no boundaries at all)

So actually i dont know whether id do anything different there! Maybe force dd and friends to all stay over so ican keep an eye on them!

Chub. My DH and his ex get on better now then they've ever done, she's my best friend, and her and her DH are appointed guardians for mine and Dh's dd. did you follow that?

My stepson is well balanced, has never been pulled from pillar to post and at nearly 15 is so laid back with life it's daft aside from hormonal teenage strops it can be done and when it works it really is awesome. :) he was 4 when they split.

That's good to hear ratbag. And yes I did follow that! Keep all the children together in event of calamity, very sensible.

For DS: A Chopper bike.
For DD: A Tressy doll.

A mother who wasn't distracted by a years-long affair with a physically and emotional abusive cunt.

Shouldn't be too difficult to achieve.

Long hair! My mother forced me to have my curly hair cut short because she couldn't be arsed to help me do anything with it until I finally rebelled at 14. I constantly got mistaken for a boy. DC1's hair is down to her bum and when left with Grandma it looks like a birds nest!

Levi jeans and DM boots.

A house within walking distance of something and not in the middle of nowhere - thankfully we're in a well served village and regularly have the neighbours' children come knocking.

Oh, and a motorbike! DH is a biker, as is his family so hoping it won't be too much of a problem. I was desperate for a 50cc after my 16th so I could get around, but not allowed.

When I was about 7 I begged and begged for a Mr Frosty and got one for Christmas. I was very allergic to the orange fruit sauce and spent Christmas day with a face like a duvet.

To not have to be so conscious of money as I was. Sure, I want then to be aware of the value of things, but I don't want them to always feel that there is never enough money for a treat. My DDad was made redundant a couple of times when I was in my early teens and at one point moved to live with my grandparents to get a job, and we only saw him every month or so. It left me too aware of money, I think, and the need to not waste it. We were never desperately poor but it was hard going not to lose our home back then. It has left me with a legacy of automatically saying no when DC ask me for something, without even stoping to really consider it, and I have to make myself stop - sometimes, at least! The dad thing for me is that a couple of weeks ago DD was excitedly telling me about something, then she visibly stopped and reassured me that she knew she couldn't have it because it was a lot of money .

NobodyPutsTomArcherInTheCorner are you my big sister?