Things your parents did that you wouldnt dream of?

[Frasersmum123]

Is there anything that your parents did when you were younger that you wouldnt do?

Our used to leave us in the car while they went shopping, for what seemed like hours, but in reality was probably about half an hour.

There was 4 of us and we all used to squeeze into the back of my dads car, which had three seats.

This started off as a contrast of parenting habits across generations and has turned into something really quite sad and depressing.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people give their children totally shit childhoods, and fuck up their lives for them.

It's a wonder half of of us are alive/sane really. No wonder therapists do such a roaring trade.

smoking pipe at the breakfast table

...and you should have seen what Dad got up to

My MIL says her mother used to walk her to the shops in her pram, go into the butchers and come out with some raw sausages. She would then give my MIL a raw sausage to suck on to keep her happy while she did the shopping.

I became an expert at fag rolling aged 7 for my grandad who had arthritis. I'm still better than anyone I know today aged 33. (and I haven't smoked for 5 years at least)

My mum used to strap me in my bouncing chair to give me a bottle so that she had one hand free to smoke her cigarette with!

Dad's best friend used to let us ride on the back of his motorbike around the estate, no helmets or anything from about the age of 5!

Mum and dad and all their friends used to smoke heavily, cannabis as well as cigarettes! We have many photos of me sitting on dad's knee while he was smoking a joint

Mum's best friend used to drive us around everywhere with loads of kids piled in the back of the car. She was half blind, illiterate and had no driving license!

Oh this is such a funny thread. My mother used to leave my brother in his cot as a baby whilst she went shopping for a couple of hours as she knew his nap times!! Another one was when my dad was in the army there was no security on the windows. My mum was so concerned she tied together baby harness and harnessed us to the bed at night so we would not climb to the window !!! Another one is the bamboo canes which they used to smack us with. My kids look at me with horror when we go round and I show them the canes and what they were for. They now prop up the pot plants!!!! We were not allowed to talk at the dinner table and if you did dad would smack the spoon on the table edge hard. If you spoke again he would hit you.My sister has that table and we laugh at the battered edges. My mum once did this to me and the spoon snapped down the middle. The poor spoon had had it for all those years and four children. I laughed at her and she got the old fashioned plastic plates with the thumb hole and smacked me with it. So many things. Four in the boot of the volvo. Left in the car and it started rolling towards the river (luckily older bro watched mum drive and applied handbrake !!) I do love my parents very much though and they taught us hard work and morals and I believe that is what makes me today. I try explaining this to mine and I sigh in disbelief at teenagers running amock today. Live as an eighties child and see !!!

Oh yes. and you could go out after school and mum would say come home when it gets dark. We loved it as in the summer dark was 10.30pm !!!!!

When I had a wobbly tooth my dad used to tie some string around it and then tie the other end to the door knob. He would then slam the door shut in a vain attempt to pull the tooth out. I can't remember it ever working Although I am a bit that I let him do it!

My dad (again) used to give us whisky hot toddys if we had a cold. Never when my mum was in though!

We used to fit 4 adults and 4 children plus beach paraphanalia and a picnic into a mini clubman estate.

I can remember sleging down our very steep hill where we lived. The trouble was the junction at the bottom was onto a rather busy road...

We were allowed to play outside until we heard the Eastenders theme tune - it didn't matter which part of the (huge) estate we were playing on, we'd always hear the tune blaring out of someone's house and knew it was time to rush home!

My parents used to work markets and fairs when we where little and my sister and I always went along. I remember being given a few quid at the start of the day and sent on my way to roam around until home time. About 8 hours. From the age of about 6 onwards. Its a wonder I wasn't kidnapped by raggle-taggle gypsies or worse. I had a great time....

Hours and hours of telly
Smacking/hitting bums with sticks
Obsession with church to a work-a-holic degree
Parenting in a cold manner
Having so many children that you can't give an individual attention.
Being racist, sexist and homophobic
Leaving a 9 year old to walk through a rough town on her own.

I'm very happy to be a reflective parent and to parent in a much much more constructive way. I've gone out of my way to give my kids a better happier childhood.

my dad had a transit van that had a slide back door (this was the 70's)

i used to sit on his lap,pretending to drive the van with no seat belt on, with the door open going about 50MPH - happy days

there is also some old cine film off us all having a day out at thr river, with car revered up to within 10 feet of river, picnic out, everyone laughing and having a great time (including me) - it was only when i noticed something around my little 2 year old waist that my mum told me it was the rope they used to tie me to the bumper so I didn't wander off and fall in the river!

My DM insists that I was weaned aged 3 days because it was the only way to stop me crying. I think this means baby rice added to the bottle - on medical advice as per 40 years ago and overseas.
Also sent me off to boarding school aged 8, full on "see you at Christmas" job, and the shocking thing is that under the circumstances I don't see what else they could have done.
Very bad behaviour was punished by whacking with a Hot Wheels track, it didn't do any real damage, but it did sting quite a lot.

My DH's mum used to put him outside on his tricycle on the driveway, and tie his reins to a rope and attach it to the garage door so he could cycle off, then go indoors! He says he remembers riding round and round in circles knocking on the front door and shouting to be let in!

Loads of those "old-fashioned things" that were done way back when, my DH used to do to his two DCs from his first marriage...

baby rice in their bottle...
letting them sleep on their front...
making the teat bigger with a pin in order to suck down the rusky milk...

Ah, how hard I worked to gently explained that things are different now...

And one of those said DCs, (now 19 and hotelling living in our house) had the bloody cheek to criticise me for letting me DCs put a sprinkling of sugar on their Weetabix...

Yes, the smoking everywhere and being left out at school because my clothes always smelled of smoke.

We were to be seen and not heard - now whilst sometimes I wish I didn't have a permanent noise machine for a daughter, I love the things she sayhs and how she is and listen to what she thinks, wants and needs. I hope so anyway. I remember my grandmother saying that we had been conditioned to be afraid to ask questions, and it would be better if we spoke more - certainly the opposite of my DD. And confusing to overhear at the time.

My sister (now my best friend) was both younger than me and bigger than me and she used to hit and hurt me - but that was ok because she was younger.

Very very dull food - even on a budget - gave DSis and I lasting food issues (not done deliberately I am sure). We ate with our parents once a week - Sunday lunch - no teas, breakfasts the rest of the week. They ate very differently yo us.

Smacking. I remember being thrown against the wall. Good job children bounce.