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.

[dancingonmice]

Is that why my brother and I were in the park evey saturday morning?

[HeadFairy]

Oh I'm always taking ds to people's houses to crash on a bed somewhere. Luckily he's sleep on a washing line so it's never a problem. He's been to weddings and crashed in his pushchair or even stayed up to midnight a couple of times. He never gets cranky if he's tired, he's such a dream child

[wibblewobbly]

Putting my head under a cold tap to stop me from having a tantrum

I remember it like tomorrow and it still traumatises me to think about it.

I must add though that my mum is the best around, and is ab fab with my DS.

[supergluebum]

Headfairy [phew not just me emoticon]

[HeadFairy]

Nah! Me too. Best bit of advice I ever got was to get dcs to fit around your life, we dragged him everywhere and he's brilliant. My sister GF'd her dds and they can't sleep unless they're in their bed, with the light off and it's totally silent

[wastingmyeducation]

Smoked constantly.

I used to go off and play by myself from about 6 years old. In the woods. In Canada.

Drank tea from being small. And lots of it!

[SlartyBartFast]

walking home from school me and a friend quite young, perhaps 10, through fields in the summer and along the road in winter.

sitting in car while parents in pub.
sleeping in back of car while parents in pub in the evening.

now can we answer - do we mollycoddle our children too much
i think we must do

[supergluebum]

Also getting them up in the night and dragging them home I like to think is a form of "wake to sleep" training we always get a lie in the next day!
DS came with us to a bonfire party aged 10 weeks, slept in the corner of friends dining room through the whole fracas of fireworks, people talking and general party atmosphere!

Anyway...back to the thread...sorry people!

[HeadFairy]

We took ds to a wedding at 6 weeks and he slept in his pushchair throughout the disco while mummy got giddy on her first glass of wine in weeks and danced about like a loon. He didn't wake once (apart from usual feeds)

[claireybeemine]

Headfairy dd was like that, it was great. Then along came ds...

Needless to say I no longer think anything is down to parenting

[grendel]

Apparently when I was very young I was given opium to get me to sleep (on the doctor's advice). My mum says that it didn't work so they had to keep increasing the dose. Hmmm... could explain a lot.

And yes, I too have magical memories of setting off for Spain in sleeping bags stretched out in the back of our estate car. It's the best feeling, waking up all comfy and watching the road whizzing away behind you.

And my baby sister's carrycot just wedged on the backseat of the car.

Walking to school on my own from age 5. Popping up to the shops up the road from not much older to by bread and stuff for my mum.

Aaah. Happy days!

[HeadFairy]

Argh, don't say that. Not expecting, but planning dc #2. Was hoping second would be as easy going as the first!

[supergluebum]

Brilliant!
SlartyBartFast, I think we do! I am lucky my DH is in the forces so we live on base and have this idyllic existence, children do go out to play in the street, I know my neighbours etc etc. We could move and live in our own home, but on that basis alone I prefer to live on base because my children will have the same childhood that I had. Apart from being left alone in car!!

[supergluebum]

My second is as easy as my first, so it is down to a combo of child/parenting. They are all different!
The only issue we have now with carting 2 about is the logistics of it all. If there are other small children about DS (age 3) will initiate an upstairs party. New years eve this year was interesting. Two 3 year olds, a 14 month old and my 8 month (at the time) DD. Full on party going on upstairs with our DD oblivious and asleep through the rampage. Rough with the smooth. It's not every weekend just once in a while!

[Wonderstuff]

All mine have been said, no seat belts, although tbf when they appeared mum did get them put into her nissan sunny before she had to (big worrier my mum)
Smacking, not often, but I was a bit scared of my dad and also thought it was ok to slap my little bro when he was naughty when I was in charge (not sure when but I must have been quite young)
Mum feels guilty to this day for dosing me up on phenegan, she used to take it too to get some sleep! Dont think it did me any harm.
Weaning at 12 weeks

[weebump]

The classic in our family was being sent to the shops (aged 6 or so onwards) to buy my mum's fags. My sister got knocked down on her way back from one trip (in fairness, it was the driver's fault - he broke a red light.)

I also remember my favourite thing to pass the time waiting in my dad's office was to play with the plug sockets on the floor.

But the main thing they did and I wouldn't, is to have 5 kids in the space of 7 years!

Other than that they were great. My mum is brilliant and I follow lots of her advice for my dd.

[HecateQueenOfGhosts]

buying chocolate instead of loo roll and making my kids wipe their little arses on NEWSPAPER

(I'm not 35 and I have a panic attack if I drop below 30 rolls in the cupboard!!)

[cheesesarnie]

too many things to list-but i had a very happy if odd childhood

[MayorNaze]

def travvling in the boot of the car. my sister at the age of 6 wks travelled to france in a carry cot balanced on the luggage in the boot!

playing down the park with my friend and our sisters - we were 8 and 9, they were aged 2!

ds is now 9 and dd2 is 2 - i wouldn't allow that for all the tea in china!

[kbaby]

Most of the things have already been said but my gf used to let me and my brother sit in the estate boot.

My nan used to let us have picnics on the shed roof which involved climbing through her living room window to the shed roof which was 15 feet off the ground(we were 7)

She used to let me eat raw sausages from the fridge oh and oxo cubes.

The one thing I miss and I know my children will miss out on is the fact that I was allowed to play in fields/streams/build rafts/dens etc all summer hols and only return for tea time. How nice it would be to be that free again with no mobile phones.

[sprinklycheese]

Leaving us in the pub car for ages with a bottle of coke each and a pack of crisps.

Letting us travel in the back of the van that their business owned - we would jump around on a mattress in there....forget car seats!

Having the van delivery men babysit us.

And let us watch soft porn e.g. Confessions of a Window Cleaner when we were far too young (makes me and ) What were they thinking of? I know they were swinging 70s types but that's just not right.

[Botbot]

Fed us 1970s processed crap, including chips everyday (although they were made out of real potatoes).

[willowthewispa]

All the car things - sitting us in the boot or footwells (and having us duck down if we saw a police car!), duvets and sleeping bags on the back seat for long journeys abroad. And this wasn't long ago, early 90s

[Heylittlelady]

Aged 9 & 11, on holiday abroad, we were allowed to go to the local beach on our own if we woke early so parents could have a lie in.

Beach was a good 5 mins walk away across a busy road and down a dirt track too.

What's more there were two beaches to choose from so I devised a "code" involving an arrangement of sandals to show them which beach we were at (not sure I always correctly remembered the code either)

[sprinklycheese]

OK so am I the only one who was fed a TV diet of softish porn. Oh god were my parents really weird if that wasn't normal...?