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.

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

Driving about with us in the boot.

When it snowed tieing the sledge to the rear bumper and driving us up and down the road on the sledge.

They let me age 13(!!!!!), catch a bus to London on my own, spend the day in London, then catch an evening bus to Lyons to stay with friends for a few weeks!!!!

[Wonderstuff]

Don't remember any porn tbh..

[sprinklycheese]

I have seriously prudish tendencies and am sure this was the reason. It just seems very odd now....it was maybe a year or two after video players came out. What year would that be so I can work out how old I was?

[Wonderstuff]

I got a bus to london and stayed at a youth hostel with a friend when I had just turned 16, we didn't even try to do anything naughty, we were so chuffed we were allowed Not sure if I would let dd do the same..
Used to watch 15 cert films aged about 10 and 18 cert aged about 13. Our English teacher showed us Carrie at school!

[SlartyBartFast]

i got on a train to london to stay with a boy
and his parents too so no big deal i spose.. but in my dd's situation i probably would want to talk to the parents... i can't imagine it.

[gemmiegoatlegs]

my mum used to wake us up and make us get into bed with her when she wanted to watch a scary movie or Twin peaks.

we were allowed to entertain ourselves any which way as long as she got her weekend lie in. In this way we organised games that involved making parachutes and jumping down the stairs.

Saying that, i don't think my dcs have anywhere near as many imaginative games!

[monkeypinkmonkey]

My Grandparents would wake us up to watch the friday night drunken brawls at the working mens club across the road. I still giggle!

[monkeypinkmonkey]

Oh and jumping off cliffs into sea and my mum not coming to tell me and sis off but to warn that the coast gaurds were coming to tell us off.

[Rainbear]

Valium - Jeeze!
Erm I love my mum but no way would I do what she did... leaving me in an incubator for 6 weeks, bottle feeding, leaving me with my dad who left me screaming in my high chair while he went to the shops to buy formula! Leaving me at home alone from age 2. And in the car for hours! And I wouldnt let my kids watch even a quarter the amount of telly we watched.

[Poppyscock]

My family in the year 2009:

1. Smoke around the babies with no wondows or doors open

1. Wean at 6 weeks with rusks or baby rice in the bottle

1. Sit in in the front of the car with the seatbelt over themselves and the baby/toddler

1. Feed processed crap everyday with no fresh fruit or veg ever

1. As young as 4 playing out on the estate and only coming home when they want to

1. Letting a 1 year old take a puff from a ciggerete for a laugh

1. Letting family friends smoke weed in front of children

Not so much has changed.

BTW I no longer have anything to do with my family

[minouminou]

letting me and chums ride (unsecured) with the dogs in the back of estate cars/trucks/land rovers etc
it was great - a once-in-a-while treat
can you IMAGINE doing that now?

[twentypence]

A findus crispy pancake on a plate consituted an evening meal.

Weetbix with butter on (but no sugar - I was deprived obviously).

Putting concrete below swings so as not to ruin the grass was done by my Grandad.

Being allowed to hang out at dad's work when there was some childcare emergency.

Being allowed to play out when there was a dirty great big pond near us.

Being taught to swim by being thrown in.

[thumbwitch]

happywomble - would you not let your DC drink unpasteurised milk straight from the cow? If it was a cow belonging to someone I knew, I would! Excellent stuff, unpasteurised fresh milk, much better than the homogenised stuff in supermarkets.

I remember being let out all day as well, just having to tell mum which friend's house I was going to but quite often we would move on; so long as we were back for tea.

walking to school - again, so many more people did it then so it wasn't really a problem.

I think, might be wrong, that it wasn't so bad not having seat belts back in the 70s because most cars didn't really go as fast as they did 10 years later, and certainly not the high-performance beasts there are now! I know our Anglia estate had a top speed of about 55mph - we did the bedding down in the back of the estate for night journeys too!
My DH and his brother went lots of places riding in the open back of a "ute" (Australia)

[ninedragons]

My parents were a bit OTT the other way. I am hoping to be a bit more laissez-faire than they were. I am confident that my DD will not turn into a dribbling idiot if she ever watches television or listens to music that is not classical. She will also probably have a McDonalds before she is sixteen, unlike me.

[EachPeachPearMum]

Had 4 children...

I am surprised because my parents didn't do most of these things. We only got a car in the 80s, but we always had seatbelts on, and the littlies had proper car seats too. My father was never allowed to smoke near us either.

Meals were sometimes odd, but we always had fruit and veg- more than we wanted tbh.

I did have my own door key from age 7, and was frequently left in charge of all siblings after school from age 9 or so, including making the dinner. I would never do this to my dc.

We were probably weaned early, as was the norm.

[UndertheBoredwalk]

Same as Peach, I was born in '81 and mine didn't do half of this stuff. Our first car had seatbelts so we were always strapped in, and never allowed to sit in the front. Except when driving on the beach, when we were allowed to steer the car
Had tons of fruit and veg forced into us.
We were left outside pubs with pop and crisps but only during the day and there was always a hoard of other kids there to play with.
They did smoke around us, everyone seemed to then, and my grandad was always giving us rum to laugh at our faces when we tasted it
Dipping dummies in honey seemed to be a regular thing aswell
Being kicked out first thing and not expected back till teatime was normal though, with no idea at all where we were. Sometimes we'd come back for something to eat or a drink and they'd gone out! and we'd have to go to someone else's house. lol

[Shoshe]

DS didn't have a car seat till he was 2 in 1980, and that was because we went around a corner and the door opened and DS almost fell out, luckily my Mom sat in the front passenger seat saw and grabbed him by the leg!

DF went out and bought one, a HUGE fake leather thing that had to be permanently fitted.

You had to cover it up on hot days or it would get scorching and burn DS's legs when put in!

I wouldn't let DS go off all day tho, I Always needed to know where he was, remember leaving him with 18 year old brother when he was 4, when at Uni and coming home and brother had gone out, no idea where Ds was, got hold of brother, who said Ds was at a friends, BUT DIDNT KNOW WHICH FRIEND!!!!!

Did eventually find him the other end of the estate.

God did I make DB suffer for that!

I also remember being yelled at by evilEx MIL for letting DS go off and spend weeks at a time with same DB (putting him on a coach in Dorset and DB meeting him at Earls court)

Th reason EMIL yelled?

DB is gay and I was sending him to DB and his partner!

DS was about 9 by then.

I dread to think what she thought would happen to him!

(They only had him cos they loved to go to Alton Towers and reckoned they couldn't go without a child )

[Frasersmum123]

We lived in a small village with a river that runs through it, we were allowed to play there from a young age, swimming around all day, jumping off the bridge into the water etc. It was near a large lue factory and one summer it had to be cordened off due to contamination.

[Frasersmum123]

Glue not Lue

[cory]

Mine did pretty well the kind of things I do myself. The only major differences are my having to allow for dd's disability, and to some extent for the cultural differences of living in another country. E.g. I can't let ds go to the park with his mates because he hasn't got any mates who are allowed out without their parents. (if we lived in Sweden most 8yos would be allowed).

So more about other circumstances than thinking my parents were wrong. I think they struck a healthy balance.

But obviously, I don't want to come across as freakishly neglectful in this country.

[MayorNaze]

we were allowed to play out in the woods all day if we liked but best was going to france on holiday with friends age 10 and being allowed to go off exploring a totally strange beach and surroundings ALL DAY - there were 6 of us aged 10 (2 of us) 8 (2 of us) 7 & 5 respectively!

we actually got flashed at by a dirty old man but thought it was hilarious

the first part might've happened in an enid blyton book but not sure about the 2nd

[sprinklycheese]

Twentypence - "Being taught to swim by being thrown in" - I had that too. Dumb idea as it made me hate swimming for a long time. My dad thought it hilarious to pick me up and chuck me across the pool even though I absolutely hated it and screamed my head off.

[MerlinsBeard]

i was going to contribute to the thread but i can see its light hearted so will nod sagely at the being bundled in the boot of teh car thing and wander off thread

[MouseMate]

My DH has a small scar on his head from when MIL dropped her cigarette whilst breastfeeding him!!

[DrNortherner]

My Dad used to smoke on buses, in the cinema, and in the bathroom while I was in the bath!

I had rusk in my bottles as a baby, they made the hole bigger, they even gabe me a drop of whisky when teething!

Mum picked me up from school and always brought sweets and we always had crisps and chocolate at 7pm every night infront of the TV.