Share the everyday childhood memories that make you smile - £300 voucher to win NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

When you think back to your childhood, do you have nostalgic memories of everyday life with your parents that give you a lovely warm glow? Cadbury’s Buttons have asked us to find out about the memories of everyday childhood experiences – the shared moments that put a smile on your face years later.

So, what fond family memories always make you smile? Is it getting a piggy back after a long day, or collecting conkers with your Dad? Maybe it’s learning to bake or having a picnic with your Mum? Perhaps it’s all sitting down to a proper roast dinner on a Sunday? Whatever your childhood memories are, please do share them below.

All MNers who post on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

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Thanks, and good luck!

MNHQ

I grew up on a Scottish island and begged and begged for either a pony or a puppy. My parents weren't over keen on either idea due to the 'responsibility! so I used my initiative and used what I had to hand and trained one of the pet lambs (Lamby) to walk on a collar and lead. We went everywhere, jam sandwiches in pocket we'd toddle off to the beach or the village shop for sweeties. Even taught him to jump we'll sort of. Don't remember clearly what happened to Lamby but I do remember having a lot of fun. And sheep are partial to the odd jam sandwich.

Sleeping top and tail with my brother in a single bed at Grandma's house with hot Ribena - not allowed at home!

Rach I love that!! How sweet!!

I remember Christmas as a child and my nan would come to stay and she'd have my bedroom. I'd go on a zedbed in my sisters room. They were prone to collapsing at one end so lots of hilarity ensued with me tipped on the floor and my dad coming upstairs to tell us to be quiet. Then we'd start giggling again as soon as he went back down.

I remember once at dinner finding a mushroom in my spag bol (I hated mushrooms as a child) and trying to pass it to my sister and it fell off the fork into a glass of water. There was a stunned silence and then all of us started laughing at this lone mushroom just floating in the glass.

I must have only been about 2 or 3 but I remember my mum chatting away to the butcher for what seemed like forever while I sat concertinaed in my now collapsed pushchair. Once she realised she was very sorry and we still laugh about it now. On the way home I sat in the back eating the newly purchased raw sausages. I can't believe I wasn't ill after that.
I wonder why I remember that shopping trip so clearly as I don't remember any others. Having said that, it was quite eventful I suppose!

We didn't have much money growing up so my Mum used to improvise and gave us chips wrapped up in newspaper to make us think we'd been to the chip shop and we'd have a soup and pudding night which made us feel like we'd had a real desert.

Walking the dog in the evenings with my dad, we would chat about all sorts of things...he seemed to know everything about everything

Making radio shows with my brother & recording them onto cassette, thinking we were djs. We thought we were great at the time, but found one of the tapes a while back & listened to it on an old tape player we still had knocking around. How embarrassing!! And I now realise that I sounded a bit like my brother back then, which is probably our only similarity, cos we look entirely different!

Also, watching Yogi's First Christmas with the family every Christmas was always fab. The other day I mentioned a place called Throckmorton to my Dad (cos they do driving experiences there), & I could tell he was wondering why he knew the name...so I reminded him that there was a character called Mrs Throckmorton in Yogi's First Christmas, which made us all smile!! It's weird what we reminisce about sometimes!!

Skipping with a huge rope with my friends so you needed 2 people to hold the rope so 1 person could skip and when one person had to go in for dinner etc having to tie the rope to a lamp post.

Having freedom mum shouting from the do if step too come in and get washed up for meal.
Perfect childhood amazing memories v lucky .

My dad reading story books to me - he often worked away so it was special to have him at home.

Sunday roast lunch - always yummy.

Caravan holidays - loads of fun even though done on a shoe string.

Going to visit Grandad and Nanna on the weekend, and Grandad always had a packet of Chocolate Buttons for me in his cardigan pocket. Trouble was, he'd fall asleep after dinner, and they'd all be melted by the time that I'd get them, so Nanna would have another pack for me straight from the fridge! :)

On Fridays, my dad finished early from work - he must have been home at 4 I think. He'd walk down the garden and say 'come and see what I've got in the van' and it could be anything. Geese, chickens, stuff that he'd pulled out of a skip, or he'd been to the cash n' carry. Sometimes it was just a bar of chocolate.

Makes me smile still.

I remember my mum making me a chocolate hedgehog cake for my birthday one year - I think it was my fifth birthday.

Obviously, I used to love "helping" with all baking projects - which largely consisted of licking the spoon and scrapping the mixing bowl out.

On this occasion I also decided to "help" my mum to decorate the cake. She was using chocolate buttons for the hedgehog's spines. My mum must be the calmest, most patient person in the world as I don't remember her getting even slightly stressed as I "helped" place the choc buttons on the cake... It went from chocolatey masterpiece to muddy mess - but it still tasted yummy.

I used to love the picnics my Mum & Dad used to take my brother and I on, whatever the wrather or time of year. We would go for a ride out in the car somewhere nice and park up with the camping stove and have bacon butties and a cup of tea. We used to think it was wonderful.

Walking to the shops together but then looking to see if the window was open in my nanny and grandads flat, and ending up there while parents and sisters shopped if it was. They always had the window open if they were in. I loved it there, lots of hugs and smiles and treats!

Coming home from school in the winter, wet and cold. My mum would always have a warm towel ready to wrap around us. I still love a warm towel now.

Cornflakes with cold, full fat milk and loads of sugar, watching sm:tv and reading Bunty - childhood Saturday mornings!

Piling into our parent's bed at the weekend to watch Saturday morning tv.

I remember one winter we went to our local zoo after it had snowed. The roads were empty, and so was the zoo! We practically had the whole zoo to ourselves and watched the animals playing in the white fluffy snow. And my mum still packed a lunch that we had to eat outside! :)

I used to go to girl guides and one day we were asked to bring in an apron for cooking the following week. My mum made me one from old curtains at home, we did it together and I was so amazed at how easy it was to transform something to be useful again. From then on, we always made something from anything and I do the same now with my kids.

I grew up in London and I have memories of us all going on a day trip to the different museums - the Science Museum, Natural History, V&A and Museum of London. We'd spend the whole day there looking around (you had to pay to get in back then so you'd want to get your money's worth), have a packed lunch and go home on a proper old-fashioned Routemaster (with a conductor and no buggy spaces!).

Has to be our holidays....the trip there was always full of excitement..car games and travel sweets! Lovely memories.

I loved it when I stayed over at my grandparents' house - sometimes I would sleep in the small room at the back and wake up to the sound of wood pigeons outside, other times I would sleep in the bigger room with a double bed all to myself. I would love getting up and going into Grandma and Grandpa's bed in the morning and having a cup of tea from the teasmaid!

They had a very long garden with lots of fruit and veg which I would 'help' with. I would pretend to be a horse in the shed with the stable door and Grandpa would push me back to the house in his wheelbarrow.

Happy Days!!

Every Sunday without fail we used to go to our grandparents for tea - as did all my cousins. We would spend the afternoon playing outside (they had a massive garden bordering a field) then go indoors for a proper tea - sandwiches, toasted teacakes, home-made cake, and tea from the pot, tea-leaves and all!

In the winter the fire would be roaring, and we'd sit down afterwards to watch Black Beauty, Treasure Island, All Creatures Great and Small, or whatever Sunday afternoon drama was on.

In the summer, after the harvest, we would play in the straw in the field, make dens, climb bales....and as a special treat have a picnic. Happy Days!

On a Sunday dad would be baking the dinner and we would watch the Waltons and little house on the prairie and then I'd help dad dish up dinner (pinching slices of meat) and then we would watch the smurfs and worzel gummidge

I can remember doing cartwheels on the beach with my dad.
I saw a girl doing some the other day - energy and joy. It made me smile.