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

Lots of lovely family holidays in the IOW. Blackgang Chine in particular and Sandown. Caravan hols and going off on our bikes.

I used to love sitting on the window sill in our little bay window waiting for hours for my grandparents to arrive when they were coming to visit (they lived a couple of hours away) and being sooooooo excited hoping the next car to appear would be theirs. And eventually they would appear with my grandma waving crazily out of the window (she was always young at heart and her excitement was clearly on a par with mine and my brother's!) and we would wave back and jump up and down. You can't bottle that feeling of happiness

Nowadays my children do exactly the same waiting for their grandparents to appear

One of my favourite memories is caravan holidays where we'd have cold roast chicken with tinned potatoes and mayonnaise. Still love to eat that now.

Also doing craft things with my sister and pretending we were doing it live on to as a demonstration.

My absolute favourite though was one night when we had a big storm and a power cut. My whole family sat together in candle light reading stories. My mum says I asked the next day if we could have a power cut every week!!

Going to a wonderful picnic spot near my own home town in Derbyshire.

We always went there in the summer and on a hot day my cousin and I would splash about in the river, climb a massive tree and pretend it was a car/boat/house.

Then we all played cricket or rounders or frisbee, had a picnic and got an ice cream. I can even remember what it smelled like there, 30 years on.
My grandparents used to come too and I remember grandad with a knotted hanky on his head showing us his football tricks.
It's such a vivid memory, I can even remember the cool box we used to take and the patterned deck chairs!

baking fairy cakes with my mum in our old house.

My mum used to hand make all our costumes (and some of our uniform!). She's really creative and very talented, a good sewer, knitter, everything like that, so our costumes were always brilliant. I was always delighted to be wearing whatever it was. But my DM's a foreigner, and she almost always misunderstood or got something wrong. I look at the photos now, and I'm usually standing out like a sore thumb. A happy and proud sore thumb!

Days out where we'd all get an ice cream or a bag of hot doughnuts and my dad would always lick my ice cream under the pretence of stopping it dripping. Always made me laugh for some reason.

Sunday mornings were always spent with Dad, while Mum had a lie in. He had loads of energy and patience, and secretly taught me to ride my bike so I could surprise Mum (looking back she probably knew I was learning, but put on a good show off being amazed).

Lying on my ponys back with my face in his mane and arms dangling either side on a hot sunny day as he dandered across a field :) I ca smell it and feel it as I type :)

My favourite memory as a little girl was being allowed to stay up on a Friday night and wait for my dad to come home from work and me and him sharing his roast dinner that my mum had put in the oven for him.

Playing board games as a family. Playing games with my father. My mother making (in hindsight incredible) toys and dresses for our birthdays.

Playing KA in the car. If you see a KA you Shout KA and punch the next person in the arm.
When my mum fell off the banana boat on holiday.

Playing with toys on a blanket in the garden in summer.

Going to Disneyland, Florida with my mum & dad - I was a pretty big kid (age 16) but we all just felt (and acted!) like little excited children and got into the spirit of the whole thing! They both went on all the rides with me and my dad (who can be a grump!) was just so happy & relaxed it all made for a brilliant, memorable family holiday!

Also, going to Pizza Hut with mum, football matches with dad, and play fighting with my brothers!

Going to traction engine rallies/model railway exhibitions/restored railways. I'm not sure I appreciated them at the time but they were defying of my childhood and the memories make me smile.

Having fish and chips in the car after ballet lessons!

Walking. On the beach with my mum or inland along the wheat fields. day long bike rides along the coast or inland thru the villages ,visiting the castles .

I remember sitting on the floor in front of my mum while watching MASH, she would play with my hair and I loved it!

Also helping my gran bake - she would let me cut the cherries but only after she'd counted them to make sure I didn't eat any. I always cut off a tiny bit to eat so she wouldn't notice and I felt so happy with that tiny bit! I now realise that she knew the whole time. I was also amazed when that same gran would magic a cone from a piece of greaseproof paper to hold sugar for me to eat with a stick of rhubarb for my walk home! Loved going round there :)

When I was a young girl I use to go on a big family and friend holiday to Majorca for two weeks every year, we literally filled up half a plane. My dad and his bestfriends who he would play pool with always planned our holiday trips and they were the best, everyone brought their families and for those two weeks it was bliss. We went to the same place every year but that didn't matter, it was the company which made the holiday. When it gets really hot it always reminds me of being on holiday when I was a little girl. Makes me smile

Running around outside on a summers evening with all the neighbourhood kids

Dad played a lot of cricket in the summer. All us kids were left to roam together. We invented games, picked flowers, hunted for lost tennis balls and made dens. We would all share our pack up snacks and then try to convince whichever mum it was doing the tea's that we needed the leftover cakes! Happy sunny carefree days!

spending all my school holidays at my grandparents down south, now im older my grandma and i often reminisce about the fun we had

Sleepovers with my best friend when we'd sleep top-to-tail in her bed or mine.

Climbing trees, making tents or playing in the mud in the garden with my little brother. Running (naked) through the sprinkler in the summer.

When I was growing up, the world seemed like a safer place, and we used to go out and play at the nearby park standing up on the tyre swings or exploring in the woods behind the house. We were out all day. We were looked after by my Gran and who had a great garden and even built us a proper little Wendy house.

My Mum died recently and I found all my letters to her from school. We lived abroad and I wrote to her ( only means of communication) regularly. Childhood was a world of plays, games and worrying about exams.

But, the best memory, enshrined in a letter, was my granny taking me to the Panto and for eclairs first. We chatted to the lady at the next table who turned out to be Molly Sugden who we saw in Dick Whittington an hour later as Panto dame.