Things our parents did to us... - Page 3

[nstewart]

Originally Posted by amberskyfire 

My parents would also send me all alone on a plane across the country to visit my grandparents during the summer starting when I was about 7. The airlines still let you do this, but not with kids that young anymore. I had to wear a huge plastic tag around my neck saying I was alone so that the flight attendants could keep an eye on me.

Yup, I did this as a kid too!  My first trip solo was at 8.  I "took care of" my little sis, who was 5.  Honestly though, I feel like this was pretty safe.  My parents saw us to the gate, and the flight attendent walked us onto the plane, and she then walked us off the plane and stayed with us until my Gramma took us over.

When I was staying at my grandparents' house during the summers, I ran completely free. Those are the most amazing and wonderful memories for me now, but I would TOTALLY never let my kids do it! My grandparents' house was backed up to acres upon acres of forest and I would just stay there all day every day and I only came back to the house for meals.

Once we survived our flight, then it was time to run free at my great aunt's farm (where my Gramma also stayed).  The worst thing that ever happend was my sister falling through a rotten barn floor where my friends and I told her not to walk.  Oh, and that same friend's farm was also where we got to shoot at a chicken with a .22 that got loose and kept escaping.  The idea was that it would be supper and the kids each got to take a shot.  Honestly, (other than the experience with the .22, which I was a bit young for at 8 or9) I would let my kid run free like this in a rural area well known to me.  It was amazing and some of my best memories are there.

My grandmother also worked the art show at the county fair during summers and she would take me along with her every day. I had free run of the grounds. Me. A Seven year-old child all alone at a county freaking fair! Unbelievable! Still, I loved those days. I would spend hours walking around looking for tokens and tickets people had dropped and then use them to ride the rides and play the games. *sigh* Those were happy days.

This made me remember working the beer garden with my Gramma and her sister at 8 years old on!  There was a big "fair" and my gramma, her sister and my great uncles would volunteer to run the bar (I think it was run by the lions or kinsmen)  I hung out with all the grannies in the back going over and getting my uncles to "sneak" me pop while watching the crazy antics of all the drunk adults out on the dance floor.  lol.  My uncle snuck me into the same party when I was 16.

[sk8boarder15]

Originally Posted by amberskyfire 

When I was staying at my grandparents' house during the summers, I ran completely free. Those are the most amazing and wonderful memories for me now, but I would TOTALLY never let my kids do it! My grandparents' house was backed up to acres upon acres of forest and I would just stay there all day every day and I only came back to the house for meals.

My grandmother also worked the art show at the county fair during summers and she would take me along with her every day. I had free run of the grounds. Me. A Seven year-old child all alone at a county freaking fair! Unbelievable! Still, I loved those days. I would spend hours walking around looking for tokens and tickets people had dropped and then use them to ride the rides and play the games. *sigh* Those were happy days.

I hope I can find a place where my son can do that! I don't think that is really that crazy. 

www.freerangekids.com 

[incorrigible]

Man, I have a million of these. My parents just had no concept of consequences for actions at all.

My mom tells how it was against hospital policy to allow new mothers any contact with their babies for 48 hours after birth when my sister was born (15yrs older than me), but it was down to 24 hours by the time I was born. New moms were just too fragile, and needed to recover from the "trials" of childbirth.

Of course, breastfeeding was crass and only low income, uneducated moms (um...even more than mine, I guess?) would be stupid or desperate enough to do something as gross and shameful as that. Oddly, my SIL had the same attitude. *shudder* Science had created more advanced foods (aka formula), and that's what "good" parents fed their babies.

They put "just a little" whiskey in my bottle at night "to encourage a healthy sleep schedule" on my doctor's recommendation. 

As soon as I could hold a cup, I was drinking coffee after dinner with the family. It was mostly milk and sugar at first, but got darker as I developed a taste for the stuff. 

For some unknown reason, I had trouble getting to sleep through my whole childhood. So, my mom would often give me a glass of wine before bed to "help me relax". By the time I was 12, I had a small bar in my own room, and would mix my own nightcaps. (OMG what was she thinking???) By the time I was 21, I couldn't stand alcohol, though. lol So, I guess it all worked out alright. ;)

My doctor told my parents that a little second hand smoke was good for me, and would toughen up my lungs. They both chain smoked in the house so much that we only have a couple pictures of the inside of the house...because it was so smokey you could rarely tell what the pictures were of. (This one didn't turn out so well. I am severely asthmatic and have chronic bronchitis.)

Of course, my parents thought that smoking would cure my asthma. So, when I became curious about smoking at age 11, my mom started buying me a pack every time she bought one for herself. That was every 1-2 days! Can I just tell you how popular I was with the wrong crowd in Jr High and High School? lol

I flew cross country alone starting at age 5. I don't think that was a big deal, and fly my own kids cross country alone as young as the airlines will let us. I don't send them to spend entire summers with strangers, though! My mom would send me to spend months at a time with her old friends from high school that I'd never even heard of. Apparently, it was a "thing" in her social circle for young couples to borrow someone else's kid for a while if they were pregnant or thinking of having kids. 

On that note, my older brother (10yrs older) used to rent me out to kids at school that didn't have a little sister and wished they did. We would have to start a whole new thread to discuss all the things my older siblings did to me, though! =D

Oh...how about the wooden spoons! My mom had big wooden spoons on the wall with each of our names on them. Before you think that's cute...it was to remind us that she would beat us with them if we did something she didn't like. When I was 3, I snatched mine out of her hand and bit the spoon part in half. She superglued it back together and the next time she tried to use it, I broke the handle. She superglued it again, but it would just break at the same point when she hit me after that. She switched to her hand, but by age 7 I flat out refused to be spanked. I would fight tooth and nail. We'd end up wrestling around on the floor until I pinned her. Boy was *I* a difficult child! This was about when she started teaching me to mix my own drinks. She's nothing if not adaptable. ;)

[eepeepee]

This certainly doesn't count as dangerous or crazy, but my parents didn't name me for four weeks - and my sister for six weeks.  They just couldn't decide for that long!  So I was "Punkinhead" for the first month of my my life.

[honeybees]

I know my old German grandmother, or Oma, gave us alcohol and herbs for our colic and sleep issues as babies and children.

I have a picture of my Mom feeding me green veggie puree at a very newborn looking age! I was told you only need to nurse 2-3 weeks to give baby the benefit of breast milk. 

My Mom was a surgery RN and when she was pregnant with me she drank raw egg, liver, and other ingredient shakes every morning! Probably was good for her since she got the eggs and liver from neighboring farmers, but a bit scary with the info we're given nowadays.

We got champagne mixed with 7UP as a treat at every holiday gathering at a very young ages. We loved it! We drank them in these cool, pearly glass barrel cups.

We never wore seat belts in the back of the van on vacation road trips.

My Uncle and Grandfather smoked like freight trains around us kids our entire childhoods. My cousins all ended up with asthma though.

I'd wait alone in the car while my Mom ran errands all the time when I was 3 years and up. I knew better than to let a stranger in the car or unlock it. I loved watching people and not having to go into all the stores with her!

Good memories though!!

[Nightwish]

Originally Posted by sk8boarder15 

I hope I can find a place where my son can do that! I don't think that is really that crazy. 

www.freerangekids.com 

I love that site too.

[WildDoula]

Originally Posted by Belia 

I was cleaning out an old box and found my mom's calendar from 1973, the year I was born.

She started me on solids (rice cereal) when I was EIGHT DAYS OLD!

Originally Posted by journeymom 

Coffee, warm milk and cubes of toasted white bread. 

Yep, I got cereal starting at 2 weeks old, because I "wouldn't sleep at night." 

I also had coffee and toast for breakfast starting at around 8 months. Good old grandma, right? :P

I was born in the 90s. 

[Cyllya]

Originally Posted by rightkindofme 

Drugging children is a fine old tradition.

Yeah, it's not really the drugging that surprises me. It's that they used antihistamines. "Hmm, my child has trouble sleeping, which drug should I use for this problem... I know! One that treats allergies!"

You'd think people would try melatonin or something instead. Granted, I wouldn't be surprised if the antihistamines are actually safer than the melatonin, but melatonin seems to have a safer reputation than water and at least it's actually meant for sleep trouble.

Booze is probably as safe as you can get without a prescription?

[LitMom]

You can still have an 8 year old fly as unaccompanied minor for extra fees and supervision by flight attendants. I know people who have done that to send kids to grandparents. 

My grandmother and aunt used to put clothespins on our tongues for saying bad words. Although, they were well used clothes pins and I don't recall it being particularly painful. Mostly it was I guess supposed to be humiliating that you had to walk around with a clothespin on your tongue and talked funny for a few minutes? Eh, my cousins and siblings thought it was hysterical and we probably made more effort to receive clothespins than to not. 

[Erin77]

Love it! I grew up in rural Alaska, and I remember being allowed to bring your rifle to school up through jr high, as long as you told the principal you had it. Also, I rode around zipped into my dad's jacket on the 3-wheeler for at least 5 years- no helmet, no safety ANYTHING. And of course, bouncing around in the back of pickups was an everyday activity. We used to get giardia regularly too, we called it "beaver fever," from untreated stream water.

[waikukumama]

These are amazing!

Interesting how many of these are vehicular memories ... I have one too ... I can remember me and my 2 big brothers LOVED when my folks would go out (to concerts, to parties) because they'd fold down the seats in the back of the station wagon and we'd make a wee bed in there and sleep to the sounds of revelry.  When the Police came (the band, with Sting ... not the Feds!) in 1980, I kipped in the back of the car.

MAN ... you could NEVER do that now!

Here in New Zealand there is a whole subculture of people my age who hung out in the car while their parents socialised: google "Two Cars One Night" for an Oscar winning short film about this very thing!  Kids outside the pub. 

We'd get lemonade and potato chips, so we were stoked.

I would NEVER!

ALSO:

my hubby grew up in rural Tennessee, he's had coffee for as long as he can remember.  I watched my inlaws feed it to my (then infant) nephew, about 15 years ago. 

AND:

unaccompanied minors fly here from age 5 I think!  There are flight attendants specially assigned to them.  I was always a bit jealous of them when I was little.  What's that about?

Love you Mothering.com mothers.  Super cool gals. 

xx

[bmcneal]

Originally Posted by amberskyfire 

When I was a kid, my mom had a car with one of those pull-down arm rests between the back seats. There was also a seatbelt there. My brother and I would always fight over who got to sit on "the hump" in the middle seat while wearing the seatbelt.

My parents would also send me all alone on a plane across the country to visit my grandparents during the summer starting when I was about 7. The airlines still let you do this, but not with kids that young anymore. I had to wear a huge plastic tag around my neck saying I was alone so that the flight attendants could keep an eye on me.

When I was staying at my grandparents' house during the summers, I ran completely free. Those are the most amazing and wonderful memories for me now, but I would TOTALLY never let my kids do it! My grandparents' house was backed up to acres upon acres of forest and I would just stay there all day every day and I only came back to the house for meals.

My grandmother also worked the art show at the county fair during summers and she would take me along with her every day. I had free run of the grounds. Me. A Seven year-old child all alone at a county freaking fair! Unbelievable! Still, I loved those days. I would spend hours walking around looking for tokens and tickets people had dropped and then use them to ride the rides and play the games. *sigh* Those were happy days.

I loved doing that when I was a kid. And even though we don't have acres and acres of forest nearby, I don't have any qualms about my kids playing outside/having run of the town, so to speak. Our town is *very* small, and everyone knows everyone, so if something did happen, I would know. I wish there was forest nearby. I would just send them with a walkie-talkie, if I was worried. :)

Originally Posted by eepeepee 

This certainly doesn't count as dangerous or crazy, but my parents didn't name me for four weeks - and my sister for six weeks.  They just couldn't decide for that long!  So I was "Punkinhead" for the first month of my my life.

Even though I had a name when I was born, my mom still called me punkinhead. :)

[journeymom]

Originally Posted by Cyllya 

I bought some antihistamines a few weeks ago, saw "Do not use to make a child sleepy" on the package, and wondered "WTF who the hell would do that??"...

Originally Posted by Cyllya 

Yeah, it's not really the drugging that surprises me. It's that they used antihistamines. "Hmm, my child has trouble sleeping, which drug should I use for this problem... I know! One that treats allergies!"

You'd think people would try melatonin or something instead. Granted, I wouldn't be surprised if the antihistamines are actually safer than the melatonin, but melatonin seems to have a safer reputation than water and at least it's actually meant for sleep trouble.

Booze is probably as safe as you can get without a prescription?

Oh, I'm one of those parents. I don't think I ever gave my kids Benadryl simply to get them to sleep, but I was mighty relieved when my child's symptoms met the criteria for needing it. And I played fast and loose with the symptoms...  I was far from the only mom in my circle who did this. I probably did this once or twice with the younger one. By that time I was better at getting baby to sleep and I was just more tolerant.

I was miserable with allergies and upper respiratory issues throughout my childhood, and Children's Benadryl did not exist back then.  I was SO happy I could provide my own child with relief, considering how unhappy and helpless I'd felt when I was little.

Melatonin?  I'd never heard of it.  My dd, the oldest, is 17 years old. Frankly I would have been suspicious of melatonin anyway.    And I would not have given my little one alcohol. 

Originally Posted by honeybees 

I'd wait alone in the car while my Mom ran errands all the time when I was 3 years and up. I knew better than to let a stranger in the car or unlock it. I loved watching people and not having to go into all the stores with her!

Yeah, I remember doing that, too. Though I was probably more like 4 y.o. Always preferable to sitting bored in the fabric shop.

[serenbat]

I see Melatonin as the new Benadryl- IRL see it as rampant.

I can think of several things currently the next generation will look back on like this thread and be in shock over.

[rightkindofme]

I gave my kids Benadryl when they had to be on 10+ hour plane flights under two years of age. I think it is just plain mean to make a baby sit through that. They slept and had a much easier time adjusting to the time difference than I did because they got enough sleep.

[choli]

Originally Posted by rightkindofme 

I gave my kids Benadryl when they had to be on 10+ hour plane flights under two years of age. I think it is just plain mean to make a baby sit through that. They slept and had a much easier time adjusting to the time difference than I did because they got enough sleep.

I totally agree. There is no benefit to a young child sitting awake through a very long flight. I know for my two, it was agony.

[journeymom]

Actually, diphenhydramine/Benadryl was first developed as a sleep aid, not an antihistamine.

I'm still thinking about melatonin. In other countries it's available by prescription only, or isn't permitted at all.  My understanding is that the manufacturers recommend against giving it to children, though I know IRL it's considered mostly harmless.  It's a 'neurohormone' and being a new mom I would not have given my little one some hormone. Better to give my kid something manufactured and dosed specifically for children.

[nstewart]

Originally Posted by journeymom 

Actually, diphenhydramine/Benadryl was first developed as a sleep aid, not an antihistamine.

I'm still thinking about melatonin. In other countries it's available by prescription only, or isn't permitted at all.  My understanding is that the manufacturers recommend against giving it to children, though I know IRL it's considered mostly harmless.  It's a 'neurohormone' and being a new mom I would not have given my little one some hormone. Better to give my kid something manufactured and dosed specifically for children.

Hmmm.  Melatonin is at least something produced by the body naturally.  I wouldn't give something to my DS just to make him sleep (which is what melatonin is for) anyway.  Well, I might be tempted on a long car trip.  He won't sleep in the car and just ends up crying if we have a late night drive to make.  Although now we just try to leave during the day but it isn't always possible.

I am in Canada and you can buy melatonin at the groceery store in the natural foods secton (or at natural foods/health stores).  My midwife actually recommends a low does of melatonin for sleep issues, so given that information and given that at least it is something produced by the body I feel like it's relatively safe.  And Canada usually is more stringent on drugs/products than the US so I would be surprised that it isn't considered safe elsewhere.

[amberskyfire]

Originally Posted by sk8boarder15 

I hope I can find a place where my son can do that! I don't think that is really that crazy. 

www.freerangekids.com 

I love the idea, but I was almost kidnapped by two men once when I was that age. They had me at the car and my mother, bless her soul! - had a "funny feeling" and just happened to come to the front of the house to look out the window at that exact moment. I will never forget the horrifying sight that was my mother flying out of the house, screaming and attacking those men. They tore off in their car and never came back and thank goodness I'm here today to tell it!

We also lost my stepdaughter once when she was about 5 or 6. It was the most terrifying day of my life. I will never, never, never live that moment again. She was really, totally lost, not like kids get lost in a grocery store or something.

Free range is great for others' kids, but I just can never get over the horrors that I experienced.

[amberskyfire]

Originally Posted by incorrigible 

Oh...how about the wooden spoons! My mom had big wooden spoons on the wall with each of our names on them. Before you think that's cute...it was to remind us that she would beat us with them if we did something she didn't like. When I was 3, I snatched mine out of her hand and bit the spoon part in half. She superglued it back together and the next time she tried to use it, I broke the handle. She superglued it again, but it would just break at the same point when she hit me after that. She switched to her hand, but by age 7 I flat out refused to be spanked. I would fight tooth and nail. We'd end up wrestling around on the floor until I pinned her. Boy was *I* a difficult child! This was about when she started teaching me to mix my own drinks. She's nothing if not adaptable. ;)

My mom had a wooden paddle that was called "The Severe Action." She had its name painted on it in pretty letters and everything. I hated The Severe Action. :(

I also just remembered a science experiment I did in school that my mother encouraged me to do. We built a fake lung using a jar, a turkey baster, cotton balls and a cigarette holder. I had to use the lung to "smoke" a pack of cigarettes to show how it stained the cotton balls dark brown. There I was, sitting out on the patio smoking pack after pack of cigarettes with this thing at about 6 years old. My teachers must have had a shock when I turned in  that science fair experiment!