What did your parents do to you that would be illegal now?

AZTrailRunner

What did your parents do to you that would be illegal or frowned upon now?

My dad (single) would leave me to babysit my little brother when I was 7+ (brother was 2 years younger).
We used to stand up on the bench seat in his truck.
We used to ride on the spare tire in the back of the truck.
Left us boys alone in the truck when he'd run in the store for whatever, or send us into the store and he'd stay in the truck (age 7-8+).
Walked alone over a mile to school from the 1st grade on up.
Rode our bicycles all over Phoenix while still in grade school. (no cell phones or change to call home)
Let's not talk about the BELT!!!

How about you?

ilovedeadlifts

i remember sitting in dads lap and driving.
i dont remember wearing a booster seat or seatbelt in dads truck.
road in the back a lot

(obviously grew up in the country)

and the worst,
i remember having to pick the switch that i was gonna get spanked with if I had misbehaved. we had peach trees. they stay green. and hurt like hell. haha

AZTrailRunner

and the worst,
i remember having to pick the switch that i was gonna get spanked with if I had misbehaved. we had peach trees. they stay green. and hurt like hell. haha

Thanks for the memories!!! lol

Elizabeth_C34

I started driving at 10. My grandpa had me drive the truck whenever he needed to haul something.

We also raced lawn mowers in the backyard. (I say "yard" loosly. It was 6 acres of hilly country land)

LauraMacNCheese

My dad had a pick-up with a cap on the bed (shell for you folks out west)...I used to ride back there from PA to DE (about 2 & 1/2 to 3 hours) every weekend.

remembertheharddrive

I definitely rode around in the back of the pick-up truck quite a bit as a kid, in farm vehicles though - which weren't always road-legal either.

That's about it though. My parents in the 80s had the current safety conscious basics down. Although I think carseats are like out of control now - I mean, I see school-aged kids in those things. I definitely stopped with the carseat when I was in pre-school, pretty sure.

kb455

I never wore a seatbelt as a kid and my mom never made me. I do now and, of course, I would never do that with my own kids.

MrsSpratt

No car seats, no seat belts. My mom would pile the whole neighborhood in her little blue beetle to drive to baseball practice or wherever. Kids piled on top of kids in the backseat. Ah, those carefree 70s!

BrettPGH

My mother said they couldn't build a car seat that would hold me. She'd put me in and 5 seconds later I'd be sitting in the front seat. So she just let me.

My dad and my uncles all drove us around plenty drunk plenty of times. Once I was 12 and in LA and my two smashed uncles tried to make me drive. Fun night.

My parents were divorced and mom was a flight attendant, so from a young age we were home alone, a lot, for long periods of time. Let's just say I grew up to be very independent.

MissO﹠A

*dun dun DUN* ... The Belt. A. Lot.

Rode around without seatbelts on.

scapez

I used to buy cigarettes at the store for my mom when I was around 15.

Coincidentally, that's around the age that I started smoking. :grumble:

branflake5

I am pretty sure it was illegal then too, but my parents had a big blue pick up truck and I would stand up on the seat in between them wherever we went..... I was born in '77 so this was prob from the time I was 2 until 5 when we got a truck with a back seat and I was too tall to stand. Can you imagine letting you kid ride like that?? Even after my brother was born my mom would hold my infant brother in her lap with me just standing in the seat beside them. There are pics of this too, evidence.....


Also when I was like 7 or 8 my dad would let me sit on his lap and steer the car while we were driving on a real street. Granted it was not a busy street, but it was still a real car on a real street with other cars.

When I was like 13 or 14 my dad got a Mazda RX7 and that was our only working car for a while so we meaning me, my brother and my dads girlfriends 13 yr old daughter had to ride squished into the hatchback.

My dad was a pot head, never smoked it right in front of us but we could always smell it, we just didn't know what the smell was. So when I was like 11 my friend Eli came over and we were playing, he looks in the ashtray and picks up a cig (which was not a reg cig) I say o my dad smokes those. He was like "Your dad smokes marijuana" I was so mad I said no he doesn't he rolls his own cigarettes sometimes. He said no your dad does drugs! I was so upset I made him go home and wouldn't talk to him for weeks. He was right my dad totally smoked pot and prob still does.

My mom was single and in party mode for a while when I was 12-15 (she is again now too yikes!!) but she would always go to this club in Cincinnati that was inside a hotel. Well she was there so much and friends with so many of the workers they would give her and her friends free rooms all the time. My mom would put me and whatever friend I had over that weekend in the hotel room while she was down at this club partying all night. She even dressed me and my eventual step sister up once and tried to get the manager to let us come into the club at the start of the night like 9 before lots of people were there!!! He wouldn't let us in so we went running around the hotel for hours alone.

My parents were crazy!!!! I am so opposite possibly too protective of my kids, but I can't help it.


My parents were nut cases.

sassylilmama

I tried alcohol a few times when I was very young, they were hoping I would not like the taste. Backfired.

tararocks

Certainly didnt sit in a careseat until i was 8 like my kdis now, remember walking about to the penny candy store about 8 years old with my cousin and buying smokes for my aunt..again 8 years old...sitting in the far back of my grandmas station wagon with all my cousins making faces at the trucks..no seatbelts...

Iamfit4life

they probably shouldn't have tried selling us to gypsies.

ellekay22

Smoked in the van with the windows up while we played in the back behind the seat.
Left the stroller outside the grocery store to pick up a few things. (I don't think it is illegal, just stupid).

BigDaddyBRC

Out to eat at dinner and misbehaving??? Sent to the car until dinner was done.

AZTrailRunner

My dad took me and my little brother with him to a sleazy corner bar once. lol Can you imagine that scene today?

JennsLosing

What did your parents do to you that would be illegal or frowned upon now?

My dad (single) would leave me to babysit my little brother when I was 7+ (brother was 2 years younger).
We used to stand up on the bench seat in his truck.
We used to ride on the spare tire in the back of the truck.
Left us boys alone in the truck when he'd run in the store for whatever, or send us into the store and he'd stay in the truck (age 7-8+).
Walked alone over a mile to school from the 1st grade on up.
Rode our bicycles all over Phoenix while still in grade school. (no cell phones or change to call home)
Let's not talk about the BELT!!!

How about you?

yeah, i did the riding in the back of the truck thing too. Riding a bike with out a helmet, and alone to school. My school was about a mile too. I had the wire part of a fly swatter instead of a belt though. i was never left alone. Those are the only things i can really think of as of now.

UpEarly

I rode everywhere without a seatbelt - in the front seat of the car, in the 'way-back' of the station wagon and in the open back of a pick-up truck! I rode my bike everywhere and went skiing without a helmet. We played on our Big Wheels in the middle of the street, went all over the place without parental supervision - even after dark! I walked a mile to school with no adult presence in kindergarten and first grade. My parents let us play with sparklers and set off small fireworks. The house was never childproofed - cabinets opened freely, electrical outlets weren't capped and the toilet lid was not locked down. Somehow, I prevailed!

This was in the mid-70's. My parents were completely normal, responsible and loving people. Times were just different. :-)

JennsLosing

What did your parents do to you that would be illegal or frowned upon now?

My dad (single) would leave me to babysit my little brother when I was 7+ (brother was 2 years younger).
We used to stand up on the bench seat in his truck.
We used to ride on the spare tire in the back of the truck.
Left us boys alone in the truck when he'd run in the store for whatever, or send us into the store and he'd stay in the truck (age 7-8+).
Walked alone over a mile to school from the 1st grade on up.
Rode our bicycles all over Phoenix while still in grade school. (no cell phones or change to call home)
Let's not talk about the BELT!!!

How about you?

yeah, i did the riding in the back of the truck thing too. Riding a bike with out a helmet, and alone to school. My school was about a mile too. I had the wire part of a fly swatter instead of a belt though. i was never left alone. Those are the only things i can really think of as of now.

i use to sit alone in the car and wait for my mom sometimes

LuluGirl140

No car seat or seat belt. We would always ride around in the back of my dad's truck or I would wander around the family van while driving. My dad had me drive starting at 10 yr old. They started buying me alcohol for special occasions when I turned 12. I never got the belt but sure was threatened with it plenty of times. My mom fed me milkshakes made with a raw egg every morning and I turned out just fine. (I think). I would play outside till the sun went down, and would be sent to the store quite a ways away all by myself (about 8 yrs old).

I was about 9 yr old when my neighbor's house got raided. Yep, SWAT folks with big guns and bullet proof vests. What did my mom do? She sent me to ride my bike up and down the street so I could see what was going on and come back and tell her. LOL

voluptuous_veggie

My mom didn't believe in spanking, but she had other ways of punishment. One of her punishments were swirlies. I read an article online about a year ago that I forwarded to her, because apparently some lady had just been arrested for giving her kid a swirlie!

JennsLosing

My dad had a pick-up with a cap on the bed (shell for you folks out west)...I used to ride back there from PA to DE (about 2 & 1/2 to 3 hours) every weekend.

i use to do that from bossier city, LA to san antonio texas every time we would go see my "pops" and grandmaw there. That was a 8 hour drive! lol...my dad made this little make shift a/c vent for me for during the summer, which was a dryer exhaust pipe that was connected to one of the ac vents inside the truck ! lol.....i liked to ride back there with the dogs!

ninerbuff

We had a motor home and while on our way back from the Grand Canyon, my dad had to pee really bad and didn't want to pull over, so he had me (at 12 years old), hold the wheel straight (we were on a straight away with no other cars in sight) while he jumped into the bathroom. I gripped that wheel hard and made sure it didn't move anywhere!!! Dad came back and jumped back in and said I did a great job.

cherryObebe

I was a "latch key kid" from about the age of 6 or 7. This gave me free reign to cruise the neighborhood, watch and eat whatever I wanted, when I wanted. I don't recall ever wearing seat belts. I was not ever grounded and never had toys taken away from me. If I got in trouble, I got the belt (or anything else that was in reach that served the same purpose lol) I showed horses and was given a brand new, pink 'scooter' that required a drivers license as well as a license plate/registration for my 12th birthday. I was not supposed to ride it on public streets, but I did anyway. :laugh: I learned to drive a car at 14 and remember taking the car alone before I had a license.

Vegan_Chick

I would walk to the gas station when I was in 1st/2nd grade with a note and some money. The note said to allow me to buy cigarettes for my mom. And they would let me! My reward was a free crappy sucker (like the ones you get at the bank)

99clmsntgr

I tried alcohol a few times when I was very young, they were hoping I would not like the taste. Backfired.

I remember may times being young (as in under 10 years old) and out "working" with my dad in the yard, whatever, and he'd have a beer. "Hey, you want a sip?" And I remember one time my sip turning into half a can, mostly because dad wasn't paying much attention.

Yeah, that would probably get someone in big trouble nowadays.

jamk1446

No seatbelts, no car seats but I remember my younger siblings sitting on pillows or cushions in the car or a bassinet when they were babies. I also remember that if someone fell asleep in the car on the way out to eat (and it wasn't in the dead of summer or winter), my parents would park the car close to the restaurant window, roll the car windows down and let whoever it was sleep. They'd ask for a table close by the window to watch if they woke up. But we were also in an almost rural area, maybe they wouldn't have done that in the heart of downtown.

AZTrailRunner

Received my first handgun (.22) at 12, and first shotgun (.410) at 14, and never used them for evil. Was taught to respect them and only open the case with dad there. AND I kept them in my room, not a gun safe.

Sherylp77

Great question!!
Ok, the left me home ALL THE TIME by myself...let me play outside with my friends all day without a cellphone..they never made me bath everyday or brush my teeth and my parents smoked in our house! ...all this would be considered bad parenting or abuse by some people.

I always rode in the back of the pickup...never a seatbelt or carseat even in my moms Delta 88. I wore non-flame retardent clothes to bed. We didnt lock our doors or have working fire alarms no exit strategy to our house. We had 20 cats and were not hoarders!!

I make my family seem like trash...who would have thought that my parents were loaded!!