My Daughter thinks I am gibbing!!

My aunt was a health visitor, she used to tell mothers to put their babies out in all weather except fog!

I once let two little girls, totally unknown to me, take my oldest daughter for a walk in her pram, what the hell was I thinking???

I always used to leave my oldest ones outside in the pram, with a cat net of course!

I can remember taking neighbours' babies out in the pram, it seemed to be the thing back in the fifties!
I also used to put my babies out in the garden in the pram, with a cat net, all the year round if it was fine; my mother used to do it as well with us.

I used to put my eldest baby daughter out in the garden, even in the winter. She was always well wrapped up!

Also let the next door neighbour's 13 year old daughter take her out in the pram for walks.... until my Mum, coming home on the local bus, spotted her and friend with another child in a pram letting go of the handles to race down a rather steep hill.

My bestie and I did the same, some said no but most were quite happy for us to take their little ones out to the park. Bit different today, I can understand it tho' .

Dd2 used to park dgs in the garden just 13 years ago. He was born in May - she did it for the summer but couldn’t face leaving him out in winter!

I remember as a child in the fifties it was not unusual to take other people’s babies out for a walk. I often did this with my mother’s friend’s baby when I was about 12/13. However when I had a baby in the late 70s it was no longer normal practice and actually I would not have felt able to entrust my baby to anyone except a very close family adult....and certainly not some random neighbour’s child! I wonder why? Changing times I suppose.

I used to take my neighbours children out in the prom and I was 10.

Yup. I remember the summer before starting primary school regularly taking my friends younger sibling (and other neighbouring toddlers, we ran as a pack) out with us to play without adults! (Just in the cul de sac but still).

DD slept for 6 hours at a time from birth. She was born at the end of May. I just put her in a pram at the end of the garden each morning and brought her in in the evening. I fed her outside as well.

Unfortunately her most wakeful time was 2.00am - still is.

Shysal, LOL!

Blossom - Blimey!

Scentia - Yes. Oh yes. Times have certainly changed, haven't they? LOL! There was less fear back then. IDK if we were just ignorant or if there was really less to be afraid of.

I never asked to take anyone's baby out in the pram in the 1950s - obviously I wasn't very keen on babies until my DN was born when I was in my early teens and I did like looking after him.

M0nica DD1 used to sleep like a dream in the pram in the garden every morning - she was probably exhausted after the night before.
Perhaps I should have stuck her out in the garden at night as well, although it was winter.

I used to take my friends baby brother out in his pram, she wouldn;t bother with him at all, as she was 13 and had been the only one and spoiled ,up to him being born,,
Also left mine outside in sunshine or snow, well wrapped up with a hot water bottle under the covers,

You are definitely not fibbing as I and my contemporaries did exactly that. I was between 9 and 12 at the time.

They were gentler, or perhap more naive, times but the many young Mums in our area were very happy for me to push their babies about, sometimes for an hour or more.

They didn't know me, except maybe by sight in some cases, which makes it all the more scary when I look back.

I would usually take the babies to the park, where I could sit and have a cuddle, before popping them back in their Silver Cross prams so they went to sleep on the way home.

The idea of anyone taking my babies out makes me shudder now. So I don't really blame your daughter for finding it very odd indeed.

My sister was always asking to take babies out for a walk. She loved doing it.
Maybe it was because people knew their neighbours a lot better in ‘those days’

My parents had a grocery shop / post office, with a large concrete slab outside , known as "the flat". Like a huge porch. All the mothers would park their prams out on the flat while they were shopping / gossiping in the shop. It was quite normal for my sister and I to take one or two of the babies and go for a walk with them. The mothers never seemed bothered by this . Of course there were only two streets in the village, but I can't imagine anyone doing that now.

I think I put a post on here some time ago about how we used to take neighbours' babies out for walks in their prams. I seem to remember that I was quite young at the time - 9 years old, maybe?

The mothers didn't seem worried at all! And we took them back if they started crying!

Seems very odd now.

I remember borrowing the neighbours toddler and dressing him up as a guy for "penny for the guy " Guy Fawkes time in an old pushchair. Our little gang was doing quite well with being given pennies for our realistic guy until he woke up screaming . His mum was not amused !!

I only took a baby (no idea who's it was) out once when I was about 7 - it was in a big Silver Cross pram and I pushed it into the school yard a few doors away and up a steep step. When I came out I tipped the pram down the step nearly upending it - thankfully my dad was just coming past at the time and caught it. Never allowed to take it out again

I used to leave my eldest son in his pram in the back yard and even outside shops. I once left him in the bay under the stairs in Binns when I went shopping - shortly after that a child was scratched in it's pram so I never left him or his brother unattended again!

My mum obviously left me outside too - it looks like it was in a building site but it was a dilapidated bungalow they lived in

I used to push babies in their prams from about 8 or 9, most of the prams were Silver Cross ones and quite large.
When I was ten my mother had another baby and I was chief pram pusher and babysitter, when my sister was a toddler I couldn't leave the house without her.
When I had my first baby I would leave her outside the front door in her pram and would often find half crowns on the pram mattress. I wonder if people still do that, touch the baby's hand with silver.
When second baby was born we had a house with a back garden and I would put the pram in sight of the kitchen window, he would sleep for hours which was good because I had a two year old too.

Yes, in the '60s mothers would leave their babies in their prams outside the front door, sometimes unwrapped if it was warm, with just a fringed sunshade, tied with cords, over the pram. We all went and spoke to the babies, put our grubby little hands in the pram etc, and neighbours would let us take off the brake and push their prams (and babies!) around. We were often out of sight. We came back when we'd had enough and there were no frantic mothers waiting for us.

How times have changed!

Day6

Yes I remember , we would be all outside together , including babies on big sisters hips, or enormous prams, they were pulled around with grubby little fingers, or put down somewhere and ignored till they got fed up and cried

But I can’t ever remember any harm coming to any of them

I remember pushing our neighbour's baby (Caroline, who would now be nearly 60 ) to the park behind our house. She was the 4th child so I expect her Mum was happy for a 10 year old to take over and give her 30 minutes peace!
I put all my children out in the back garden in the big Silver Cross pram. It was good for them to be outside and had the added benefit of distancing me from the wailing . Do you remember the cat net which attached to the hood! Not sure if it deterred any cats but I only used it for the first DD then abandoned it.
When DD3 was born in Scotland, people used to tuck a coin under her pram mattress and also on one occasion, a lump of coal (suitably wrapped in plastic I may add!). This was all new to me...

I didn't like babies nor have a cat, but I did have a tortoise and a scooter with a broad wooden running board.
Using my trusty leather Brownie belt I would secure Toby to the running running board and go flying down the hill on our street and out of earshot of mother yelling "Bring that
Bl--dy tortoise back".
I think Toby rather enjoyed it. His little legs akimbo and scaly neck stretched out full length rather like the 'Spirit of Ecstasy' on the bonnet of a Roller.
Such happy days.