My Daughter thinks I am gibbing!!

Yes, my best friend and I used to knock on doors at the age of about 10 and ask if we could take their baby out for a walk. Mum would wrap baby up in the pram and we would be out for a couple of hours or more. The mother never asked where we were going or what time we would be back either. There must have been about six babies/toddlers we used to take out in turn regularly. How times have changed!

I took a baby out every Saturday morning when I was about 13 . We went down to the town and strolled about and her mum appreciated the hour or two of peace she got .

Oh yes ...my friend and I (aged about 9) used to walk the new baby from a house next to us along the road...we walked to a huge park in the town (Ipswich) ...in a big silver cross heavy pram …….no on e ever came to any harm …..my m I l told me she once took her first baby to the Co op..and left it outside totally forgetting about it until a neighbour asked where the baby was ...can't imagine anyone allowing a 9 year old out with their baby now ! Oh and I also used to take the cat and its kittens for a ride in my doll's pram ...they went to sleep ! lovely

I remember this happening, too. Sometimes the Big Girls ( there were generally two of them, aged around 10) would allow a smaller girl to walk alongside the pram, with a hand on the handle, but not allowed to do the pushing!

It all sounds so lovely, what massive changes we’ve seen in fifty years, I think my village grandchildren have a certain amount of freedom, but my town ones, none at all.

My experience exactly , my mum had another child when I was 8 I took him everywhere I went ,would t have thought of going out without him . No time was given for when we had to be back .

Yes I had this experience too , if we were going to the local park we would gather up all the babies and take them with us . No harm ever came to them , This was in the 50s

Used to take my neighbours baby out for a walk in the pram when I was 10 and used to take their dog for a walk at the same time. As long as I wasn’t too long as it was her son’s dog and he wouldn’t have been happy with seeing it on a lead.

Yes this happened all the time where I was brought up in Manchester . I was born in 1954, around the corner from Myra Hindley who was 11 then. My mum used to tell me that she often knocked and took me for a walk round in my pram

Yes my friend often knocked doors and took the baby out for a walk in the big pram. It was fine with lots of people then in a village in the sixties.

My dd used to put our little yorkie in her dolls pram and wheel her around on the patio. The dog loved it! This was once my dd had put so many bobbles in the dogs “hair” that she looked like a little hedgehog!

Yes it’s true but I wouldn’t have believed it had I not done it myself. It was a thing back then. Me and my friends aged around 10-11 used to take the neighbours babies out. 4 or 5 of us all trouping around the village with those huge prams that we could hardly see over the top of!!! ?
I would NEVER let a child take my dd out when she was a baby!

I walked to my local high street with my new born in a pram and also took the dog for the walk too. Left the pram outside the chemist as there were steps to the entrance and the dog tied up, came out, untied the dog and walked off down the street without the baby- got half way and realised and ran back panicking, but no harm done- safer times, obviously ( 1980s). I also regularly put the baby in the pram ( born early April so heading for summer) outside in the back garden for hours with the dog lying by it.

Another time the foster child next door decided to run away. My daughter and friend 8 and 9 went with her.They were brought back in the butchers van,he had seen them about half a mile away.

Yes I did this in the mid to late 50's not at all unusual, I used to walk up and down the street a few times and then return the baby, I would have been 8 or 9 at the time.

I was unwell when my baby was about 9 months.Girls of 9 and 10 called and took him out. They told me later they had rescued him from the paddling pool.Later my 2 year old played with a 4 year old who took her down to the shops on the back of his bike. When hubby was baby sitting a child called and told him our son was walking down the lane on his own.

The only time I let two little girls take my baby out, they were gone for hours! I was a complete wreck when they returned. With hindsight I should have found out who they were for a start, I’d seen them around, but I didn’t even know their names, I gave them no instructions, or time frame, I must have been mad!

Did this in the late 50's when it was the norm. Even knocked on doors of people I didn't know but in the same street and I don't remember ever being refused. Neither do I remember ever being given any instructions. My how times have changed.

I remember taking my brother out for walks in his pushchair when he was two and I was eight. This would have been in the mid 1960s. By the time my own children were eight (in the 1990s) they were not even allowed to go out by themselves.

Yes I knocked on doors like that too probably in 60s rather than 70s. and like Mamacaz I babysat at 12. Hate to think about it now and what I would have done in an emergency.

Sara65, I had forgotten about the matinee jackets!
Lots of beautiful, delicate little boottees, mittens and cardigans. The new baby hats had lovely ribbon threaded through the wool too. This thread is a trip down memory lane and a very nice one too.

I used to love hand washing the tiny hand knitted items.

Does anyone remember the Harrington’s baby gowns?
They were cream in colour and so soft and comfy and both baby boys and girls wore them.

Yes I remember doing it - in fact there was a few babies born about the same time in my street so it was quite a group! Sometimes we walked round the block, sometimes further.
Babies were also wrapped up warm on dry days and put outside in the garden, in the pram for a sleep on their own too - I certainly did in the 1980s

You could ask for your post to be deleted, Babs, but copy and paste it first into whichever thread is the appropriate one.

Yes, it’s all true. I was definitely babysitting aged 12 - it was a new estate with lots of young families and I was in great demand. Funny thing is, when I became a mother myself, I vividly remember instructing my Mum on how to cross a road. Bless her, she let me carry on and then very gently reminded me that she had brought up 5 children of her own!

I don't remember taking a baby out personally, but I know people that did. However when I was about 13 or 14, my friend and I went back to visit our former infant school. The head asked us if we would like to look after a class and we were left with 40+ 6 year olds whilst the teachers had a meeting!!!