My Daughter thinks I am gibbing!!

I wonder whether kids had a bit more sense then? More used to looking after very little ones?

At a big family gathering in a relative's house when Gdd was only about 8 months old, nieces of around 11 and 13 wanted to hold and play with her. But they didn't realise that sitting a baby of that age on an ordinary dining chair, without holding her, when there was a very hard stone floor for her to fall on to, was not a good idea!
Just as well I was within quick-grabbing distance...

A lot changed with Madeline McCann.

What they did was SO common place back then. I have been to so many hotels/events pre MMC where children were put to bed then parents returned to the event for the night. Prior to that people still had 13 year old "babysitters" etc

I dont know why the MMC case had such an effect in changing norms when there had been other tragedies that didnt affect what was acceptable in society: children had been in fires when left alone etc..

Also, Jamie Bulger had a massive effect.

Those events werent just sad/tragic. They changed what is socially acceptable. And now people cannot imagine a time when it was the norm for big kids to take little kids to play out or kids being left sleeping aline etc

I did this - loved to take my neighbour’s baby boy out, in his pram. It would have been 1970/1971!

Marieeliz
Pendleton's ice cream. There's a name which brings back memories of eating ice-cream 'sandwiches' made in a hand-held thingummy by the man or lady in the dairy by the beach where I lived on Merseyside.

Yes, I used to take the neighbours baby (& toddler) to the park for hours as a youngster (late 60’/ early 70’s)
I always loved babies and still do, my parents were none too impressed when I became pregnant at 17 ( first “proper bf)
Mind you I wouldn’t let any child take mine out of my sight, I feel panic if someone else held them.

When I had my first baby my mother in law told me to leave him in the back garden in his pram for fresh air. I told her that my neighbour had seen a ferret there and there was no way I would be doing it, so she told me to leave him in the front garden instead! I asked her if she didn’t think the ferret would run round the front too! There was no way I was leaving him outside!

Greengran

I’m not sure when things changed, my youngest is 28 and all of my children played outside all day, and in the summer holidays well into the evening

When my son was young we lived by a farm, and with the farmers children he’d be out from dawn to dusk, making bmx tracks in the farmers field, he often says they had total freedom, that he went out and I wouldn’t see him all day, not strictly true, I used to wander over now and again to make sure all was well, But they didn’t see me

I think it’s sad, but I can’t see anything changing

I remember doing this too but even earlier, probably mid to late 40s , I would have been only about 10. That baby will be in her 70s now!!!!
Were people more trusting then I wonder.

As a baby in the early 50s we lived in a flat above garage and mum would leave me on the garage forecourt in my pram with the promise from the mechanics that they'd keep an eye on me.
My favourite was Ray, the pump assistant who would unstrap, pick me out and sing to me.
It wasn't until mum saw him serenading me that she realised why my clothes always smelled of petrol.
I still love that smell 65 years on.

Yes, I remember those days. I also remember that, in the NW town where I lived, strangers used to put silver coins on the pram covers if they passed a new mum out with her baby in those 'big' prams. I had a navy blue Silver Cross and later, a grey Silver Cross, beautifully sprung and the utmost in comfort for baby.
Wonderful carefree days. Where have they gone?

Well I can go one better sorry to say, my son and his wife have a 5 month old daughter who is teething, I told my daughter in law that when my son was teething I put whisky on his gums. she was mortified but I said everyone did this 30 years ago

Children were so much more sensible and trustworthy then, because they were allowed to play outside, take risks, and learn from experience. Most people didn’t have cars, so any strangers in the neighbourhood were taken note of. My babies were always left in the back garden, or by the front door when I got back from the shops or school run, if they were asleep. Maybe we were too trusting that nothing would happen to our children. All our neighbourhood children, from the age of about three, used to play out on the common land opposite our houses. We all kept an eye on them. There was scarcely any grass, as it was worn away by the constant games of football, and other activities, which went on during all the hours of daylight. Now I rarely see a child on it, unless walking the dog with an adult. They are missing so much, and not maturing as we did, through being over protected.
I remember seeing a programme about Cilla Black. Apparently she was a prolific baby-walker, and was allowed to help herself to any prams left outside, and return when the baby cried.
Maybe mums were naive, in those days, but I don’t think that times have changed for the better in many ways. Life is too frantic now, and children have too much pressure put on them. I can’t remember ever worrying about what I wore, or how my hair/face looked, until I left school at 16 and started work.

I took a neighbour's baby out in her pushchair; it was quite a common thing to do. I must have been about ten and I remember enjoying doing it for quite a few weeks and then got bored. Another girl was willing to take over; the baby - Poppy I think she was called - had a lovely time with all the children making a fuss of her and she evidently slept like a log when taken home - her mother had several hours of peace every day.

Yes, I did it too. The neighbours loved it, the baby would go to sleep in it's pram, job done Though I never got paid

I too remember being left in charge of my brother, I used to drag him very reluctantly around with my friends, I don’t think I was very kind to him!

I used to take babies out for walks when I was 11 or 12 in the 60s. I have a photo of my friend running through local common with 6 month old bouncing up and down in pram.

I had my first baby in early 70's & I'd never have let anyone take him out unless they were blood relatives!
My mum left me outside the baker's in my pram when I was a few weeks old. Got all the way home & my GM had turned up to see me- she said she has never run so fast or so far in her life before.
I was fine- never even woke up & baker had noticed & was watching the pram anyway.

I grew up in London when the first black people moved into our street. we used to try and get to their house first to take the baby out. She was always dressed in pretty party dresses with tiny plats and ribbons in her hair. The pram had lace trimmed pillows and embroidered covers. A stark contrast to the English babies with their knitted clothes and plain covers. if the baby started to cry I would take it home to my Mum so I wouldn't have to take it back

Just to add to the 'cats in prams' chat. Back in the day, in Australia, children dressed Cane Toads in dolly's clothing and parade them about in prams.

My daughter was agonising over whether her young teenagers could be left alone in the house, and then remembered that at their age, she was babysitting a neighbour's four children!

I always put my sons outside in their pram to sleep. They were both born in the summer and would sleep better outside. They had nets covering the pram to keep insects and hopefully cats away. But I would never have let anyone walk them. I was always anxious regarding their safety.

They were very easy, happy times to be having babies. So much more stressful times now for the mums.

Yes, here on Merseyside , the same thing. Left outside in the pram, I have a photo of me. It was 1939 and I can't believe how plump I am. My Mum was skinny. Later, when I was 9/10 when neighbours had baby's they were usually delivered at home and almost immediately the local children would want to go in and see them in their cots.

Our next door neighbour had 5 children and my Mum used to send me in to help her. One of the children I helped nurse lives around the corner from me now and he is just retired and 65.

There were only two of us and, I quite honestly don't remember nursing my brother when he was little, there was 5 years between us. Though I do remember my Mum working when we were at school and us being left to fend for ourselves during school holidays. She only worked part time though, in an Ice Cream factory. Pendleton's of Twicer fame. We of course got ice cream when she came home which was usually about 3 oclock I think the shift was 10 to 3 pm.

Aged 13 I was asked to babysit a baby only weeks old. I knew how a nappy was changed as my youngest sibling was not long out of nappies so when the baby needed changing I put it on the dining room table and set about finding what I needed, turning back to see the swaddled baby rolling off the edge of the table. I caught it mid air. My mother was horrified when I told her I’d been left in charge. I was often invited to take the baby for a walk in the pram during the subsequent years. The only time I got paid for my services was when I had to feed their cat for two weeks. I remember the smell of tinned cat food (in the mid 1950s) made me feel nauseous.

I was thinking about this yesterday, inset day for some of my grandchildren, so I have a six month old baby, her siblings and cousins, all under 10. I seemed to spend the whole day, telling them to put the baby down, be careful with her for goodness sake! But baby was enjoying all the attention, and didn’t come to any harm, and I remember thinking I wouldn’t have been half as fussy with my own children