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My Daughter thinks I am gibbing!!

(172 Posts)
Scentia Fri 14-Jun-19 18:26:37

I was talking to my Daughter about taking her newborn out for a walk so she can have a nap. She said something like she would like him to be a bit older first. Completely understand that. I then went on to tell her about when I was a girl, maybe about 9 or 10 we would go down our street and knock on a neighbours door who we knew to have a baby, and they would happily wrap it up, stick it in a pram and let us take it out for as long as we wanted. I can’t remember them asking where we were going or how long we would be.
My Daughter could not believe this happened in the early ‘70’s she thinks I have imagined it. Do any of you remember doing this?

MamaCaz Fri 14-Jun-19 18:29:32

Yes - same era as you are talking about. I was also babysitting by the age of 12.

Scentia Fri 14-Jun-19 18:32:11

That should say fibbing!!

Gonegirl Fri 14-Jun-19 18:32:17

I remember a bunch of us doing it. Although proms were those huge baby carriages and the baby was very safe. We were very responsible kids too.

Gonegirl Fri 14-Jun-19 18:32:51

prams not proms

tanith Fri 14-Jun-19 18:33:01

There is a long post about this subject, tell your daughter it’s all true.

phoenix Fri 14-Jun-19 18:33:34

I have heard of it, but restricted myself to forcing the family cat into a red velvet bonnet with swansdown trimming and putting her in my dolls pram with very firmly tucked in bedding blushconfused

Perhaps that's why I never wheeled real babies out?

Gonegirl Fri 14-Jun-19 18:35:27

I pushed my cat in my dolls' pram too. Sisters P!

Scentia Fri 14-Jun-19 18:37:12

phoenix

I used to take our chickens out in our dolls prams, they would just sit there and let me and my sister push them up and down the road!! Later that week my dad would serve the very same chicken for dinner, no wonder I am vegan now?

Buffybee Fri 14-Jun-19 18:37:39

Yes! As soon as someone on the street had a new baby, I would be knocking on their door, asking to take it a walk in the pram.
I'd probably only be about 7 or 8 and I could only just see over the top of those Silver Cross coach built prams, while pushing it.
Where I lived, they used to tell us to only go up and down the street and to bring it back when it cried. grin

phoenix Fri 14-Jun-19 18:48:28

Yay to all the cat pushers!

(Bet mine was best dressed though!)

Scentia I used to keep chickens, never thought of taking them for a trundle though! grin

3dognight Fri 14-Jun-19 19:00:25

I remember putting my daughter in the pram under the front window on our terraced street. Some big boys threw snowballs at the pram, and I chucked a bucket of cold water over them.

Everybody seemed to put their babies out whatever the weather. She grew up just fine though, despite inconsistent mothering on my part.

I left her outside marks and Spencer's once and went home.

I can't beleive i did that. I was young stupid and far from home, but still no excuse..

Gonegirl Fri 14-Jun-19 19:03:03

Alright! I didn't actually put clothes on the cat!

Gonegirl Fri 14-Jun-19 19:05:30

Yes. I left my first two babies out in the pram in all weathers. It was supposed to be good for them, and they always felt toastier when they woke up.

Didn't do it with late third child. Fashions had changed.

They all have about the same health level now.

Gonegirl Fri 14-Jun-19 19:06:09

toastie. Not toastier!

sodapop Fri 14-Jun-19 19:06:43

I remember doing this in the late fifties. I was staying with my Aunt so none of the mothers really knew me. I was told which streets I could walk round and under no circumstances was I to cross the main road and go to the park. Different times.

Gonegirl Fri 14-Jun-19 19:07:18

grin ( left outside Marks and Spencer's)

KatyK Fri 14-Jun-19 19:07:23

Yes I posted on the other thread that me and my friend would knock on doors where we knew they had babies and ask if we could take them out. They usually said yes and popped the baby into the pram and let us take it to the park. We were only about 10. It makes me cringe now.

Charleygirl5 Fri 14-Jun-19 19:08:56

I was another knocking on people's doors asking to take their baby out and nobody refused. I must have been around 10 or 11 I think. The mother of the baby probably had a well earned rest.

Gonegirl Fri 14-Jun-19 19:09:43

I used to fasten the covers on mine with a big nappy pin at the front. Also stopped her falling out when she woke up.

aggie Fri 14-Jun-19 19:10:05

My sister is 10 years younger than me , remember coming into the street seeing one of my pals pushing our baby in our pram !! Mind you , there is no way I would have been pushing said pram

Septimia Fri 14-Jun-19 19:16:49

From the age of about 11 I took neighbours' babies out in their prams and pushchairs. Mostly just close to home but sometimes I walked them to my aunt's a mile or two away. This was in the 60s. By the time I had a little one, in the same area, there were no neighbours the right age to take him out and I'm not sure I'd have let them!

annodomini Fri 14-Jun-19 19:20:50

I used to put my babies out in the garden in the big Silver Cross pram. They were fascinated by the nappies blowing on the line. No child ever offered to take them for a walk - not that there were many children of that age on our road - but I don't think I would have let them out of my sight.

3dognight Fri 14-Jun-19 19:33:06

My mum used to put my youngest brother out on the yard right up against the Ivy. He became terrified of all things green, especially vegetables such as cabbage and lettuce.
And trees, I can remember him cuddling into her and hiding his face if she carried him anywhere near trees.

shysal Fri 14-Jun-19 19:56:01

I jokingly tell DD2 that she was never the same after a cooking apple fell on her head while parked in her pram under the tree! smile