Your biggest disappointment as a child.

Being an only child

Mine was going to school with holes in my knickers and holes in my shoes . Always being cold because my parents couldn’t afford coal for a full week . I went to an all girls grammar school but hated it because I was the ‘ poor ‘ child.

Like someone else I was very cross that I didn’t get a pedal car like my brother - and also I desperately wanted Meccano but again - only my brother got some. I wasn’t the sort of girl who wanted dolls etc- never had one - I loved my bricks best of all. Funny sort of girl maybe - hated flouncy dresses - an early feminist ? Loved playing with boys - have always thought I had many masculine traits. Yet here I am - married - 3 children- 6 grandchildren.

I had seen a box of dolls in a newsagents window and each of these little dolls was dressed in a different national costume. I so wanted those dolls. There was a sign that said the price (I can't remember it now, probably about 2 old shillings) and for weeks I asked my mum and dad for the money. After weeks of nagging they gave me the money and I ran off to get my prize. Only when I asked for the dolls in the window, the shop owner said "which one?", they were 2 shillings each! I was so upset, I didn't want one, I wanted the whole set so I just ran away crying!

I desperately wanted a budgerigar for my birthday when I was a child . I mentioned this to my best friend .. I didn’t get one but she did and it wasn’t even her birthday.

Having to wear home knitted jumpers and cardigans when my best friend's came from M & S. Also, that I could only have shoes from shops that took provident cheques, so nothing very modern.

My mum perming my hair with "Twink", I was expecting lovely curls instead I got a halo of frizz and cried.

This still makes me sad 60yrs later. I had been invited to a school friends birthday party, and she said they would collect me from outside our house at a certain time. I was there 15 early, waiting in my party dress and shoes with a wrapped gift, but no one came, even now I remember how unwanted I felt that day.

I wanted a bigger bike for Christmas and my Dad took me to the bike shop to choose one. Because I knew my parents were always going on about how much things cost I chose a plain, dull, navy blue one because it was the cheapest. Two weeks later, my younger sister who's birthday was in January, was taken to the same shop and she asked for the shiniest metallic red and blue bike that cost a lot more than mine. I was so disappointed because mine was so plain and boring in comparison. I couldn't say anything as I had chosen my bike myself but I could never understand why I dare not ask for the red one too.

My biggest disappointment was that my mother hated me and had hated me since the day I was born. She told me this regularly. I was one of 4 and the only one treated this way. Even now we are in our sixties my siblings say they don't understand why she was like this with me. I longed to go and live in the local children's home where a couple of my school friends lived. They had "house mothers" who were kind and loving towards them and even used to get a hug or two. My mother didn't even come to my wedding but I did get my happy ending as I married the loveliest, kindest man and we had 5 daughters who are in no doubt that they are utterly loved and adored by both of us. Still happy after 45 years together.

My biggest disappointment as a child was my mother. I really wanted to have a Mum who smiled and gave me kisses and cuddles just like my best friend's Mum. I was baffled as to why my Mum never touched me and was mostly shut away upstairs in her workroom angry or miserable. As I grew up I found out that generally mothers were seen as wonderful and loving. I concluded that it must be me at fault. It wasnt until Mum's funeral (age 91) that my own daughter told me she thought Gran was autistic. I was gobsmacked. Of course no one had heard of autism when I was growing up, and I realised immediately it might well have been true. All those years of blaming myself for something that actually was the fault of no one.

I remember wanting a puppy for christmas but got a pair of Jacko skates l never even asked for.lnever used them but made good use of them by tying a piece of string round them and taking them for a walk.
Also my mother was a cold, hard woman and life was difficult. l remember wishing l could be a woodentop as their life looked lovely!

The Grammar School/ Secondary Modern System, which divided children at the early age of 11 into white collar workers and factory drones.

We went to a Woolworths store whilst the washing was in the launderette, it must have been the school holidays and I was about 8 or 9, I saw a life sized baby doll (my sister had just had her first baby) and wanted it so much - it was 7/6, so for the next two weeks I got together all the money I could, shaking all moneyboxes etc and begging the odd penny or two from my sister and brother, finally I had 7/6 and had dreamt of nothing but that baby doll, we went back next time we were at the launderette and there she was, but I had misread the price tag and she was 17/6! There was no way I could ever have raised that amount of money, so I never got the baby doll.

So sorry Redhead.

Having to have my hair short like a boy and not being allowed pierced ears.I had them pierced my first week at work,my Mother was horrified!nearly 60 years later I have two sets of piercings and never go a day without wearing earrings.

Not winning the WH Smith "Win A Pony" competition. I entered every year religiously.
Every year I lived in hope...

vonnie you seem to have had a father like my brother in law.
His children grew up to be lovely as I’m sure you have. They are never mean to their children. Or play ‘funny’ jokes.

Redhead. I feel so sorry that you went through this, how awful for you.

I always wanted a Wendy House but never had one. But I was lucky and had lots of other lovely things, a stable loving home with fantastic parents, dogs, horses, lovely holidays. A brother who was a pain! The Wendy house didn’t really matter!

My Mother insisted that I have a perm when I was about fourteen. I was marched to the hairdressers and told that I would look like one of the model photos on display, with soft, long curls. I didn't really want curls at all as my hair was fine and dead straight - which was fashionable. The result was hideous - a frizzy ball, far too short, and she would let me wash my hair only once a week as she found putting the rollers in too time consuming, so for most of the week I was not only frizzy but greasy. I will never forget the feeling of going into school and having one of the glamorous older girls laughingly insist that I took my school hat off. The shame, and disappointment!

inishowen

When I was twelve I longed for a record player. My birthday came along and there was a big parcel for me. I tore the paper off to find a huge leather shoulder bag. I was so disappointed. Another disappointing thing was when my dad was going out he would say he was going to see a man about a dog. I would wait for the dog to arrive and it never came!

My step ad used to say this and I would wait for him to come home with one every time ?

Naninka

Not winning the WH Smith "Win A Pony" competition. I entered every year religiously.
Every year I lived in hope...

Me too ?

Until I was 13 it was that I never had my own pony but me and my sister saved every penny we could and bought a pony between us when I was 13 and she was 12. I think we paid £75 for him in the 70s ?

All I ever wanted as a child was a bike. One Christmas morning I got up to find my younger brother had received a racing bike, I got an umbrella and a pair of slippers.
I knew then that my brother was the favourite. Nothing ever changed.