Things the older and maybe younger grandparents may find confusing. :-)

I dont fancy my chances with some of that lot.

And what are calpol dispensers? Never heard of them.

Calpol dispensers are very useful tools!
Instead of dripping sticky calpol over everything, you use this plastic syringe to draw up the calpol from the bottle then gently (and neatly) 'skoosh' it into the mouth!

First time looked after my grandson I put the disposable nappy on back to front. Haven't made the same mistake since as have had lots and lots of practice!

I never did manage to open and close grandsons' main pushchair. Completely defeated me! The rest I could cope with.

Wish I had some of it to play help with again!

I'm sure bottle sterilisers have been around for a long time - though I never needed one - and I know we had popper vests forty three years ago. I have used disposable nappies on my GC.

My DS had an app on which he started recording absolutely everything the DGC did from birth - when he cried, fed, poo'd, etc.....lasted about 48 hours then DIL threatened him with where she'd put it! I totally sympathised with her.
Also find the plethora of books giving advice to new parents bemusing, they rarely involve common sense and probably only apply to the authors' children and just seem to cause extra anxieties.
Baby sleeveless sleeping bags are another puzzle, don't their tiny arms get cold?
So glad am a granny and not a new mum!

DD is 50 and I had disposable nappies - PaddiePads - but they were nowhere near as good as the ones we have today. My mother discovered them; she loved modern inventions and brought them to me in triumph. And I was lucky enough to have BabyGros (sp?) sent from friends in America.

But oh yes - someone else has mentioned, on a very similar recent thread, her Silver Cross pushchair. I had one, and it was heavy, cumbersome and, I am sure, nowhere near as comfortable as the ones my DGC used to have.

You should have seen me AND my daughter fighting with her new buggy the first time we took the grandson out! (Lucky we had the instructions with us.) Another fight to get in fixed in the car right.

And she had her last baby only13 years ago....
The rest we have no trouble with.

I found it a bit jaw dropping that stuff now gets sterilised in the microwave - despite the science I find that in my heart I have little faith in this method! Baby led weaning - no more mushing stuff up. Sleeping in bags instead of being tucked up all cosily in blankets. Who was it who said that the whole point of children is to drag us kicking and screaming into the future tense?

Car seats. The rules keep changing and they seem to get bigger, heavier and more confusing ... and you now seem to have to haver car seats until the DCs start breeding themselves ....

PaddiePads - oh yes. I discovered them for my third child, now 37. What a boon they were. I had to slip them inside plastic pants, but he had less nappy rash. You did well Ariadne finding them well before I did. I used to use Milton solution and was confused by the device where the bottles were sterlised by using steam. I also used to turn the bottle teat inside out as we were told to do in the 70s and scrubbed them out. With my third child I had a baby buggy - fantastic - I could go on buses. It folded up like an umbrella. Such freedom. There was a chap in my area called the Buggy Man and he could repair the buggies. - happy days. Once you get the idea of the Calpol Dispenser it is a good device. I remember giving it with a spoon some 44 years ago and the resulting sticky mess everywhere.

Just been to visit DS and family and we went through all sorts of hoops choosing the next size car seat (we only had one size). Apparently the law is likely to change soon so that they have to be back facing so they didn't know whether to buy a reasonably priced one which would do this GS or get one which could go both ways which would be ready for a second one. There must have been over 50 different ones in the shop.

DiL has a smashing plastic device on which you put clean bottles, teats and all the other paraphernalia after it has been sterilised and it all sits on spikes until next used.

We all discussed whether all the info they have now is a good idea or not as they feel quite overwhelmed by it all.

The baby monitor that films GD asleep, dumbfounded us. When she had her nap we didn't know how to turn it on, too many options!
So DH and I took it in turns to nip up every 5 mins, to check on her.
I'm sure we just put DSs in their cot and waited for them to yell on waking. X

I couldn't get that blessed Calpol drawer-upper to work last week. I think it's meant to fit into the bottle? So I poured some Calpol into an egg cup and sucked it up from there.
DiL has a really useful, large steriliser that holds loads until she needs it.
I can tell the right way round of the 2 year-old's pull-up pants as Dora The Explorer is currently on the front.

How did our children survive?! On oodles of love, loads of hugs and kisses not forgetting granny's advice, taken on board or not!
Simple!

This morning, at DD's request, I went to buy some Size 6 Little Angel pull ups - not potty training ones - from Asda in readiness for dgs's visitation at the weekend. After some 10 minutes wandering up and down the nappy aisle looking at every conceivable make, size, colour, dimension, swimmers, trainers, night time/day time and becoming increasingly confused, I ended up with pull up potty night training pants by Huggies. I just know they are wrong but desperation set in. I just had terry towelling ones with a liner and a whopping great pin. It was so easy in those days........

I sympathise Marmight, going back to change 'wrong' nappies although was pretty certain had got correct ones! Only buying because thought would save space in the car coming down from London and would be needed anyway as they're off to the Isle of Wight after Christmas for a week ++.............

It was easier but also harder in many ways. Drying the terry nappies was so difficult (1970s) and we bought a tumble dryer (new in those days.)

I think once you get used to all the new things - they are much better but as an older nan I found it all a steep learning curve (my poor brain and back.)

I still can't understand why vests have popper that go under nappies. Back in the day they were just little vests and didn't get messed up (that often) by dirty nappies. Now the kiddies are older I am confused by the new reading method!!!

Guess it never ends. {tchconfused}

My DGD is using "real nappies". They are pad shaped, and fit into plastic pants just like disposables. Murder to dry if you don't have a tumble drier but, luckily, they do have one. .
DS is horrified at the thought of putting a nasty great pin near his little DD's body, but I never had any problems or accidents with them. Guess he thinks he had a lucky escape back in the bad old days.

Maybe he did have a lucky escape with the advice we were given, never to put baby to sleep on their backs. Nowadays, that is exactly what you DO have to do.

My mother (some of you will remember her weird and wonderful pronouncements) told me that children with sticking out ears had not been put to sleep on their sides to correct it. DG has inherited her father's sticky out ears....mother thought DH was absolutely perfect so we didn't hear much about that again.

I hated the ever-full nappy bucket full of Napisan with a vengeance.
Although I know they are bad for the environment, today's disposables are a piece of cake.

I had a large lidded steriliser that was filled with Milton solution. I used terries for DD but succumbed to disposables for DS. (this was '80s) So have no problems using those.
We have always used a 2ml syringe to dispense Calpol as DGS was prescribed it for other drugs he needs.

I'm fine with all of it except I have never mastered DD's buggy. I always take my own inexpensive umbrella fold with me. I have no problems with that.

Oh yes, the never ending bucket of Napisan. I had two children under two and it was hard going, two buckets of stinkiness every day.

My mum loved the nappy pins and I gave her two, to help with her knitting a cable stitch jumper.

Because we were hard up I started using baby lotion and cream as skin cream for myself. In late sixties now and my skin doesn't have a lot of wrinkles.

Ooh I do think baby wipes are better than cotton wool and lotion.