What Parenting Practices did YOU survive?

[Puddy73]

My Mom is a great mother, but she often shakes her head in disbelief at the amount of time/money/concern that I devote to researching vaccines, CIO, carseats, etc. Her standard response is, "We did X and you survived." To her credit, my four siblings and I are all happy and healthy adults, in spite of the following:

Frequently riding in the back of a pickup truck with no restraints

Riding lying down in the back window of my grandmother's Buick while she smoked with the windows up

Being put on a feeding/sleeping schedule at 2 months

Watching four straight hours of cartoons and eating sugary cereal out of the box on Saturday so my parents could sleep in

Living in a non-childproofed house (unless you count being threatened with a spanking if we touched a dangerous item)

Flying down the hill next to our house using my brother's Tonka dump trucks as roller skates (no helmet, of course)

The list goes on and on. So, I'm curious, what practices did you "survive," but don't follow with your own children? I'm not trying to start any debates, it is just amazing to see how far we have come with regard to child safety and health issues.

Jennifer
Mommy to Annabelle 9/08/03 & Finn 10/31/05

"If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane." - Jimmy Buffett

[linsei]

I had to laugh when I read your post. My mom was pretty much like most of us are. Maybe not so much with the researching everything part, since they didn't have the WWW, but definitely as far as the safety part goes. I guess she was ahead of her time!

I wasn't allowed to ride my bike on the street unless she was watching (even when I was older in middle school age range), and we lived on a cul-de-sac street of 10 houses. My friends were all allowed to ride to the convenience store, which was pretty far away.

She never bought sugary cereal. I think I was the only kid eating bran flakes.

I did survive not being breast-fed. Apparently her doc told her to quit because she had a UTI. (?)

We never went anywhere smokey, even though my dad's family smoked. They all thought we were major prudes. :)

Linda

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[kath68]

By 4th grade I was walking a mile to school on my own, and then after school was allowed to wander by myself/with friends in our small downtown, go to the library, etc. I didn't have to check in -- so long as I showed up before dinner all was well.

[lmintzer]

My parents did a lot of what I would call good parenting. But a few things are pretty funny now looking back (or not so funny, depending on how you look at it):

1.) Riding home from the hospital as a newborn on Mom's lap
2.) Being given Karo syrup for constipation.
3.) Biking without helmets.
4.) They must have thought McDonalds was a good thing--I have a memory of them coaxing me to finish a hamburger, saying, "So-and-so (the neighbor's child can eat two of these". Actually, they typiccally fed me pretty healthy stuff. Maybe I just wasn't eating a lot as a preschooler and they thought any calories are good calories.

[kaylinsmommy2]

Your list is really cute.

Here's mine. I survived:
Driving home from the hosptial in my mom's arms.

Standing in the backseat of the car and talking my mom's ear off while she was driving the car.

Being breastfed for only 2 weeks before going on formula.

Stopping formula at about 9 months and drinking only adult not watered down juice.

ETA: my dad smoked until I was 5 or 6. I remember watching him blow smoke rings and I thought it was cool. When I was first born, my mom asked my ped to tell my dad not to smoke around the baby. The doc said "Why not?"

Caroline
mommy to Kaylin 6/5/04

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[kellyotn]

Funny thread!

We were given cereal in bottles at a few weeks old. She said her doc discouraged her from breastfeeding. We watched a lot of TV. Were very picky eaters. I rode a pony at a very young age. I had a snowmobile (and a helmet). I remember riding my bike (no helmet) in a very scary location/situation (blind curve, big hill, main street). When my brother was a toddler, he rode between my sister and I in the backseat of a t-bird in the middle location w/o a seat belt at all - he'd have shot straight through the windshield in a frontal collision, there was nothing in the way to stop him.

Oddly, we DID have car seats until we were two or three. I'm 36, and she says not one other person she knew used them. It was a monstorous contraption and unlikely to offer any protection looking back, but we did have them! I asked her why and she just said, "It seemed like a good idea. We didn't have big tank-cars like when I was a kid (in the 50's)." The seat was a very upright chair with a bar in front of the kid, black vinyl and metal. I'm not sure if it had an infant mode, but she did have something to bring us home from the hospital in, but I'm not sure what. She said the nurse chastised her "You don't want to HOLD your baby for the ride home!"

At a party a couple years ago, a friend's dad was talking about the car "seats" they had. (Friend is my age.) He said it was a harness that you put on the kid's chest and attached somehow to a bar in the bight of the seats. He asked "Do they still use those? They were great! Mary could stand up and jump around, but was still safe." I just said, "Umm, no, they don't make those anymore." ;)

My mom and MIL are great, I really don't get a lot of serious/annoying "Oh, my, how did you survive" comments. Sometimes they say it, but its more in a we've-come-a-long-way manner than a rolling-eyes manner.

[hautemama15]

well, riding in the car with no car seat or seatbelt is definitely one! Being fed formula, although I don't see anything "wrong" with it, riding a bike with no helmet, trick or treating ALONE with friends til 10PM at age 11, living with 2 smoking parents(not just regular cigarettes either! They were BIG hippies!), and no childproofing at all!

[TaChapm]

"Frequently riding in the back of a pickup truck with no restraints

Riding lying down in the back window of my grandmother's Buick while she smoked with the windows up

Being put on a feeding/sleeping schedule at 2 months

Watching four straight hours of cartoons and eating sugary cereal out of the box on Saturday so my parents could sleep in

Living in a non-childproofed house (unless you count being threatened with a spanking if we touched a dangerous item)

Flying down the hill next to our house using my brother's Tonka dump trucks as roller skates (no helmet, of course)"

OMG...This is too funny! I could have wrote your entire post except my grandma's car was a pale yellow Cadillac. We always rode in the back of my dad's truck. In fact when we would go on long trips they would put the camper shell on the back and throw a mattress from the sofa sleeper in there and that is how we would ride on long trips. I went on a weekend sleepover with one of my friends and we rode in the back of an El Camino (SP?) wide open down the highway on a 3 hour trip.

I was not BF at all and was put on Goats milk at 6 months.

We were fed cereal bottles at 3 days old.

I was spanked.

I was on a sleep and feeding schedule and slept like a dream from 2 weeks on.

We never had carseats.

It is so funny how things have changed. My mom says my sister and I were never sick. No colds, ear infections, allergies, or fever. I find that so hard to believe considering Jackson's medical history but it is true. Makes me wonder where I went wrong considering I am by the book other than BF. I was spanked and I was not a violent or aggressive teenager or adult. I do get a lot of eyerolls but my mom always follows my wishes because they are my children therefore my rules. If only my MIL would do the same.


Tara
Mommy to Jackson 11-10-02
Tyler William 6-9-05
OMG!!! Baby #3 Due September 5, 2006!

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[pb&j]

-Not being BFed
-Rice cereal in the bottle from birth(my mom is still trying to get me to do this with DS!)
-No infant carseat, just a little moses basket contraption on the floorboard
-The wooden highchair with the tray that flips overhead, and no restraints at all. I have vivid memories of sliding out of the highchair and banging my head on the footrest as I crashed to the ground.
-The toybox that my dad made with regular old hinges - nothing to hold it open but the strength of a three year old trying to get a toy. I had many pinched fingers on that thing.
-Various and sundry other toys, both homemade and store bought, with all kinds of parts that can choke/pinch/strangle/poison/etc.

The scary part is, my parents still have the toy box and the highchair and expect that DS will be using them! Yikes!



-Ry,
mom to Emma, stillborn 11/04/04
and Max, 01/05/06

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[starrynight]

Non childproofed home
Cutting my head open on the sharp corner of the coffee table because I was jumping on the couch
Going down the hill on a tricycle (and to go with that staying outside all day long with my brother, no supervision at 3-4 years old)

running barefoot outside all summer (I did get glass in my foot once)
My mom smoked around us all the time, so did my grandma
the cartoons all day
I'm pretty sure we rode on those same tonka trucks you mentioned LOL
being spanked a few times
no bike helmets
Riding loose in the back of a hatchback station wagon, no seatbelts
We did have carseats but I know we were out of them by 3 or 4

ETA: the old style toybox with the lid that snapped down, parts with small toys, trick or treating alone, yup all of those here too!

[Melanie]

Riding in a baby seat (not car seat) on the floor of the car.

Food at 2 weeks old.