Mommy Licenses, or How Did OUR Mothers Keep Theirs?

[Amberle3]

I've read a couple of threads in the last few days about DISers worrying about being bad mothers. So I thought I'd start this one so we can all talk about things OUR mothers did that probably made them wonder about being good mothers, but we still love them anyway!

I'll start with 2:
- As an infant, I was in the store with my mother grocery shopping. This was pre-seatbelts in shopping carts days. I was probably the poster child for putting seatbelts in. I apparently was leaning forward for whatever reason, and fell right out of the cart, onto the floor, on my head. Thank goodness it was winter and I was wearing a snowsuit with one of those butt-ugly huge pompoms on the top, 'cause that's what I landed on! I'm sure my mother was frantic.
- As a toddler, I decided I was going to entertain the cat (???? like that's a logical thing to do????) by jumping around on the stairs. I missed, fell backwards and since I was the top of the stairs I fell down the whole flight. Onto the basement floor. Concrete. I still have the bump on the back of my head from that. I'm sure my mother chastised herself for not keeping a closer eye on me.

And yet, I still love my mother! I think she's the greatest.

So those of you worrying about having your mommy licenses revoked, fear not. It's happened to the best of them.

Alright now, I know there are other people out there with stories! Let's hear 'em!

 

[NMAmy]

My mother smoked 2 packs a day while pregnant for me and was in bed eating steak and eggs when she went into labor. I believe she was even allowed to smoke in the labor room (but had to put it out when she was wheeled into the delivery room!)

We rode in the back of the station wagon with no seat belts (seat belts were stuffed into the seats because they got in the way!), we rode bikes without helmets, we ran wild around the neighborhood all summer. One day before going to get family pictures taken, my younger sister decided to crawl into the doll's high chair--it broke and she had a huge black eye. As we left the house, I fell in the gravel driveway and got this huge icky bloody scrape on my knee. (She said she felt like a child abuser as she got us into the car that day!) She also smoked around us incessantly--I remember going around the house putting out cigarettes she left burning!

I figure my daughter has got it made in the shade! I've had my share of bad mommy moments--but things were sure different back then!

 

[MAC3]

I worship the ground my Mother walks on. While we were young my Mom worked late nights as a waitress @ a late night diner.

My Dad left before we got up in the am. My Mom was sleeping while my brother & I got up. I was hungry so my brother decided he would feed me .............DRAINO! I was in the hospital, with tubes down my throat for weeks. A 2 & 3 yr old?

Neglectful, nope she was a hard working woman and I couldn't blame her in the slightest. Thank God that was then. I'm glad things have changed for our children.

We also used to take trips in the car where we would put the baby up in the back window sleeping. Never sunblock or seatbelts.

P.S. She was a smoker too.

 

[Belle1962]

On our way to TDY in Okinawa there was some type of mixup and we got stuck in CA somewhere. My mom dropped us 3 kids (6, 5 and3) off at a daycare while she straigtened it out. She returned the daycare and got my brother and sister and was almost to the airport when she realized my brother was NOT joking when he kept asking her 'isn't Lou Ann moving to Okinawa with us?". She always claimed she thought I was hiding behind her seat in the car.

 

[Amberle3]

Oh yeah, I remember riding in the back of the station wagon too. Seems like so long ago! And now when I see kids that aren't belted in, I think "wow, how dangerous!". Times have changed, haven't they?

I also had a little baking mishap when I was about 5, when I set the oven on fire. We had company staying with us and I decided I was going to make muffins. My mother had stored the plastic dish rack in the oven to keep it out of sight (why, I don't know), and I of course didn't look in the oven before I turned it on. I'm sure we didn't have a smoke detector back then (this was about 30 years ago) so my mother woke up to me telling her the oven was on fire.

Once it had cooled sufficiently, my mother took managed to get the melted green plastic mess out of the oven. My grandfather was over later that day and thought that it was definitely better than a lot of modern art he'd seen, so he took it home and hung it on the wall! It stayed there for several years.

 

[dizagain]

My mom put me (in my "infant seat" ) on top of the car to do something and then drove off with me up there. My seat fell upside down on the garage floor. I can't imagine how long it took my mom to pick it up thinking I was smashed. She HAD strapped me into the seat and I never touched the ground!! Everyone says that's what's wrong with me today... That along with all the rides in backs of pick-up-trucks, naps during car trips in the back of the station wagon, and soda whenever I wanted...

 

[SC Minnie]

I fell out of the car while in the driveway at 3 or 4. I still have a scar on my forehead.

The summer after I finished kindergarten at 5 and by brother was 9 we talked Mom into letting up stay home by ourselves for the summer. Parents would be arrested for doing that these days.

 

[GoodFairies]

Oh man, in my family, we have tons of stories about stuff my mom has done.

Me as a baby:
I've been told I wouldn't settle down to sleep unless I was in my parents bed with them. So one night, my mom stuck me in bed with her. During the night she put her pillow over my face and my thrashing woke my dad up who then "rescued" me. Of course it didn't wake her up.

Me as a toddler:
My mom also was (is) a smoker. She discarded her cigarette one day by tossing it down to the ground. A few minutes later I said "Mommy, my pants are smoking." She had thrown her cigarette into my cuffed pants leg.

Me as an adult:
A few years ago I was visiting my parents one afternoon. My mom was using a scripto lighter to light candles all around the house. She is a candle freak so she probably lit 15 candles or so that day. I was sitting as the kitchen table when all of a sudden the back of my neck gets burned and it hurts like @#%! My mom had touched me with the end of the lighter she had just used to light those 15 or so candles. Her excuse was "She didn't think it would be hot." (I never said she was a genius).

Also, it is a general rule (even today) never to go to my mom if you are hurt, because she laughs at you, and she laughs so hard that she is no help to you at all. Thank god for my dad.

 

[JerseyJanice]

My mother was another major chain smoker. (No wonder she died from a stroke at age 61.)

I can remember her with a butt hanging out of her mouth while she changed my younger brother's diapers. In fact, she did the same with her grandkids. Never saw a thing wrong with smoking a lot anytime, anywhere. (And she was an RN!)

When we took car trips, no one ever wanted to sit behind her. Why? Because she was constantly flicking her ashes out the little triangular window that all 60's/70's cars had. And if you were the poor soul behind her, you wound up with a face full of ashes. (Back then, most cars didn't have air conditioning--had to keep the windows open in the summer.)

And she was tough too. If I tried to wear make-up before I was 16, there was Hell to pay. She didn't tolerate much nonsense. If one of us acted up in a store or other public place, she let us have it, right there and then.

 

[coliebird]

We always rode in the back of the station wagon, no seatbelts. We also laid down across the backseat to sleep.

When I was probably between 12 - 18 months or so, my mom went out and left my dad in charge (big mistake lol). I was upstairs (and there were no gates on the stairs). I took a tumble down 15 or so steps right into a bookcase.

When I was 2 I had my tonsils removed. Driving home from the hospital I sat on my mother's lap on the front seat. The brakes went in the car. I don't know how my dad managed to control it so we didn't crash into anything and get hurt.

When I was 3 (1974) we were at my grandmother's house in Queens. All the kids were outside playing. Nobody took any notice of me as I wandered away. My uncle found me just as I was about to cross Jamaica Avenue. My parents would be arrested if that happened today.

 

[momm2four]

When I was 16, my mom took a temporary job at another Post office that was a little over an hour away from our house. Therefore, she would sometimes stay at the Y there during the week.

One weeknight, during the summer, she gave me permission to stay over at a friend's house....she just forgot to tell my dad. My dad spent the entire night driving all over our town looking for me (lived in spread out eastern NC town), just knowing I was lying in a ditch somewhere. He didn't call my mom b/c he didn't want her to worry.

I called home the next day, my brother answers the phone (he was 12) and hears my voice...he just broke down crying. When I learned my dad was looking for me, I drove over to my boyfriend's house, where he would probably look for me. Sure enough, he came by again as he had already driven by there several times, and when he saw me, he just broke down.

Now that I'm a parent, I can just imagine the anguish he went through. Driving and driving, just hoping to get a glimpse of my little red car. I'm sure those 10-12 hours must have seemed like days.

I guess what my mom did wasn't dangerous, but it sure put my dad through hell.

Lori P.

 

[stinkerbelle]

My mother smoked when she was pregnant with me...and then again with my brother. Her doctor said it was fine and to just cut down some so that breathing would be easier during labor.
Her doc actually said she's have to smoke 10 packs a day to do damage to us. heheh

once when driving on the highway going over a bridge, my younger brother decided it would be funny to open the car door. (as there were no auto-locks/child locks on the chevy wagon) he was in the backseat, passenger side, and just opened the car door. Lord knows how my mom was able to keep the car on the road when she reached into the back to pull my brother away from the door and close the door.

I was probably riding in the back of the wagon w/o a seat belt on when this happened! heheh

we all turned out fine - right?

 

[Annette_VA]

~ My mom said she's surprised my older sister didn't come out craving beer & pizza, since that's all my mom drank when she was pg

~ My sister tried to push me out of a moving car - just opened the door right up

~ We always slept laying down in the back of the hatchback coming home from my grandparents

 

[missypie]

When my mom was pregnant with me, the doctor thought she had gained too much weight (I think 15 lbs), so he gave her pills to take. It was speed.

My SIL, who is a year older than me, went blind in one eye as an adult. Her doctor suspects that it's related to when her mom was x-rayed while pregnant with her (intentionally, in the belly - to see if she was carrying twins!!!)

Think how smart we'd all be if our moms hadn't smoked, drank or taken drugs when they were pregnant with us!!! Those stories always make me wonder what WE'RE doing that will horrify our kids when they are adults. ("You mean you took PRENATAL VITAMINS? No wonder I can't read well...")

 

[Pooh67_68]

My mom smoked till 15yrs ago and I had Asthma as a baby(still do).

Once while shopping, she was holding me and pregnant for my sister and almost fell down an escalator, luckily the gentleman behind her grabbed her just before she went over. (mom thinks that is why I hate escalators).

My sister and I never wore seatbealts, and always laid down in the back of the car when tired. Also rode in the back of pick-up trucks.

Once when dropping my sister and I off at school, mom did not hear me say I was going around the front of the car, and hit me with the car as she was pulling away.

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

Let's see...

When I tried to teach my sister to fly (she was 3; I was 5), my sisted dove off the top bunk of a bunkbed and crash landed on the windowsill. About a dozen stitches in the chin later, she was back at it again.

We lived in an upstairs/downstairs duplex, and I apparently worshiped the 5 yo boy upstaris when I was 3. So much so, that I followed him 20 feet up vertical pine tree. Once our mothers managed to get us down, he got a major beating for that! No one called the police!

Never wore a seatbelt. In fact on one particualarly long road trip (without VCRs or DVDs ), my sister and I swapped sleeping across the back seat or sleeping across the floor behind the front seat.

My dad drove an MG and my sister and I spent many a trip in the "back seat" of that vehicle.

Mom drank Pepsi thru both pregnancies.

Sister and I turned out just fine, as my mother CONSTANTLY points out when I mentioned the newest safety things!

 

[chesirechik]

We had a station wagon and would put all the seats down and would have my mom brake hard so we would tumble around.

Not me, but my brother:
He used to stand on the end of carts in grocery stores facing the person pushing. She let go of the cart to look at something and the cart flipped over and landed on top of him with all the groceries. Something plastic hit him hard and he had DAIRY spelled backwards on his forehead for months

I used to sit on the rack underneath on carts in the grocery store. On day I decided to stick my finger down the wheel cover and ripped my fingernail off.

We used to have a small blow up pool in the backyard that towards the end of summer had got all full of alge and was all green. We conned my dad into letting us swim in it.

 

[stinkerbelle]

Originally posted by chesirechik
We had a station wagon and would put all the seats down and would have my mom brake hard so we would tumble around.

Ahh..this reminded me of something my FATHER did when we were kids.

There was a road in the town I grew up in that my brother and I called "roller coaster road"...

because when my father would go flying down this road, our butts would come a good 5 inches off our seats.

of course we weren't wearing seatbelts!

oh - and my mom would let me have a brownie for breakfast if I wanted. (heck - it had eggs in it didn't it? heheh)

 

[sk!mom]

My parents had 5 kids which was about 3 more than they had the organizational skills for. They were constantly leaving us places.

First time- When they only had 3 they left my newborn baby sister in a shoe store. I was 2 and my 3 year old sister started having a fit in the store. My dad took her outside to wait leaving my mom to pay and keep up with me and the baby. She thought he took the baby. They realized that they left her as soon as mom got outside. She made Dad go back in for her.

They left my youngest sister (child number 5) at church not once but twice, Once they left her in the nursery and the nursery attendant called to see if they wanted her to drop the baby home. Again they each thought that the other had her. When she was about 5, they left her asleep on a back pew. They realized when they both got home that they forgot her. She was still asleep when they went back for her.

Those are just two examples but it happened frequently to all of us.

The only scar that we seem to have from all this is small families. We all knew that we weren't up to the large family challenge and only my oldest sister has 3 children. The rest of us have one or two.

Truely my parents are great, just not very organized. My mom was the perfect mom for a large family- laid back and relaxed- necessary traits when you have so many kids.

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

These are hysterical!

I too rode in the back of the station wagon and LOVED it! Walked around the neighborhood by myself and had a great time!

When I was around 3 my parents put step ladders up to the swing sets/trapeze swing so we could reach the top and play on them. also they constructed a balance beam on 2 of those wooden sawhorses. I can't imagine that I didn't fall down. And that is a long way down for a 3-4 year old!

I adore my parents, and I do wish for the simpler days that we had when we were little. Now I can't even let my kids outside without eyeing them like a hawk!