Recall something (wrong) your parent did when you were a kid

[Teresa Pitman]

This is a story about me as a parent. I never spanked my kids and avoid punishments, so this really stood out and my kids still talk about it. On our very first trip to WDW, we went with another family - eight of us in a seven-passenger van, driving from Canada. It was a very long drive. I was the one sitting half-off the bench seat in the second row, and feeling really uncomfortable. To try to get more comfortable, I stuck my legs up in the gap between the driver's seat and the front passenger seat. My oldest son, then 14, was in the front passenger seat. He decided he didn't like my legs up beside his seat (maybe my feet smelled bad) and pushed them back. It hurt. Without even thinking, I punched him in the shoulder! Everyone was completely shocked. I don't think he spoke to me for the rest of the day. At the next rest stop we all changed seats. If my kids were on this board, that's the story they'd tell.

 

[SirDuff]

Nothing major, but this comes to mind:

When I was about 4, I was grocery shopping with my mom and asked for some Honeycomb cereal. I'd never had it, but the commercial made it look so dang good (Honeycomb's big, yeahyeahyeah...it's not small, nonono...).

She leaned down and very conspiratorially whispered that I didn't really want that cereal....because "Honeycomb" was French for s**t.

I totally believed her, and for years would argue with my friends about it.

You evil awful person.



Now I have that song stuck in my head

 

[WorldWacky]

We didn't all have Leave it to Beaver childhoods. That's why when people say "let's go back to a simpler time" I just laugh. Seriously. We just didn't talk as much "back then" about how imperfect our lives actually were. What I experienced with my family was by no means that "unusual."

I know. That's what's so sad about it. Too many people have had experiences like yours.

 

[scrapquitler]

I remember this one from my Dad. My brothers and I still laugh about it, and Mom always just rolled her eyes. Dad and his friends were hanging around in our yard having a couple beers and playing horseshoes, and they decided to burn some brush from Dad's landscaping earlier in the weekend, which was not legal to do in our town. So they started this bonfire in the backyard fire circle (it was not a fire pit, more like the fire circle you'd have at a campground)....and we were all out there and it was smoking like crazy because all the branches were green. And then Dad heard the firetruck sirens approaching....so he went in the house, got a package of hot dogs, stuck them on sticks and handed them to all the kids and told us "cook your hotdogs!" When the firemen pulled up (and my Dad knew them all, of course), he asked them all if they wanted hot dogs. They ended up just leaving, and we carried on with our smoky bonfire. I guess someone had seen the smoke and was worried there was a real fire.

 

[Bec3b1g]

Unfortunately none lighthearted enough to share here

+1

Mine are too dark for a Disney board. I'll save it for my therapist

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Well, there was the time we were homeless and lived in a tent for 3 months...

 

[Donnainnj]

The one I remember the best would have to be the Christmas morning dad asked us to bring the gifts out to the car. I grabbed a pile with an unwrapped watch on top. The Seiko my dad had gotten for his best friend that probably cost him about $79 in 1980. Well the box slipped off the pile, opened up, and the watch hit the sidewalk scratching up the face. Dad comes to the door in his underwear, cursing up a storm. Telling me I am a blankity blank. Boy have we used that story over the years.

The one that probably made the most impression on who I am would be giving me the idea that my mom gave us up because of money when it was really because she had a nervous breakdown. Not even sure what was said or by who, but my 8 year old brain thought it was all about money.

 

[NuJoy]

I was raised in a cult-like religion, where my dad had a lot of control there and a God complex at home. Enough said.

 

[mickeyboat]

There was a time when I could have written a book. There is nothing really terrible, but they were not perfect parents. Now that I am a parent myself, I tend to give them a break. Because I am not a perfect parent, either. I hope my children never go on a message board to list a litany of my sins. Almost all of us are just trying to do their best.

 

[TeresaBelle]

My dad hitchhiked with my little brother and I in tow... on more than one occasion.

 

[Minnesota!]

My parents were pretty typical 70s parents. I got a few spankings and had to hold soap in my mouth if I sassed, but very infrequently.
But, we still give dad grief for one particular parenting "fail."

I was probably about 6-8 years old. It was winter and dad was watching football. I was playing and kept getting between dad and the tv. He warned me several times...
He finally lost his temper, scooped me up, carried me up the stairs to the back door, and threw me out into a snowdrift in just my pajamas and socks. Then closed and locked the door.
(Just long enough to scare the crap out of me, then opened the door and let me back in.)

I CLEARLY remember seeing his face through the door as he closed it and hearing the lock turn. I'm sure it would be considered abuse by today's standards, but he certainly got my attention... and I played on the other side of our large finished basement after that.

We got threatened with, and a few follow throughs with, being tossed in a snow bank. Pretty sure 1)we deserved it and 2) we enjoyed it

 

[chiefmickeymouse]

My mom has a heart of gold, always wanting to help people, and when we were kids she worked in several different homeless shelters. Every once in a while they would get a woman they could not place, and my mom would bring them home. One drank all of our cough syrup and vanilla extract. One robbed us, then there was the girl that my mom brought home and moved her into my bedroom, with me, for three months. That one was the kicker. Mom had the best of intentions, but you know what they say about that.

 

[RangerPooh]

You know the scene in Sweet Home Alabama where Reece Witherspoon's character says "you have a baby, in a bar" well that was me as a preschooler. My dad's younger sister babysat me only a few times, but when she did she took me with her to the bar that she worked at. I don't remember much other than having Shirley Temples and being told to never tell my parents about it.

As for my parents, the worst thing would have to be when my mom single handedly destroyed a friendship with one of my closest friends. Apparently my mom suggested to her that she coordinate something for my 18th birthday as I would always help to coordinate things for others. When I didn't have the experience that she wanted my mom apparently chewed her out for it. Fast forward summer following high school graduation and this friend officially cuts me off. I spent the next three years completely stupefied that our friendship had ended. It wasn't until I came home from school for a friends 21st birthday that I finally got her to tell me about what why she cut me off.

 

[kamik86]

I heard tons of them from before I was born (I was kid number 4 and 17 years after the first so my parents got most of their really crazy things out of the way before I was around lol)

The best one I can remember was that I got the chicken pox the last week of 2nd grade. Well I got it on the weekend then there was a full week and monday and tuesday of the week after.

The friday of the full week was the big school end of year carnival. I went in that day because I was better by every criteria we had heard of. Every pox was scabbed over. My fever broke wed night so 24 hours without a fever etc. Nurse had to clear me to go back and she even said I was good.... then she looked at the calendar and said I hadn't been out a full week so she wouldn't let me go. Mom brought me home dumped me off with my older sister (who was an adult but still living at home without a job) and went BACK to the school to still volunteer all day. I was so mad at her for doing this. If I couldn't go because the nurse was so hung on time I thought she should have told the school that she would have to stay home to watch me all day and couldn't do the fair... Honestly I still don't understand why she went I sure wouldn't have if this was my kid... not even because I think they should have let me stay... I can understand the nurse had her own stupid bureaucracy rules she had to follow but I wouldn't go chaperone a field trip or another school activity if my kid was too sick to go to it.

Dad agreed with me when he got home from work and found out what happened. He told me that if I have to be out for a full week that was 7 days so Monday and Tuesday I would have to stay out too and to just start summer vacation early. He brought me in just to clean out my desk and get my final report card. Mom was mad that he was letting me skip school but Dad didn't care.

 

[leebee]

My dad used to take my sister and me with him to "The Club" on weekend afternoons. He was a member of the local VFW and he'd go up to drink and chat with his buddies. My sister and I ate hot dogs, played bumper pool, and generally had a great time. There were a couple other members who'd bring their kids sometimes, so there were other kids to hang out with. I can't imagine anyone these days taking their kids to a bar or social club to "hang out" while they hung out and drank with their friends, but I guess it was OK back then.

The other thing they used to do was take us out driving around while they were drinking. My sister and I LOVED to do this, thought it was the most incredible fun. My parents and a friend (Auntie Mac, sometimes she lived with us, sometimes not, turns out she was my grandfather's mistress for years and married him when my grandmother died) would mix half-gallon glass jugs of screwdrivers (OJ and vodka, typically 2 jugs), they'd get in the front seat and my sister and I'd pile in the back. No seat belts, of course; cars didn't have seat belts in the early-to-mid 60s. The adults would drink and drive around the back roads of York County, with my sister and me in the back, laughing and having a great time. Not sure why we loved it so much (especially as all 3 adults smoked- Daddy smoked CIGARS), but we did.

I also remember going to a few summer BBQs where the main meat was deer, shot illegally, out of season. So exciting to be part of the hush-hush, and to speculate on the "trouble" we were flirting with! There were also the occasions when "locals" would show up at the house with bushel baskets of "short" lobsters for us to buy. Once again, illegal, but exciting just the same!

Other than that, my parents did all the usual "horrifying" things that everyone else's parents did: Yelled at us when we were obnoxious, washed our mouths with soap for swearing, gave us the occasional butt-smack if we were really bad, let us ride bikes all over the place (helmets? unheard of for bikes), play wherever we wanted as long as it was in yelling distance ("Lee Ellllllllllllen, come hoooooooooooome!"), walk to the bus stop and wait there with the other kids but NO parents, have toys with strings and small parts and sharp pieces, no seat belts, etc.

 

[scrapquitler]

My dad used to take my sister and me with him to "The Club" on weekend afternoons. He was a member of the local VFW and he'd go up to drink and chat with his buddies. My sister and I ate hot dogs, played bumper pool, and generally had a great time. There were a couple other members who'd bring their kids sometimes, so there were other kids to hang out with. I can't imagine anyone these days taking their kids to a bar or social club to "hang out" while they hung out and drank with their friends, but I guess it was OK back then.

This was us, in the Elks Club rather than the VFW.

 

[threecrazykids]

My parents were (for the most part) people who followed rules. They were very loving parents, but very serious about raising us right.

Therefore, these two things really stand out:

My dad sometimes allowed us to sit on his lap while he drove and steer as he pressed the pedal. I am talking we were about 5 and 6 years old. I loved it!

And the biggest "I can't believe he did that" moment of my life was when we were cut off by a driver who beeped the horn at us for a very long time prior to cutting us off. It made my dad so angry. My dad rushed to pass him again (pretty darn fast) and told me to give him the finger out the window!!! Which, of course, I gladly did. He made me promise never to tell my mom, and I never did

I can't stop giggling at this one...I was telling my daughter about this as we were driving and she says "can I do that to the next car we pass ?"! Um no...not for no reason anyway!! LOL

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

That they had to try five times before they got it right!

Yes, I am the youngest of five, why do you ask?

 

[scrapquitler]

My parents owned a store and had a delivery van (you know, the serial killer style one, with just two seats in the front and no windows except the rear window). We had a family of 5, and used to always drive to Northern Maine to visit a relatives cottage on a lake for vacation...and we'd always go in the store's van because it was bigger than our Pinto. Anyway, Dad would always put an army cot and a couple of folding lawn chairs in the back of the van so that my brothers and I had a place to sit on that 10 hour ride if we didn't feel like sitting on the floor or on the suitcases.

And back when I was in 6th grade and my brother was in 4th, oil prices were sky high, gas was rationed and my father was stressed about money, so he decided that we would heat primarily with our wood stove that winter. As a result, we needed a lot of chopped wood for fuel. Well who was going to split all that wood? Mom and Dad were busy running their business, so while they were at work, our after school chore that fall was to grab the axes and chop all the wood. While Mom and Dad weren't home. And we were also babysitting our younger brother who was around 5. I think if I tried to have my kids doing that, unsupervised, someone would call CPS on me.

 

[threecrazykids]

Some of my most memorable moments of my grandfather were things he let me do that he shouldn't have, but oh did I love that man! One of the most memorable ones was when he thought it would be a great idea to let me drive his john boat at about 4, no more than 5 years old. He sat AT THE FRONT OF THE BOAT (I'm sure with a beer in hand) and gave me the throttle and told me to drive us back to the cabin from about 2 miles down the river. I was SUPER excited and just hammered on it...he didn't even flinch when I drove us straight into the bank launching us forward. He calmly says "back 'er up and straighten 'er out...we got a ways to go yet".

My great grandparents also gave us a tablespoon of whiskey and sugar mix to cure every ailment we had. Sore throat? Whiskey and sugar! Upset tummy or headache? Whiskey and sugar! That miraculously cured everything! But don't ask for more than one shot because Grandma would scold you good about not becoming a drunk.