Crazy shit your parents did

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was born in 1980, my parents were diplomats. When we were posted in West Africa my mom let me drive myself to school on a moped. I was in 5th grade, it was AWESOME!!!!

I lived in South East Asia during middle school and my best friend and I would ride around on her parent's motorcycle all the time (with no helmets). This was in 7th-8th grade and it was one of those little motorcycles that are common in theater of the world, bigger than a Vespa but not by much.

In the same SEA country, my siblings and I would go exploring in the allies around the city on our bicycles.

[Anonymous]

In general, I do think my parents were good, and attentive. But, like others on this board, I am paying for the sun burns. I am very fair, and blonde, like my father. My mom thought I was too pale, and used to slather me skin with baby oil, and force me to stay outside for a certain length of time and sun bathe. I'm paying for it now with several basal cell carcinomas, a squamous cell carcinoma, and many severely atypical moles that have had to be removed.

[Anonymous]

I so wish you could leave kids in the car these days -- alas, buckle, unbuckle, buckle, unbuckle...*le sigh*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We immigrated here from South Asia when I was 6, so lots of crazy things, but my favorite one was not allowing me to sleep over at my white friends' houses because "if there was a fire, the parents would save the white children first" WTF

haha!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In general, I do think my parents were good, and attentive. But, like others on this board, I am paying for the sun burns. I am very fair, and blonde, like my father. My mom thought I was too pale, and used to slather me skin with baby oil, and force me to stay outside for a certain length of time and sun bathe. I'm paying for it now with several basal cell carcinomas, a squamous cell carcinoma, and many severely atypical moles that have had to be removed.

Oh my gosh this reminded me that my mom made me go to the tanning bed at age 10 to prepare my fair skin for a trip to Hawaii! Oh my word. What were these women thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Throwing us in the back of the wagon in sleeping bags for long road trips.

We did this, too. My parents would regularly visit friends for parties and leave us sleeping in the back of the station wagon parked outside the house.

Yeah I can remember my parents putting us in the back seat of the parked car to sleep at parties once it got late and then they'd go back into the party.

Standard upper middle class behavior in he the seventies!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents gave no shits about whether or not I was bored.

Nothing crazy about that. It was your job to entertain yourself.

If I was dumb enough to complain about being bored, I'd immediately be given some unpleasant / onerous task ("hey go outside and weed the yard in the summer heat!") so I quickly learned neeeeeever to say I was bored.

Yup, my mom used that tactic as well.

I didn't think it was my parents' job to entertain me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents did some ridiculously callous things by today's standards, but this stands out in my mind as the most egregious: My dad dropped us off at Disney World and went to the airplane museum and flew a biplane. He still brags about it today. Gets all salty and eye-rolly when I remind him that in doing so he also abandoned four kids at Disney for the entire day (open to close), with the oldest being about 11 or 12.

Maybe abandoned is dramatic? We were fine, in fact I (the oldest) even contemplated leading the group to Pleasure Island once it started getting dark and he wasn't back yet. But can you imagine that now? Two 11- or 12-year olds, a 9-year-old and a 5-year-old! No cell phones, either. Oy.

I think that was fine. Two 12 year olds should be able to take care of a nine and five year old at Disney for a day. If that's the worst thing your dad ever did, you're pretty lucky.

[Anonymous]

Funny, if you asked me this question in the early 80's I would have said that my mother slathered me is SPF50+ (she was over the moon when she found 75 and 100) and made me wear long sleeves when swimming. It was awful and I absolutely hated it. Who knew?

[Anonymous]

Crossing Beacon Street, the trolley tracks and then the other side of Beacon street with my 2 year old sister (I was 5)... alone.

Though this was in the late 60's

[Anonymous]

Early 90s, my dad let me and my friend drive his car to the corner store-- where we promptly rear-ended a friend of the family. We were 13.

[Anonymous]

My dad used to scream in my face that I was ugly. I was 4, 5 years old at the time.

When I was 9 he started screaming--in front of me and a houseful of guests we had for Thanksgiving--that I was ugly and "no one would ever take me to prom"--said in a tone that implied that not going to prom was, like, truly tragic.

When I got engaged to DH, I called my dad (my mom is dead) to tell him that "SoandSo proposed!" He snickered and said, "with what? a ring? to really get married?" like implying it was fake or DH was leading me on or joking me or something.

Dad is a shithead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dad used to scream in my face that I was ugly. I was 4, 5 years old at the time.

When I was 9 he started screaming--in front of me and a houseful of guests we had for Thanksgiving--that I was ugly and "no one would ever take me to prom"--said in a tone that implied that not going to prom was, like, truly tragic.

When I got engaged to DH, I called my dad (my mom is dead) to tell him that "SoandSo proposed!" He snickered and said, "with what? a ring? to really get married?" like implying it was fake or DH was leading me on or joking me or something.

Dad is a shithead.

Please tell he is no longer part of your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was not young (18), but was in florida looking at colleges with my mom. My mom was leaving my father, and drove me to FL, and was going to rent a place for a couple of months to sort out her life.

I was supposed to fly home from Orlando, but there was an ice storm and flights were canceled. (this was right after the plane crashed into the 14th street bridge.). She left me in Orlando alone with a pre-paid motel room and a some cash.

The night before, I had met a girl at the pool. I ended up going with her family to Disney. The weird thing is this 14 yo girl's parents let her hang out all day with me -- an 18 yo boy/man).

We had a good time together (mostly PG, possibly PG-13, but nothing more).

Where did your mom go?

[Anonymous]

My mom would leave me in a playpen outside in the yard by myself at age 2. Once it collapsed on me (it was the kind you stretched out) and I was stuck inside it like a taquito for what seemed like forever.

My dad used to let me drive the car on his lap at around age 6 or 7.

My parents didn't pick me up from a swim meet. After waiting for an hour and a half, the coach drove me home. There was a note on the dining room table that they went to Boston for the weekend and they left a $20 bill. I was 9. I did have an older brother but he just left to his friends house. My brother would leave me home alone very frequently when he was supposed to be baby sitting me.