My parents would give my little brother beer when he was a baby.
They would leave me & my older brother in the car for hours while they went shopping for 2-3 hours in the mall (in the 70s)

Reading Penthouse magazines found under the mattress after school (sorry Dad but that was not a good enough hiding place.)
Latchkey kid by 2nd grade (sorry Dad, 12-year-old brother did not stay at home, he is the worst babysitter ever)
Wooden coathangers/brushes when we came home after 6 pm, even though nobody had a watch.
Never got signed up/taken to any sports team, ever. Parents were done with that by the time I came around. Let me drop out of music lessons, too.
Left the crab RID right there in the medicine cabinet for anyone to see (nice one, Dad)
We would run out of food for dinner and make pancakes instead. Not because we wanted to but because there was nothing in the fridge.

My parents were wonderful people in many, many ways -- my father would give the shirt off his back to help anyone. But my first memory of my father is the two of us at a bar, The County Line Inn, which he took me to after a half day at Kindergarten. From the age of seven or so, we would be able to walk a few blocks to the local store to stock up on Camels and Virginia Slim Menthols for my parents. I learned how to make a good scotch and soda around 10. Later, in the high school years, my parents would send us home a pizza from the bar in the Italian restaurant down the street. 35 years later and I still have that bar's telephone number memorized.

Anonymous wrote:Some of the stories here are heartbreaking. I can't imagine the abuse some of you endured.

As for me, I loved my free-range 1970s-80s childhood. Summers were spent outside all day long until dark, and they had only a vague idea where I was. The worst thing my parents ever did was accidentally leave me behind at a gas station one time during a family vacation. Lol.

You have company on both counts.

Anonymous wrote:Wonderful World of Disney was on ABC on Sunday nights. We always watched it. I a always prayed it was something good and not a nature documentary

ME TOO!!!

Wonderful World of Disney was on ABC on Sunday nights. We always watched it. I a always prayed it was something good and not a nature documentary

Some of the stories here are heartbreaking. I can't imagine the abuse some of you endured.

As for me, I loved my free-range 1970s-80s childhood. Summers were spent outside all day long until dark, and they had only a vague idea where I was. The worst thing my parents ever did was accidentally leave me behind at a gas station one time during a family vacation. Lol.