Anonymous wrote:When we were about 6 or 7, my twin brother used to hunt for worms and then eat them. I told my mom, and she didn't believe me. One day I took her out to the woodpile, and showed her my brother swallowing worms.

Her response. . ."Eh, it doesn't seem to hurt him." Then went back inside the house.

Lol! This is me as a mother!

Anonymous wrote:When we were about 6 or 7, my twin brother used to hunt for worms and then eat them. I told my mom, and she didn't believe me. One day I took her out to the woodpile, and showed her my brother swallowing worms.

Her response. . ."Eh, it doesn't seem to hurt him." Then went back inside the house.

PP of this response. Should mention that my brother is now a research biologist, and has never been sick a day in his life.

When we were about 6 or 7, my twin brother used to hunt for worms and then eat them. I told my mom, and she didn't believe me. One day I took her out to the woodpile, and showed her my brother swallowing worms.

Her response. . ."Eh, it doesn't seem to hurt him." Then went back inside the house.

Smoking, wooden spoon spankings, letting us stay with their friends who were questionable at best and whose homes were not safe. We were left in the car a lot while my mom ran in. Sometimes she would have us go in and buy cigarettes for her. We pretty much never wore seatbelts. I remember playing on the floor of the car behind the seats or standing behind the driver's seat holding on to the back of it. We road in the back of pickups often. Definitely did the sleeping bags in the back of the car on roadtrips.

My dad took the cake, though. He often let us sit on his lap to steer the car while we drove down the road. If we were not on the road or on a private road he would just let us drive. He took us offroading and would get the vehicle stuck and then leave us in the vehicle in the woods to go get help. He had a truck with no seatbelts and I remember the door coming open while we were driving once and him grabbing me just in time before I fell out onto the road. All of these events were followed by a stern, "Don't tell your mom!"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mostly just normal stuff for me – rolling around the back of the car, the occasional wooden spoon, etc. I am the oldest of 4 (youngest is 9 years younger than me) and I was left alone to “babysit” the others while my parents went out at night once I was 11 or 12. This continued even when we moved to an East African country when I was 12. Perhaps they were comforted by the fact that there were panic buttons in every room, which if pressed would summon a group of armed guards.

Talk about burying the lede in humblebrags.
Moving your family to East Africa is - by far - the craziest thing they did.

That's not crazy that's cool!

My mom told me that the turkey, chicken, ham, and beef products she served were the result of animals who lived to old age and were found dead in the woods or whatnot. I believed her for years and was horrified when I found out the real story!

As the youngest of four kids during the California drought of the 70's, I didn't know what clean bath water looked like since I had to wait my turn for the tub that was not drained between each kid's bath.

Anonymous wrote:Mostly just normal stuff for me – rolling around the back of the car, the occasional wooden spoon, etc. I am the oldest of 4 (youngest is 9 years younger than me) and I was left alone to “babysit” the others while my parents went out at night once I was 11 or 12. This continued even when we moved to an East African country when I was 12. Perhaps they were comforted by the fact that there were panic buttons in every room, which if pressed would summon a group of armed guards.

I was paid to babysit others' children at age 11 and 12. Heck, I was a full time summer nanny for two kids at 13.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom used to give my brother and I Dramamine for motion sickness on long car trips. I DID get badly car sick, so this was on the advice of my pediatrician. My brother, however, just talked way too much, and the Dramamine knocked him out for hours. I remember hearing my parents snickering over this.

This made me laugh out loud. Sorry, PP.

Me too. I have one child that gets car sick and one that talks a lot and does not sleep, even on overnight trips. On our last roadtrip when she said her stomach didn't feel well she got the Dramamine straight away.

Anonymous wrote:Mostly just normal stuff for me – rolling around the back of the car, the occasional wooden spoon, etc. I am the oldest of 4 (youngest is 9 years younger than me) and I was left alone to “babysit” the others while my parents went out at night once I was 11 or 12. This continued even when we moved to an East African country when I was 12. Perhaps they were comforted by the fact that there were panic buttons in every room, which if pressed would summon a group of armed guards.

Talk about burying the lede in humblebrags.
Moving your family to East Africa is - by far - the craziest thing they did.

Mostly just normal stuff for me – rolling around the back of the car, the occasional wooden spoon, etc. I am the oldest of 4 (youngest is 9 years younger than me) and I was left alone to “babysit” the others while my parents went out at night once I was 11 or 12. This continued even when we moved to an East African country when I was 12. Perhaps they were comforted by the fact that there were panic buttons in every room, which if pressed would summon a group of armed guards.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. My parents had me when they were 31 and 34. They were both highly educated college professors. My mom has degrees in psychology and sociology. They're just assholes.

PP about alcoholic parent going on benders and my parents were "old" when they got married (30 and 31) and even older parents when they had me - they were 36 and 37 when I was born in 1968. Dad and Mom met in grad school. Again, like PP above, just assholes who made terrible, stupid decisions and lost interest in being parents about five years in...

Anonymous wrote:An old friend of mine was about 18 months old when her mom had to go out for the afternoon. She left her at home with her dad who wanted to fix some tiles on the roof, so he took his kid, my friend, up to the roof and nailed her clothes to the roof so she was stuck there, and in his mind safe, while he fixed what needed fixing.

The mother came home, saw this and promptly started divorce proceedings.

That's brilliant!

Well, if I were to list things that my dad did I would be called a troll. I still have nightmares! Let's just say one thing I have a hard time putting behind me is, my siblings and I were locked out as punishment or just because my dad was in a bad mood and we had to sleep outside or go to neighbor's for shelter. I wish I grew up in the US where we have child protective services and a "jail system"

Anonymous wrote:An old friend of mine was about 18 months old when her mom had to go out for the afternoon. She left her at home with her dad who wanted to fix some tiles on the roof, so he took his kid, my friend, up to the roof and nailed her clothes to the roof so she was stuck there, and in his mind safe, while he fixed what needed fixing.

The mother came home, saw this and promptly started divorce proceedings.

Divorce proceedings?