I don’t consider myself a safety nut as far as my daughter is concerned, but I guess in comparison to how I was raised, to how many of us were raised I am certainly more nutty about safety.
A few examples:
- I’m pretty sure I was never in a car seat. Ever! They wouldn’t let me bring my daughter home from the hospital without a car seat.
- I didn’t wear a helmet on my bike until I was in my 30s. Now they make helmets for your kids to just wear around the house (that seems a little excessive).
- Honey and peanut butter were given to me in the first year of my life and somehow I survived. My poor mother tried to give my daughter honey when she was less than a year old and you should have heard me (I know the neighbors did); it wasn’t pretty.
- Once, I wouldn’t stop crying and my mom said that if I didn’t stop she would make me get out of the car. I didn’t stop. She made me get out of the car and I stood stunned on the sidewalk as she drove away. Don’t worry, she just drove around the block and picked me up. Would I ever leave my daughter on the side of the road now? Hell, NO!
- I ate all kinds of candy from Mexico that apparently had lead on the packaging. I still eat that candy and apparently the packaging still has lead on it. I won’t let my daughter eat it, though.
- My mother would diligently make me a health shake with a shot of “vitamin liquid” and a raw egg in it every morning and send me to school. Turns out that “vitamin liquid” was just a shot of booze and raw eggs, I think nowadays Child Protective Services would be called if you give a child raw eggs.
A lot of these safety concerns seem like common sense nowadays, but that’s the thing about “common sense” it’s not really common until it is. I try not to overdo it with the safety concerns. My house isn’t “child-proof,” except for the cabinet under the sink. I know there will be bumps and bruises along the way. I do my best to keep my child safe, but I don’t want to be neurotic about it.
Remember when they would cram, like, five kids in the back of a station wagon?
I think most things are better now and safer for children. Like you, when I was young there were no seat belts, no car seats. I know you are a caring and diligent mother doing the best you can.
Times have definitely changed!
And, we all ate raw cookie dough without getting salmonella!
OMG, Mami. For reals, I sat on the floor behind my parents' seats in the car.
My dad put me in the trunk once. For reals. Just for about 100 feet, but still.
I was dropped in the mountains on our way back from vacation because I wouldn't "knock it off" whatever it was. The drove around the next corner and came back. But I got em. I wasn't there! HA! I was in the woods wandering around. I was PISSED.
So funny about the car seat. My mother in law was like " what do I need a car seat for?" and totally serious about transporting my daughter (2yrs old). I simply said b/c you'd get arrested if found out b/c now a days it's illigal, LOL. She was shocked. Oh my how things change and funny that even though I never sat in a car seat there is no way I would let my kids be transported without their car seats 🙂 My mom left me on the side of the road like that too. ah ha. I can laugh about it but neve would I dream about doing that to one of my kids. Camp1974 makes a good point. My husband road in the back of an old station wagon from MA to FL (US) with his brother on vacation. LOL
When you look back, it's a miracle we survived our childhoods!
LOL – YOu know, I think I have all of those same memories… no seatbelt, no helmet, being left on the side of the road while my mom drove around the block, PB&H … it's a wonder we're still alive!!! 😉 But seriously, I think now days it's better safe than sorry. Except for the helmet in the house – sheesh!
Seat belts, too. When I grew up a seat belt was my mom's arm flying out to the right. I find myself doing that to this day.
GREAT post! So true…and I love Camp's comment before mine.
Yep…I remember that!
The first couple of years of Isabella's life I was VERY neurotic. But once Joey was born and he had so many problems I realized that doctors prescribe Vicotan for babies, Morphine for babies, and extremely hard core antibiotics…..a little chocolate won't hurt the kids.
I remember sitting on my grandmother's lap while she was driving! How's that for safe? But who am I to talk? I live in a small town in Mexico, where my kids ride in our truck's camper, play on the sidewalk and sometimes in the street and drink a "chocomil" made with raw egg everyday before school! 🙂
Excellent post, I really enjoyed reading it, it is true how things have changed.
Have a great afternoon!
I'm curious about the type of booze used in the vitamin liquid! And why raw egg? Your mom sounds like a really interesting character! And I mean that in a very good way! Things sure have changed with regards to safety but it's debatable if our world has become less safe. Big questions.
Vitamin liquid, huh? Maybe that's why so many kids are being diagnosed with ADHD these days…vitamin liquid deficiency! Girl, if my bladder was just 3 years older I would have wet the couch on that one!!
I can not even begin to imagine all the second hand smoke I inhaled as a kid. Oh well, we're both still alive and I am sure that I ate all sorts of lead too.
You know…I don't know what the car seat situation was for me either. I need to ask my mom. I definitely know that I never wore a bike helmet. Mostly because I still don't.
I laughed my but off because this is so me and my family. I wouldnt say I am a safety freak either, but I think you just described me HA! Dropping by to say hello and see what is going on.
OH…i got something for you… Go check it out
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Stay Fabulous
Chara
I know, I hear ya: a lot of things are good to be gone, too. Like the little metal cars we’d cut our hands on. Things like that.
The rest, well, germs are good for you, you know…
You know, based on what we know now, none of us should be alive!
Testing.
Times have changed… not sure if is for the better!!
I love that the vitamins were booze! And yet you grew up to be an intelligent, mostly sane lady. But your right I would still never do most of the things my mom did!
We also eat whatever we want in Mexico and have yet to be sick! I remember riding on the dash…. yes also the back window, but also up on the dash!
“Mostly sane” is true.
Hubby and I don't really childproof our house, except for the electrical outlets. This concerned my dad, who once said, “What if the kids try to get into the cabinets?” He looked at me like I was crazy when I said, “We'll tell them 'no'.” What a concept!
We only have one cabinet childproofed and that's the only one she ever tries to get into because she knows she can't. The other ones she's been told no and leaves them alone.
We drank out of the hose when we were thirsty.
We walked to school.
We rode the bus.
We did not wear helmets, or protective pads when playing sports. Mostly we played “pick up games” in the street and just stood to the side when a car came.
We knew our neighbors.
Our neighbors knew us.
We shared our lunches and no one had “nut” allergies.
We laid down in the back of our parent's station wagons (no seat belts)
I'm pretty sure my mother smoked when she was pregnant.
Teething? Rub your babies gums with alcohol (bourbon, vodka, whatever)
Problem with a teacher? YOUR problem. I went to Catholic School.. problem with a nun? Major YOUR problem.
We went swimming in creeks, ponds and rivers. No lifeguards.
Ear Ache? My mother put vodka in my ears.
When it was hot (in the summertime) we slept outside on the porch.
We experimented with alcohol, pot, cigarettes and sex. It was the 60's, 70's and 80's.
Me and my siblings are aged 35 through 55.
Somehow we made it.
Between us we are: engineers, VP's, business owners, teachers, career military, nurses, parents, grandparents, solid homeowners, citizens, voters, school board members and community leaders.
Go figure.
You should turn this into a post.
Ha – love this! My folks have pictures of me sleeping in a pulled out dresser drawer as a baby. Not the bottom dresser drawer..the top one -easier for them. This is probably why I still sleep in one position and never move during the night. Straight fear of falling out of a dresser.
They also used to leave me in a playpen outside nearby my sisters (5 yrs older). Which led to me being stung by over 70 bees as a 7month old-one of my sisters stuck a stick into an in-ground bee hive and then the older kids all ran and left the baby in the playpen. This is why people think playpens are dangerous, right?
Wow! I can not believe that bee story. I'm so glad you survived. My mother used to leave me to babysit my brother when I was 10 and he was 2. Once I was changing his diaper and needed more wipes. I left him on the ground and started to walk away. As soon as I turned my back, I got a funny feeling so I looked back and he had gotten on top of a rocking chair and promptly fell off and hit his forehead on the corner of a desk. He got a big open gash that would not stop bleeding. I was freaking out and this was before cellphones. I had no idea where my mother was. I called every relative that I could get a hold of and by the time my mom got home the place was swarmed with cars and relatives. He ended up getting 4 stitches. Did that stop her from having me babysit? Nope.
You know, I may…
I love the point that sense isn't common until it's been around… interesting observations!
My grandmother ( a total loon ) told me that she would put my dad in a playpen and go to work. She’d have the downstairs neighbor come up every four hours to give him a bottle and change him. (No wonder he wasn’t able to tell us he loved us unless he was intoxicated!)
He grew up basically alone in the streets of New Orleans in the French Quarter and somehow he survived. It makes me crazy that she could even consider doing that to a child.
Raising 11 kids I’ve gone from sterilizing everything and childproofing the entire house to “I don’t care if it fell on the floor. As long as the dog didn’t lick, or there’s no mold on it-eat it” and “Oh well, I guess that’ll teach you not to run in the house.” Oh, and “If my door is closed and there’s no blood or broken bones, DO NOT knock!”
Although I do have their cell phones, laptops and the TV all on lockdown and they can’t go to the park, mall, etc alone. They have to have at least one other sibling with them. We were able to play outside from morning til night as long as we were home by the time the street lights came on. My kids have to tell me every single place they’ll be, who they’ll be with and have to call to check in.
I love this. So true. I used to go out for hours as a child..friends homes, bike riding, up the street to the candy store. Now, I don't even let my kid go across the street.
Makes me think how much easier life was, and how much fun I am taking away from my son.
I used to stand up in the car and pretend I was surfing. We'd get sent out to play and we'd explore roofs and building basements, cut through alleys, and return 8 hours later. And this was in dangerous NYC in the '70's. I walked a kid to school when I was in first grade for 50 cents a week. And I always licked the beaters when mom made cake. Good times. Oh, I plugged you in my comments, Mami. http://kablooeyquest.blogspot.com/2010/06/52-pr…
yes I am with you. I was never in a carseat, but I always buckle the kids up. Times have really changed and yes you can teach your kid the word “No”…just wait until terrible two's! I have moved all the cleaning stuff out of the house in the garage or up high where he can't reach it…he has this thing with squirting things, anything with whatever he can get his hands on…one day he got into the kitchen cabinet under the sink and squirted the Ginger Boy I babysit all over the head with a vinegar cleaner I have, luckily he didn't get him in the eyes!
just a little note….I had a wv that made me think of you and your disdain for the wv lady. it was “movelych” which sounds like “movebitch” then I thought of that rap song that goes something like “moooove bitch, get outta my way”. Now the wv lady just became a dope rapper!
To be fair, more kids died then. But maybe the ones who survived were less wussy than our kids are probably going to be. Oh, wait, that would be us. Maybe not.
I remember riding in the back window of the car to lay down for long car trips. I am like you though…I try not to overdo the safety thing. Plus, everyone wants to scare the crap out of you over every little thing!
Best,
Tina
I remember bouncing around on the front seat with my mom driving as a little kid. Sometimes she would even sit me on her lap and I would pretend to “drive”. What the heck were people thinking back then? (Mom?!)
I crashed our car into the garage when I was 10 and blamed it on my 2 year old brother because my mom used to send us to warm up the car in the mornings without her.
So true. I remember falling on the floor of the car when we got hit a couple of times (no car seats of course or seat belts) and sleeping in the back seat when we'd go on trips. Also we'd stop on the side of the highway to sleep on trips because there weren't hotels or we couldn't afford them. I wouldn't ever think of doing that now. How about riding bikes or skating around the entire town. My kids can't even cross the street alone. Maybe we are too paranoid…
times haven’t change for some…still!
I grew up with Dominicans and Cubans and my husband is puerto rican. I am def Latina by osmosis I think. let me tell ya, I relate to this. my best friend was Cuban and her mom used to make us shakes with raw eggs!! my mom used to leave me in the store when I cried for something. literally. the stories I could share…
how areyou?