New Parents Reveal What They Refuse To Let Their Kids Do That Their Parents Did
Times change people, and with that change comes new outlooks on life. Things we might have accepted when we were younger may not be so kosher anymore. For example, you might have been 100% cool with knocking over trash cans with baseball bats with your football buddies back in high school, but if for one second your son even thinks about not answering your text about where he is, he's grounded for a month! Parenthood is the great shifter, and Reddit user, u/plutosrain, wanted to know more when they asked:
What did your parents allow you to do that you would never allow your own children to do?
Get Back In This Car!
Stand on the center [console] with half their bodies sticking out the sun roof as I drive at 50mph down some twisty country roads.
Best Game Ever?
My dad used to load about six of us kids (me, my brother, and some neighborhood kids) up on the step bars on the side of his van. We would stand on either side of the van, then he would drive around the block and jerk the wheel to throw us off.
We f-cking loved playing that game.
How, Indeed?
My parents put me on an airplane from Peru to USA to visit my grandmother whom I had never met for a month. I was 7 years old at the time and spoke very little English. Back then (1964) kids traveled alone without an airline stewardess to watch them or deliver them to their families. It was a 12 hour flight on a propeller plane! When I got to Miami, I started crying because I was confused and an airline worker picked me up and sat me on the counter of the immigration officer to get my passport stamped. They located my grandmother and she gave me a hug so I went with her even though I had no idea if she was really my grandmother or not.
When my kids were 7 years old, I kept thinking... how in the world did my mom think this was a good idea?
What About The Loser?
My siblings and I use to play a game where we walked along the train tracks behind my house and tried to wait as long as possible before jumping away when the train came.
Last person standing on the tracks was the winner.
First Off, Ew. Second, What?
Not brush their teeth.
My mom never taught me how when I was little. "Her baby teeth are just going to fall out anyway! I'll teach her when she's older!" Single mom with three jobs, five kids, blasting through abusive relationship to abusive relationship.
Yeah. She never got around to it.
Trains, Again?
We took it a step further by resorting to pure concentrated evil. We'd hang out by the busiest railroad crossing in town and if you take a pair of jumper cables and connect the two rails together it activates the crossing gates (usually it's the train's wheels and axles that short it out). At rush hour, we had so much fun watching all that traffic grind to a stop while there was no train to be seen. Then release it and let the gates go up and as soon as one car makes it through, drop them down again.
I highly doubt my parents would have approved of that, but then again, we were 10 year olds miles away from home and completely unsupervised, which today would be considered child neglect.
They're Uncomfortable
Never forced me to wear a seatbelt. I remember only once having to put it on quickly when she got pulled over.
This Was A Thing?
Take non-alcoholic beer to school for lunch.
Edit: Just to elaborate a little- It was when non-alcoholic beer just came out as a thing. Sharps was what we had. It came out in '89. I was 7 or 8 at the time. The teachers surprisingly did not complain. They were more upset that our mother let us watch The Simpsons. I frequently traded my beer for pudding cups. Pudding was considered 'junk food' and we were not allowed to have that. I think teachers would sh-t themselves now if a 7 yr old brought NA beer to school. But I also remember getting those packages of candy cigarettes at the convenience store, so different times indeed.
Changing The View
Climb back and forth from the front seat to the back seat of the car while driving.
Just, ALL The Problems
-Eat as many sweets as I wanted to;
-Eat as much MCDONALD'S as I wanted to;
-Skip brushing my teeth at night. I am now 21 and I had lots of problems with my teeth and digestive system. I managed to fix them all up in my teens and now I am strict with myself.
Encourage Kleptomancy
Walk to the 7eleven, nearly a mile away, alone at the age of five to get her a snack. I had to steal my own stuff since she only gave me money for what she wanted.
When There's No Pool Around...
Swim in a drainage ditch that the water from a corn field drained in to.
School's For Fools
My parents let me skip as many classes as I wanted in high school. It was technically under the guise of only being allowed to do so if my grades were good, but they never exactly checked on it (they had a lot of trust/thought I was a genius).
It took me a long time to be able discipline myself into actually studying/going to to class. I fumbled through university as a result, having had no proper routines in place. I know it was ultimately up to me, but I didn't have the foundation to be disciplined early on.
Sunshine Is Scary
My parents let my brother get away with so much that he just plays computer games all day screaming, drinks nothing but soda and has one fruit or vegetable on a good week. With me they could not care less about my education but I have to eat healthy and have to keep quiet.
My kids will be going outside and will be eating their greens (if they don't like something there is always something else). I will also treat every child equally.
Open Those Lines Of Communication
Make my kid scared to talk about their emotions to the point that they become depressed because nobody knows how they feel. So it becomes hard to get friends because they're too afraid to open up.
Also make them scared to cry because they think it's wrong and I'm going to make fun of them for it.
The Internet Can Be Dangerous?
Use the internet unsupervised from the age of 10.
I signed up to hundreds of websites, made about 30 different email addresses, posted cringey pictures of myself everywhere.
Seriously, watch what your kids are doing online. I wish I could take it all back.
[noesis\]1_
There Is A Difference Between Success And Failure
Become comfortable with mediocrity. If I failed in school, I was punished. If I succeeded and did well, I was given the same response as if I just skated by.
The best rewards come from internalized rewards, but I never learned that success should be rewarded, so I never developed the ability to recognize my own achievements.
H/T: Reddit
