Memories of childhood.

The Sun King

I was just chatting with the missus about how our parents did things with us growing up (scolding, playing etc)

The thing that popped into my mind was when my parents knew I was lying, they'd ask me to stick out my tongue. If I had "a black spot" on my tongue, then I was lying and had to tell the truth.

Is that a common thing? What other weird things did your parents do bringing you up?

Few belts of the wooden spoon would be fairly common, no doubt.

I remember very clearly the delicious terror of my dad throwing me up into the air and catching me. In the way of all kids and dads, I knew he'd never drop me, but the frission of fear was great fun.

I remember my older sister washing my hair when she was put in charge of bathing me when I was a little older, she'd do my scalp in little circular motions and I'd beg her not to stop. I had the cleanest hair in the country when I'd finally let her finish, complaining of finger cramp.

When I was about five my mum went away for six months with work and I remember waving her off on the doorstep, worried she'd find another little girl she liked more than me and stay with her. I took a lot of convincing she was coming back.

My favourite part of the week was Sunday evenings in my Grandmothers house, eating toasted sandwiches and being the centre of her and my Grandfathers attention. I never felt more special or important in my life, and I probably never will again.

anto9

Getting hair cuts from my Dad .He was a gifted Carpenter ,but a poor Barber.

Pac1Man

Being allowed to stay up an extra half hour on a Sunday night to finish watching ER.

ElleEm

Candie wrote: »

I remember very clearly the delicious terror of my dad throwing me up into the air and catching me. In the way of all kids and dads, I knew he'd never drop me, but the frission of fear was great

I remember my da pushing me so high on a swing, that I would be screaming and laughing telling him to stop but he wouldn't. I used to think I would float off into the atmosphere I was going so high.

whatismyname

Not much tbh.

Apart from their drinking problems, their inability to meet my basic care needs emotionally or physically leading to a whole childhood of neglect, oh and allowing me to be sexually abused for years, and being quite emotionally abusive.

I'm not sure there was room for much else.

mattP

I remember going into video shops with my sister and spending ages in there. They're all gone now unfortunately-since the early 2000s- and I don't think Netflix is quite the same. There was something special about them :P
Oh and who could forget the pre-sky era, where you had to boil the kettle and make a mug of tea in under three minutes

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Just fun, using our imaginations in the garden, as Dad built tents and shelters while Mam sat and guided us through the safari we undertook in the vegetable patch.
Care, love, and freedom sum it up.

dollyk

nits I so remember having nits. The shame of it
Now we just get a note, and clean their hairs.
But i remember feeling bad forever in school because of it.

whatismyname

dollyk wrote: »

nits I so remember having nits. The shame of it
Now we just get a note, and clean their hairs.
But i remember feeling bad forever in school because of it.

Oooh yeah forgot about that. got bullied for at least a year at school and called Fleahead due to my mother's inability to sort my nits problem.

Nurse got involved at various points.

At one point I'd wake in the morning and my pillow would be crawling with head lice. Disgusting.

dollyk

whatismyname wrote: »

Oooh yeah got bullied for at least a year at school and called Fleahead due to my mother's inability to sort my nits problem.

Nurse got involved at various points.

At one point I'd wake in the morning and my pillow would be crawling with head lice. Disgusting.

I so remember that, My mother had 14 kids, and cleaning headlice was not top of the list.
My head was raw from scratching .

Bio Mech

Hopping into bed beside my mother for a Half hour snooze before school. After my dad had gone to work. He used to leave it nice and warm in the cold winter mornings.

dollyk

tbh fear, dry mouth fear of not knowing what lay ahead, I grew up believing
that everyone in my school felt the same way.
I remember when I got older feeling shocked that some kids
loved their childhood memories.
Maybe there was some good times, but number 6 in a family of 14
didnt hold cherished memories for me .
Hey im all grown up now, and view the world so different.

dollyk and whatismyname, I'm so sorry you have no happy memories of childhood. I feel sad for you both.

I hope you make some happy memories going forward.

tomwaterford

I had a happy enough childhood (country is good craic!)
Not without one big issue....but happy as could be expected with good enough parents....but I cannot really remember much of it if I'm honest

Like I grew up with cousins around the one age...so we ended up a good crowd of us hanging around together

dollyk

Candie wrote: »

dollyk and whatismyname, I'm so sorry you have no happy memories of childhood. I feel sad for you both.

I hope you make some happy memories going forward.

Thank you Candie x

whatismyname

Candie wrote: »

dollyk and whatismyname, I'm so sorry you have no happy memories of childhood. I feel sad for you both.

I hope you make some happy memories going forward.

Thanks so much Candie.

And sorry if I'm sharing anything inappropriate. I sometimes find it hard to judge as I seem to have this big 'it was my norm, and in order to accept it, I need to talk about it same as anyone else would talk about their norm' part of me.

I don't think anyone should ever stay quiet about the bad things that happen them. I think there's probably a kind of healing in sharing.

Its easy for people like me to live in my bubble and not spare a thought for people who've had it harder, it's a good thing to remind me of others.

dollyk

lol whatsitsname are you my sister .:D
Im the same, but Im usually told not to talk about morbid things.
Thank god I dont dwell too much on the past though, I dont worry about thing I had no control over.
But If I used it as an excuse to be a bad parent, now that would be a different matter.:)

Tarzana2

Pac1Man wrote: »

Being allowed to stay up an extra half hour on a Sunday night to finish watching ER.

Being allowed to stay up past our bedtime to watch David Attenborough documentaries.

whatismyname

dollyk wrote: »

lol whatsitsname are you my sister .:D
Im the same, but Im usually told not to talk about morbid things.
Thank god I dont dwell too much on the past though, I dont worry about thing I had no control over.
But If I used it as an excuse to be a bad parent, now that would be a different matter.:)

Lol dollyk, I am glad you said your parents had 14 kids, as I have siblings who experienced similar to me, so for a second was like 'sh1t, it can't be!'.

My family had, and seem to mostly still have, a type of 'don't talk about bad stuff, and instead sweep it under the carpet' type of approach.

I find this so very harmful, and took the different approach of being open about it and trying to get help to deal with it. (I wish I could take a 'don't dwell on the past / things I had no control over, but it affected me really badly, and I think I developed Complex PTSD). Years later, the lack of appropriate help to deal with it has made me very mentally unwell. To the extent that I very often wonder if I've done the right thing in taking this approach - especially since other family members who've buried it seem to have coped better than me.

So it's good to hear from someone somewhat similar, even though I naturally never want to think of anyone experiencing quite so tough times, particularly in childhood.

dollyk

my teenage sons staying up behind my back to watch the 3 min preview
of babe station when sky came out first, and listening to the giggling
for 3 mins

They married now, hope they cope with their sons doing the same, but its full internet now lol

Mister Vain

Kids used to hold buttercups under each others chins. Apparently if your chin lit up then you liked butter.

Watching wrestling on TV and trying to emulate the moves.

Playing Mortal Kombat and trying to emulate the moves. I think I had a few injuries.

Tasden

Mister Vain wrote: »

Kids used to hold buttercups under each others chins. Apparently if your chin lit up then you liked butter.

Aww i remember this

WoollyRedHat

I remember playing with my toys and acting out great adventures with them.
After Toy Story came out, I stopped playing with them and left them to their own devices, to go on their own adventures..

Diamond Doll

There were seven kids in my family, we used to go on regular cross-country road trips with all nine of us in an estate car. Sometimes with a couple of friends/cousins too. My parents in the front, with a baby/toddler on my mum's knee in the passenger seat, or even down in the footwell in front of her. A scatter of kids unbelted in the back seat, and a couple more of us in the boot. The boot was the best place, I was second eldest so usually managed to get a place there.

Horrific to think of what would have happened if there was ever a crash (thankfully there never was!)

MilesMorales1

I'd say I have more bad memories of being a child (say until age 16) then good, but I give the good ones more than enough nostalgia in my mind. The village I grew up in still has the video shop! Its a little dusty, its had to expand into doing more than VCR's and video games, but its still there, same sign, same guy running it.

Ruu

Renting videos (and the video recorder until we got the hand me down top loader from our richer Dub cousins), renting a Megadrive and games for the weekend.

Fairly good ones but the one I remember most clearly is being sick and staying home from school. I remember having my head resting on my Mams lap and her dabbing it with a wet cloth and the sun bursting through the curtains.

Titzon Toast

My Dad coming home from work on a Friday evening with some chipper food and a bag of chocolate bars and sweets for all of us.

The Sunday morning fry up.

Playing outside until the street lights came on during the Summer holidays.

Good times.

Los Lobos

Getting beaten for doing **** all.

Getting beaten with a belt for doing something a little higher than **** all.

God bless 80's Ireland.

MilesMorales1

Los Lobos wrote: »

Getting beaten for doing **** all.

Getting beaten with a belt for doing something a little higher than **** all.

God bless 80's Ireland.

Sure I have those same and similar memories (although it was 90's/early 2000's england) but I try to gloss it over in my mind so to speak.

Gwynplaine

Getting 2 quid on a Friday, and spending it all on Woppa bars, stingers, cola cubes and Viking crisps.
And the Stinger was the length of my forearm, not the little funsize ones there is now.

Piriz

Gwynplaine wrote: »

Getting 2 quid on a Friday, and spending it all on Woppa bars, stingers, cola cubes and Viking crisps.
And the Stinger was the length of my forearm, not the little funsize ones there is now.

Dental plan!!

mitresize5

Summers in West Clare that seemed to go on for years.

MilesMorales1

Its amazing how far money stretches when your a kid. I used to think £2.50 was a pretty good sum, and a fiver was treat, and I was rich as **** when I got £10 on a day out or whatever.

whatismyname

Mosney

Tasden

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Its amazing how far money stretches when your a kid. I used to think £2.50 was a pretty good sum, and a fiver was treat, and I was rich as **** when I got £10 on a day out or whatever.

A group of us found 20pound on the road one day. It was as if we had won the lottery :pac:

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Its amazing how far money stretches when your a kid. I used to think £2.50 was a pretty good sum, and a fiver was treat, and I was rich as **** when I got £10 on a day out or whatever.

That's all a small fortune. We got ecstatic if we got a twelve sided thrupenny bit for our birthdays.

RayM

Raylee Colossal Cheesecake wrote: »

That's all a small fortune. We got ecstatic if we got a twelve sided thrupenny bit for our birthdays.

Back in my day, I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down the mill, and pay the mill owner for permission to come to work. And when we got home, our parents would kill us and dance around on our graves singing 'Hallelujah'.

Schwiiing

Bullying
Isolation

Titzon Toast

RayM wrote: »

Back in my day, I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down the mill, and pay the mill owner for permission to come to work. And when we got home, our parents would kill us and dance around on our graves singing 'Hallelujah'.

You had it easy.
We didn't get a Soda Stream until our rich cousins got bored of it.

Mister Vain

I remember Fat Frog ice pops and Gobstoppers that were so hard it took about 7 hours to eat them.

I remember chocolate bars were nice and big, not the measly little things they are now.

I remember I used to run wild and free.

razorblunt

Playing football in the green until it got dark and Dewey and coming in panting looking for the biggest glass of water.


Getting hit in the thigh or face with a Champions Cup football.

The smell of the road after a rain shower in the summer during warm spells.

Hammer89

When I was about seven, my dad smacked me on the arse so hard that I probably still have the handprint. It was for stealing money. Problem was, I didn't do it and the missing money - which was only a tenner - turned up on my mate's bouncing castle, where the coins fell out of my pocket during his birthday. I cried a lot; partially because the pain, but mostly because it was a misunderstanding.

I remember frantically trying to convince him in the car on the way home, because I knew what was in store for me, but he didn't listen. It was very upsetting, but nowadays it really, really bothers me when I get accused of lying and I can only assume it's because of that moment.

Rubberlegs

My Dad messing with me, winding me up. Me trying not to get wound up, but ending up furious, and us both laughing then. Him reading to me, putting on silly voices for the different characters. It's his anniversary today, I miss him terribly.
Waiting patiently for the hay bales to be up in the fields. Then we built roofed mazes with them, or built them up high and jumped off them into a pile of hay from ones we'd bust up. I'd say the farmer loved us:). Going for mad long cycles, and bringing picnics with us. Playing on my friend's swing set, swinging as high as we could then jumping off, seeing who landed the farthest away. Making really weird sandwiches like luncheon and peanut butter and crisps, and thinking they were delicious. The freedom mostly, being out in the air from morning till evening, just being given a time to be home. I'm so glad I was a kid before Facebook etc.

Figbiscuithead

Our senior infants teacher telling us there were some flowers that you could eat and going home to eat all the primroses in my best friend's back garden that afternoon.

Being tickled within an inch of my life by my 4 siblings and laughing so much even though I wanted them to stop.


Getting up to sing even though I was incredibly shy at the kid's Christmas party at my mother's job to make her proud.

Dancing to Buddy Holly's Peggy Sue with my dad in the kitchen.

NickDunne

razorblunt wrote: »

Playing football in the green until it got dark and Dewey and coming in panting looking for the biggest glass of water.


Getting hit in the thigh or face with a Champions Cup football.

The smell of the road after a rain shower in the summer during warm spells.

One of these??


I saw one of them on the side of the road the other day, the nostalgia was palpable!!!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

RayM wrote: »

Back in my day, I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down the mill, and pay the mill owner for permission to come to work. And when we got home, our parents would kill us and dance around on our graves singing 'Hallelujah'.

I knew some unimaginative person would come in with that old chestnut.

DanielODonnell

mattP wrote: »

I remember going into video shops with my sister and spending ages in there. They're all gone now unfortunately-since the early 2000s- and I don't think Netflix is quite the same. There was something special about them :P
Oh and who could forget the pre-sky era, where you had to boil the kettle and make a mug of tea in under three minutes

I rented dvd's up until late 2000's but maybe you are referring to how VHS tapes are gone.

I recall when my local video store put all their Friends tapes on sale for a few pound each when the show was nearing the end in 03-04, it is now a tanning salon though.

Oh so many memories.

I remember when I was four standing at the window with my mam looking at my neighbour going to school and mammy telling me that my turn would soon come.
When that day arrived the pair of us headed off on her bike. I sat in a little seat and held on to her. My head buried in her back. That was my favourite place to be. Mammy wore this really strong smelling perfume but I loved it. In my seat all I could see and smell was her.

That first day in school we were to pick who we wanted to sit beside. I remember walking around the classroom holding mammy's hand. I sat down beside a pretty little blonde girl. We remained friends throughout primary school. She was in fact a traveller.

That memory reminds me of how easy children are with people, how things such as culture or race, or religion matter not one bit to them. It taught me that we are all just people doing the best we can.

This is a nice thread. My lovely mammy has alzheimers now so her memories are of a time before I was born. So when I visit I tell her about all the things we did and the fun we had. Today she said "you're my daughter". It's been some time since I heard her say that. Luckiest daughter in the world

Wibbs

One very strong one, when I was six I think. My dad taking me into the back garden to look up at the moon and him explaining that there were men walking around up there. I was so excited. Then watching the telly video feed as they left for the last time*.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HQfauGJaTs

And me crying my eyes out because the moon would now be on its own and lonely. Apparently I was inconsolable. Drama llama from early on.




*I dunno if was actually live. We had the "piped telly" so recieved the BBC, so might have been. I do remember I was dragged outa bed to watch it. Maybe the BBC the Sky at Night or somesuch. I was told I was present when the first one landed, but I was at the crapping and dribbling on myself stage. Though that doesn't pin down my age very well at all..