So did you ever wander off as a child

emmabrighton · 21-03-2014 11:55AM

I can barely remember it now but my mom and dad were in a pub in Baltimore, Cork and they were stuffing me full of tayto and club orange when I had enough and wandered down to the sailing boats. This was in the eighties, so was your usual summer holidays with parents in the pub and the kid bored out of their mind. There was some guy cleaning his yacht and I got talking to him and climbed up on it. I remember going into the yacht and having a good nose around.

I think if my son went for a wander and ended up on a strange mans yacht alone I would probably be sick but back then I don't think my parents even knew what the word paedophile meant. Also I am hoping that because I don't drink, baby brighton wont be left to his own devices anyhoo...

I would just like to add that nothing actually happened, I just had a very enjoyable time annoying some guy trying to clean his boat!

The Backwards Man · 21-03-2014 12:02PM

When I was three, decided to run away from home as I wasn't allowed to keep tadpoles. Threw Bow-Wow in a suitcase and headed off down the road. Got a couple of miles before my Granda got me.

Lollipops23 · 21-03-2014 12:10PM

I Heart Internet wrote: »

Your surname isn't McCann by any chance is it??

Haha, no!! This was circa 1990. Apparently that kind of thing was a lot more acceptable back then!

Calibos · 21-03-2014 12:21PM

I used to purposely slip away from my mother in the supermarket or department stores in town and go straight to the information/reception desks and tell them I was lost.

....I also flooded the lobby of the grand hotel in Cork in '77 by tearing up beer mats and putting them in the fountain blocking the drain....

Zero recollection myself as I was only 3 or 4.

Also told a Nigerian doctor that he was very lucky because he had a much better tan than my mother. Also toppled a guy with a broken leg by pulling myself up off the floor via his crutches.

FTA69 · 21-03-2014 01:40PM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

we can all remember that horrible sinking feeling when we cant find mammy

Can we? I was f*cking delighted to get away from her from the age of 3 onwards. I used to have to be put in the trolley with the messages because I would have been off down the road otherwise. I was mad for rambling.

Thoie · 21-03-2014 01:55PM

Apparently when I was nearly 2, someone went out to get something from the garage and left the front door open for a minute.

Off I wandered. Got about half a mile before someone clicked that maybe a toddler shouldn't be out alone

Some woman found me, and brought me to a woman who had a playschool in the area on the basis that "she'd know who kids were". And she did!

As I got older I used wander off constantly, but luckily for my parents I was obsessed with pens and paper, so they'd just head for the nearest stationery shop/aisle and invariably find me there.

Akrasia · 21-03-2014 02:08PM

I went to the shops on my tricycle when I was 3. We lived in the countryside about 3 miles from the nearest shop.
I think I got about half a mile down the road before a neighbour saw me and brought me back.

Another time, in 1992 I was 9 and we went to see clare play Donegal in the All Ireland semi-final in Croke park.
After the match, my dad got talking to someone he knew and the stadium was emptying out. i was wandering around the stand and then I looked up and my dad was gone. I tried to find him but couldn't so I decided to go back to the car myself. The car was parked in some random car park somewhere in dublin but I just followed the crowd and found it after a while

My dad came back 2 hours later after searching everywhere in Dublin and saw me sitting on the boot of the car waiting for them to come back.

dockleaf · 21-03-2014 02:22PM

Ran away loads of times when I was a child. Was a precocious reader, read all the famous five books when I was four and decided I wanted to run away and live a self-sufficient life on an island somewhere. I tried different directions, once I was caught three miles away by the local pp and brought home. So I tried the other direction but decided to call into my grandda two miles away to say good bye. So he brought me home ( the traitor). Tried another direction, down the fields, my dad found me. I'd say after the first time they took no notice.:P

Menas · 21-03-2014 02:24PM

Akrasia wrote: »

My dad came back 2 hours later after searching everywhere in Dublin .

Fair play to your dad for searching all of dublin in 2 hours. But I suppose it was smaller back then.

anncoates · 21-03-2014 02:25PM

Ironic that if the thread was about a child being knocked down or abducted after wandering away, the thread would be stuffed with sanctimonious allegations of bad parenting.

Menas · 21-03-2014 02:29PM

anncoates wrote: »

Ironic that if the thread was about a child being knocked down or abducted after wandering away, the thread would be stuffed with sanctimonious allegations of bad parenting.

Its a good point. Those of us who grew up in the 60s, 70s and 80s had a lot more freedom then kids nowadays. It was common that in summer time you would head off in the morning and be back for tea that night.
But that does not happen these days, yet surely there were no more or less peados around back then....so why do we feel that it is unsafe to give our kids the freedom we had? Scratches head.

Going Strong · 21-03-2014 02:41PM

Trigger Happy wrote: »

Its a good point. Those of us who grew up in the 60s, 70s and 80s had a lot more freedom then kids nowadays. It was common that in summer time you would head off in the morning and be back for tea that night.
But that does not happen these days, yet surely there were no more or less peados around back then....so why do we feel that it is unsafe to give our kids the freedom we had? Scratches head.

I don't know if that's quite true though. My childhood was (mostly) in the 1970's. I remember being chatted up by dirty old men, running for my life from gangs of rough kids and risking my neck several times over. We all kept very quiet about it though for fear of our parents getting worried and clamping down on our all-day fun far from home and any sort of imposed supervision. Sort of a juvenile Omerta.

Pumpkinseeds · 21-03-2014 02:43PM

I wandered off in Quinnsworth as a child, I must have been 3 or 4. I can remember finding an open packet of small biscuits and stealing one, it didn't taste good, turned out they were dog biscuits:o

Going Strong · 21-03-2014 02:45PM

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I wandered off in Quinnsworth as a child, I must have been 3 or 4. I can remember finding an open packet of small biscuits and stealing one, it didn't taste good, turned out they were dog biscuits:o

A free feed is a free feed.

anncoates · 21-03-2014 02:45PM

Trigger Happy wrote: »

But that does not happen these days, yet surely there were no more or less peados around back then....so why do we feel that it is unsafe to give our kids the freedom we had? Scratches head.

I very much doubt the dangers are any worse these days but the kangaroo court of online comment - whether from judgemental non-parents or competitive parents - foregrounds the potential danger to the extent where everybody over-thinks the danger to a ridiculous extent.

Menas · 21-03-2014 03:19PM

Going Strong wrote: »

I don't know if that's quite true though. My childhood was (mostly) in the 1970's. I remember being chatted up by dirty old men, running for my life from gangs of rough kids and risking my neck several times over. We all kept very quiet about it though for fear of our parents getting worried and clamping down on our all-day fun far from home and any sort of imposed supervision. Sort of a juvenile Omerta.

Remembering back we did have a flasher in my town in the 80s.
You just dont hear of flashers any more.

castletownman · 21-03-2014 03:27PM

Never got lost on the bad streets of the scary town but some of my fondest recollections of childhood were the care-free hours spent with the relations wandering around the fields of the locality, playing soccer, tip the can, making bale forts, whatever. Not only did parents not mind us being adventurous for most of the day, they actively encouraged it as it was seen as far more productive than those pesky video games (oh how attitudes have changed towards technology)

Don't see as many blaise parents today, and as a result childhood feels somewhat restricted and uneventful.

yeahimhere · 21-03-2014 04:04PM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

yes in shopping centres

That was my forte. The manager of the shopping centre automatically knew what name to call out over the intercom when I arrived in the office. My mam taught me our telephone number from an early age I wondered off a lot.

When I was about 3 or 4 I remember going to a home depo place with my dad. One of those that had all the kitchen and bathroom displays set up. My dad goes looking for me in a panic after I wonder off. Finds me quite proudly trying to flush the toilet of one of the displays after using it. Grabbed my hand and dragged me off without telling anyone. Not sure how they cleaned that one up...

Holsten · 21-03-2014 04:10PM

Yeah all the time, giving my parents and siblings heart attacks weekly.

BUBBLES1978 · 21-03-2014 04:21PM

Not so much wandered off but went "missing" when i was about 4-5
had the whole street out searching outbuildings and fields at the back of my house. my mother was in an awful state it was evening time and i was gone "missing" about 4 hours

and then i appeared from the back bedroom!!!!, i had fallen asleep down between the bed and the wall and hadnt heard anyone shouting or looking for me!!!

got a smack for that!!!

Mr. CooL ICE · 21-03-2014 04:38PM

Yep. Was 3 and living in Cork. Opened the front gate and ran across the Douglas Road in rush hour traffic. Random motorist grabbed my hand and marched me up to the front door. Also remember not understanding what the fuss was about.

Also ended up wandering down the aisle of a Quinnsworths holding onto a trolley and talking rubbish to some random woman who was not my mother and subsequently panicking.

EZ24GET · 21-03-2014 04:57PM

I was taken shopping and my mother decided to go in the changing booth and asked the clerk to keep an eye on me. I was 2 or 3. Of course she didn't. I remember following someone I thought was my mother out of the store.There was aStreet carnival going on and evidently I never looked up. I just remember a red coat and legs that I thought was my Moms. Half way down the street the woman turned away and I saw she wasn't my mother. I felt as if I'd been tricked. I kept going in the direction of my house but along the way a lady from our church saw me alone and tried to stop me. I was putting up a good fight (ruined the ladies stockings) when my mother caught up to me. I remember being very indigent as I felt first I'd been tricked and then assaulted on my way home. I don't remember being punished-my mother was just relieved.

MonkieSocks · 21-03-2014 05:08PM

Trigger Happy wrote: »

Remembering back we did have a flasher in my town in the 80s.
You just dont hear of flashers any more.

Think they’ve gone Wireless now

21-03-2014 05:35PM

Trigger Happy wrote: »

Remembering back we did have a flasher in my town in the 80s.
You just dont hear of flashers any more.

I could tell you a few stories.

ScumLord · 21-03-2014 05:44PM

I wouldn't call it wandering, more like kicked out out the house and told not to come back until it was bedtime.

Butterface · 21-03-2014 06:00PM

This thread reminds me of that excellent story of the two young Dublin boys who ended up in New York via London in the 1980s. They managed to sneak onto trains, a boat and a plane to get there, all the while their mothers didn't have a clue where they were gone to!

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/radio-documentary-dont-go-far.html

I definitely recommend a listen. It's the ultimate children's adventure!

I got "lost" many times in the shopping centre over the years, but the one that worried my parents the most was when we were on the Stena Line over to Holyhead and they couldn't find me. I was playing in the lift, so I was well hidden. Until I pressed the emergency stop button!

So did you ever wander off as a child

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