Anyone else worried their parents would abandon them at the grocery store after watching this show?

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Okra_Tomatoes@reddit

I got lost from my mom at a Walmart when I was six. (In true Baby Boomer parenting fashion, she said I could watch some fish in a tank while she shopped, and because I was six at some point I wandered off). After searching for her, I decided that she must have left and came to terms with a life at Walmart. I was busy putting together a nest of clothes when she found me.

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Lazy_Squash_8423@reddit

Maybe the world is blind…

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Lazy_Squash_8423@reddit

Maybe the world is blind…

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cogito_ergo_catholic@reddit

I've been jokingly calling my daughter Punky Brewster for a few months because she started wearing mismatched socks and wild color combinations. Just the other day she asked me why I thought she looked like a man...and I realized I never properly explained who I was comparing her with...

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geekdadchris@reddit

This show had no reason to go as hard as it did. Kids shows today don’t even come close. The Punky kids were dealing with some real shit.

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BrattyTwilis@reddit

Didn't the Halloween episode go hard too? Like it was legit nightmare fuel or something?

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Federal-Zebra7702@reddit (OP)

Pretty impressive to have a friend of color and a friend being raised by their grandma. Yes, same friend, but still ahead of its time.

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SnicckleFrittz420@reddit

I think Cherrie's parents died in a car accident. 😭

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amazing_assassin@reddit

Like when the Challenger exploded? They dedicated a whole flippin' episode to that. This show went hard

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sweetnsalty24@reddit

There is an element of reconciliation in the reboot from the last decade

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mondomiketron@reddit

God anyone else remember that cave episode that was like a nightmare??

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Sweet_Bang_Tube@reddit

Holy shit, YES. I thought no one else remembered that, and it scarred me for life. I am STILL afraid of caves. Damn. We are in this together!

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mondomiketron@reddit

I'm so glad I'm not the only one!

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Insomniac_80@reddit

That is the only episode of that show I actually remember watching!

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ImperatorRomanum83@reddit

That was one of my favorite episodes!!

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mondomiketron@reddit

Lol it gave me trauma hahah jk

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green_ubitqitea@reddit

I loved Punky Brewster. But I was abandoned at birth and knew I was adopted from a young age. It felt comforting to me to see familial love that wasn’t blood.

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Rydia_Bahamut_85@reddit

Im also an orphan, abandoned at 2 weeks old and I loved her. It was nice to have the representation.

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Paulie_Knuckles@reddit

Did she ever find her mom? I don't remember. Also the weird episode with the dead trees and cave guy freaked me out as a kid.

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Federal-Zebra7702@reddit (OP)

I don’t think she really tried. She just moved on 😂

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PercentageRoutine310@reddit

Punky was revived back in 2021 but got cancelled after one season.

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DreamSequins@reddit

Overproduction, too much makeup and talking down to whomever they thought the audience would be is what I recall.

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RaspberryVespa@reddit

I wish my parents would have abandoned me at the super market after watching this… Punky had a great life…. A great dog. A great dad. A great room. A great treehouse. Great friends. LEAVE ME AT THE GROCERY STORE, MOM.

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sweetnsalty24@reddit

I wanted to be little orphan Annie when I was a kid

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SnicckleFrittz420@reddit

Me too. I also thought it would be awesome to live at an orphanage. 🤷

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candycookiecake@reddit

Now that I think about it... I think my sister had this same idea from the show. A lot of how she was makes sense now. Homegirl was trying her hardest to get randomly adopted into a nicer family.

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MarginWalker13@reddit

I have no idea why I loved this show so much, but it was one of my all time favorites as a child

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momofwon@reddit

We all shudder when we drive past a fridge in someone’s yard, right?

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neon_farts@reddit

The fridge! That’s one of my only memories of that show, haha

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Podwitchers@reddit

Same lol. I actually have warned my kids not to “get into a fridge while out and about playing or anytime.” They just look at me like I’m crazy lol

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sarahprib56@reddit

That and the challenger explosion. I was too young to have watched that live in school,, so I watched Punky view it it reruns. That's where I learned about it.

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Yaritzaf@reddit

I can’t tell if my memory from the explosion is from the real thing or from the Punky Brewster episode. I just know I was home and with a babysitter.

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reznxrx@reddit

I was outside playing in the yard when my mom called me in to watch the launch. Then I was ushered back outside.

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AliveInIllinois@reddit

I was still a few years too young to remember, but my ex-wife was in kindergarten and was one of the many who watched in class. She mainly remembers her teacher crying.

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sarahprib56@reddit

I remember thinking that Punky was a lot older than me. She was only 4 years older than me. In Jan 1986 I was 5. I'm not sure I was even in kindergarten yet. I had a late Sept birthday, and if I was a kid now, I would probably have started school a year earlier than I did. I was 18 for most of my senior year.

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AliveInIllinois@reddit

She's 7/8 years old than me, and I think Soleil Moon Frye is gorgeous today, and seems really nice.

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hushuk-me@reddit

I loved that show growing up but this is the only episode I vividly remember!

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True_Prize4868@reddit

This was the comment I came to see!

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Blurby-Blurbyblurb@reddit

Every time.

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isosparkle@reddit

I loved Punky Brewster so much, I named my dog Punky when I was little!

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IndependentPuddin702@reddit

My mother is a horrible person. This show gave me hope.

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Tyrannical-Botanical@reddit

Parenting in the 80s was really top notch. There was nothing like smoke filled birthday parties at Chuck E Cheese.

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Coyote_Roadrunna@reddit

Lol, yep. Cigarettes and salty/sugary processed food. Peak nutrition.

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Elenakalis@reddit

The Chuck E Cheese where I grew up served pitchers of beer. That was the only birthday party I remember anyone's dad staying for.

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VotingRightsLawyer@reddit

I think most of them do. When I was in college we'd go there and order pitchers and play video games. It was probably frowned upon but we didn't care.

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jswitzer@reddit

Most of our parents are boomers. When I was young, I was told stories about my grandparents from my parents perspective. As bad as this sounds, they had some real bad stories. Just like that Everyone Loves Raymond monologue - it gets a little better every generation.

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reznxrx@reddit

Parents, generally, are monsters.

This Be The Verse

By Philip Larkin

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don’t have any kids yourself.

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shanniebrown@reddit

No, I hoped they would.

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Far_Jeweler40@reddit

More worried about being left at Macy's like Nick Rivers. https://youtu.be/umEB3KG9Ydw?si=5cMyAPRUo2450DD-

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draculasbloodtype@reddit

No, but to this day when we get separated from someone in the store and can’t find them we say we’ve been “Punky-ed”.

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the805chickenlady@reddit

i was hoping for it. did you see her cool ass room?

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Federal-Zebra7702@reddit (OP)

So jelly

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toejampotpourri@reddit

My mom left me at a convenience store when I was 4, and Kmart when I was 6. Also at 6, she forgot my dad was out of town and worked a double shift. I got off the school bus and spent all day alone at home until 11pm. Let's just say I taught myself how to cook some basic things by age 7 and have major trust issues.

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ZeldaHylia@reddit

That weird episode where they’re camping or something and telling weird stories.. they’re in a cave with monsters.. I think it was a Halloween episode. 🤣this show is on peacock btw

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NectarSweat@reddit

This was one of my favorite TV shows. I thought I hated brussel sprouts too until I became an adult 😄

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AliveInIllinois@reddit

The "fridge" episode was scary. And I remember that weird ass cartoon with some alien living in her closet/backpack.

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Insomniac_80@reddit

Glomer! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lGnaIMCmU8&t=4s

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fumbs@reddit

I was too knowledgeable. I knew the cops would bring you home. Not sure how I knew that so early on. But then again, my mom loved to share the story of how I was almost kidnapped as an infant like it was a joke.

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vinylchickadee@reddit

'Scuse me now, what?

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fumbs@reddit

Pretty negligent parents lol. After the almost kidnapping I was forgotten dozens of times.

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MinimagMerc@reddit

Old refrigerators are a death trap, all 80’s kids know this.

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throwawayfromPA1701@reddit

My parents left us home alone while they went to the grocery store. They leaned all the way into the latchkey kid concept.

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ElectricSnowBunny@reddit

I was scared of getting kidnapped when my mom left me in the car when she went into some store.

I entertained myself with FEAR

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RaspberryVespa@reddit

After poor Adam Walsh, we had a reason to be scared. ☹️

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ElectricSnowBunny@reddit

yeah. halcyon times just mean ignorance.

Yeah we roamed on bikes and were back before dinner and had no cell phones - but we were in packs and the adults on any random street were eye balling you.

Different era but we had way more redundant security than we give credit to.

And yeah America's Most Wanted and the post office pics scared me, lol

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Wild_Replacement8213@reddit

The fridge episode scared me

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reznxrx@reddit

You learned tho

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Federal-Zebra7702@reddit (OP)

Where is a giphy of J Walter Weatherman when you need it!

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Quirky_Ball_3519@reddit

The Halloween one scared the crap out of me!

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dietitianmama@reddit

We need someone to do a deep dive on the “abandoned child” trope of the 80’s. There’s a LOT to work with

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Ok_I_Guess_Whatever@reddit

Annie. Rags to Riches

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dietitianmama@reddit

Savannah Smiles

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Federal-Zebra7702@reddit (OP)

Well she was inadvertently kidnapped but her parents were so awful that they made it seem like the kidnappers were the better option 😂

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Ok_I_Guess_Whatever@reddit

And then you had the poor single mom after that: the Torkelsons, Grace Under Fire, Reba

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dietitianmama@reddit

Yeah- but there’s still more “abandoned child” plots. There’s a tv movie called “The Pinballs” about a bunch of kids in a group home. And the Cynthia Voigt book series that starts with “Homecoming”

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Ok_I_Guess_Whatever@reddit

Three Men and a Baby?

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dietitianmama@reddit

Yes! Do you know what else comes to mind is the movie Annie. I know it’s not set in the 80s, but it was a huge movie in the beginning of the 80s. Every little girl was singing the songs from Annie just like every little girl singing songs from Frozen now.

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reznxrx@reddit

Even goonies.

What child could disappear for 4 hours today?

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dietitianmama@reddit

I mean maybe… but there’s a lot of 80’s stories where adults take a child to a sore or a parking lot and straight up leave.

Once, in 1985, my parents were late picking me up from daycare and the daycare lady literally left a note on the door and took me home with her. I literally thought I was never gonna see them again. I was dying inside.

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SilverParty@reddit

🎶 With gentle hands and the heart of a fighter

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AppropriateDream2903@reddit

The Leftovers

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dietitianmama@reddit

Yes, absolutely.

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CuriousRiver2558@reddit

I don’t remember any episodes, but I loved her style. My friends and I would swap a shoe so we’d have mismatched shoes like Punky.

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jessie_boomboom@reddit

No, my dad was super into me not getting kidnapped so I had zero fear of abandonment.

I had a badass pair of Punky licensed hi-tops, though.

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Lazy_Match724@reddit

…😏💅💅💅

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Efficient_Fish2436@reddit

Mine abandoned me at church when I was 9. Pastor brought me home and they were like "oh we thought you were upstairs". The 90's were fun.

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Complete_Street8910@reddit

My love ❤️

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cbih@reddit

If my parents wanted to abandon me, they could have just turned their backs for 5 minutes

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Liathano_Fire@reddit

I used to be compared to her all the time.

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L0tech51@reddit

Uh, no? I'd just get picked up by some rich dude who would totally let me be myself.

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Ayren24@reddit

I got locked in a gas station bathroom one time and screamed myself horse thinking I was going to be left behind.

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Lucky_Louch@reddit

My mom kind of did when I was little and would go food shopping with her I would hunker down in the magazine isle to read Nintendo power, EGM, Gamepro ect cover to cover and would not want to leave. She threatened many times to leave me but one day she had had enough and paid for her groceries and left the store. She got in her car and drove around the parking lot a few times but in my little mind I had finally pushed her over the edge and she had left me... I was a little shit and deserved it lol.

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Stompedyourhousewith@reddit

My mom would always get in line at the check out, remember that they forgot something, and leave me there in line with the cart, and sure enough she would take so long that it was our turn and I'm just a little kid with a cart at the check out, and the check out last would just stare at me

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