If your childhood happened today, for which reasons would your parents be visited by CPS?
Posted by Roscoe_P_Trolltrain@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 236 comments
NW_Forester@reddit
Unaccompanied minor - too many times to count. I was riding my bike up to like 5 blocks away on my own to a friends when I was 5 years old. At 8 I was regularly like 2 miles from home and by 10 I had a 10 mile radius. I was camping by myself/with friends on DNR land like 4 miles from home without a parent at 11.
Constantly bruised- Again too many to count. I was basically one big bruise from like 5 to 13 or so. I would crash my bike, fall out of trees, catch elbows playing basketball, have rock throwing fights, slip and fall over a shadow, run into a building when not looking, get in fights with my brother, etc. etc. I once was running around a pool and slipped and fell and had a bruise over like half my body. Never broke a bone though.
ocvagabond@reddit
I was left in our apartment unaccompanied in some container for up to 1 got aged under 1. Worked different shifts. The gap between one leaving and the other arriving home.
From the outside things appear fine.
retrozebra@reddit
In a container? š„ŗplease tell me I read this wrong
ocvagabond@reddit
Think playpen, bassinet, car seatā¦ not like a jar.
sweet_pickles12@reddit
I was gonna suggest a cardboard boxā¦ like a puppy!
ocvagabond@reddit
I mean. We were quite broke. Itās not like thereās pictures. One of those things that came out as an adult in conversation with other people. I just recalled hearing the timelines and putting the math together and realizing there was a gap of time. Explained a lot truthfully.
retrozebra@reddit
Ok phew! The use of the word ācontainerā made me think of something more sinister like a closet or box with a lid. Iām sorry that happened to you though, eek!
I grew up super poor and I was fortunate we had my retired grandparents to watch us most days. Lots of latch key days tho when they were gone and my mom was working so what youāre saying is so real.
sambashare@reddit
basswired@reddit
a container? like a playpen?
ocvagabond@reddit
Yes. I donāt it was that back then given financial limitations. But something of that sort.
RealCauliflower773@reddit
Sounds like my childhood, except started at age 4. My mom would give me a salt shaker and tell me if I could put salt on a bird it wouldnāt be able to fly away. I spent hours chasing birds in the neighborhood by myself.
Usual 80s child abuse. Spoons, belts, the occasional grabbed by the throat and slammed into the wall. Good stuff.
I avoid discussing my parenting strategies with my mom. The few times I have led to awkward pauses as the cultural difference in hitting small children became palpable.
I try my best to not judge the past according to current cultural norms, but how did a 185lb adult male hitting a 35lb 4 year old child ever make sense?
mrossm@reddit
Yup once I got my "bike rodeo safety test "passed I was basically given free rein. Biked to school(our elementary school was inside our neighborhood) to friends and everywhere else.
sweet_pickles12@reddit
Safety test? Were your parents cops or something?
mrossm@reddit
Our elementary school had Bike Rodeo. The local sheriff's dept came out and taught kids basic road safety once a year. Did a navigational.course, learned the hand signals, checked our helmets. Got a snow cone.
Unfortunate-Incident@reddit
Yep wake up and go find friends and just be gone for 12 hrs straight, at 7 yrs old. Yep that was pretty normal for everyone in the neighborhood honestly.
TiEmEnTi@reddit
This one, was allowed to roam my immediate neighbourhood alone at four, pretty much free reign of the town by eight
the3rdtea2@reddit
I actually got picked up by police when I was like 4 cause I was riding my trike down tthe highway (2-5 miles from the house) to "go see daddy" it's told now as a funny story but...looking back...yikes.
MaksimusFootball@reddit
this. aged between 7 to 10, every summer, i wake up, have breakfast. then go to the community pool from noon to 4 (when mom gets home) nearly got mom in trouble when her friend, also lifeguard, learned i was just turning 8 years old that summer: OMG you were not supposed to leave a child alone under aged 8! but thankfully i was a good swimmer and i was kept eye on by her during those days and she kept her mouth shut lol.
Silocin20@reddit
Neglect, we didn't have the emotional or mental structure we needed. Also to mention nutrition, both parents didn't know how to cook. I know they did their best with what they had, but damn looking back I'm surprised we survived.
Pale-Weather-2328@reddit
putting us in a car in a parking lot at night outside of a restaurant when we were misbehaving so we wouldnāt disturb anyone else
Running through the sprinkler naked
being sent to the store alone to buy booze and cigarettes with a note
CountGensler@reddit
My mom throwing me down the stairs might have been a good one. Or her biting my fucking face.
InfowarriorKat@reddit
We were allowed to miss 20 days of school within a school year before them requiring a doctor's note. I hear it's not like that anymore.
LateRecognitionLimit@reddit
CPS did visit for hitting me with a broomstick. My neighbors were sick of the family's schenigans every day. There were plenty of things that would get a visit even then if they were reported.
But what probably wouldn't get a visit: walking to and from school alone, riding a bike without a helmet, rollerskates / blades without knee pads or a helmet, playing in the street, wandering the neighborhood, sent to buy groceries, cigarettes, beer, and lotto, home alone including overnights, cooking meals.
LateRecognitionLimit@reddit
Oh, Chicken Pox parties.
AbbreviationsGlad833@reddit
Me and my brother were roughhousing in the backseat during a road trip. They told us to stop but we didnt listen. They reached their limit. They pulled over on the side of the highway and pulled us both out of the car. Me 9 and brother 6. And they drove off. I remember telling my brother we should go in the woods and build a shelter and sharpen sticks to hunt for food, lol. Instead we just sat on a log and cried. for what seemed like hours.. Then I saw my parents car pull up and my mom crying and my Dad drag us both back into the car while slapping us around. Pretty traumatic experience.
FluffyButtSilkie@reddit
Gross neglect
SilentSerel@reddit
CPS was called. Nothing came of it.
They were both alcoholics, so there was a lot of neglect and driving drunk with me in the car. My dad was also abusive in multiple ways and often was up at all hours screaming and yelling (I think that's what prompted the CPS calls. The neighbors must have gotten sick of hearing him).
TurtleToast2@reddit
Fun CPS story!
CPS got called on my mom in the early 90s. I have always had a ton of anxiety. I worry about things that might happen to the point that I've had stomach ulcers since my teens. I had long since stopped telling mom my worries. She was dismissive and always made me feel worse on top of my fears.
That said, I was convinced I had AIDS at 14. No good reason, just the panic of the times and crazy rumors about getting it from toilet seats and such.
Mom takes me to my annual physical and I ask the Dr for a test. Dr asks about why I think i need one, assures me that it's nearly impossible to have it but says she's test me for my peace of mind. The office had a lab upstairs for blood draws so she walks me up. My mom sees this and starts asking the staff what's up. They will only tell her that I'm getting bloodwork but not why.
My control-loving mom lost her shit, came up to the lab and told me we're leaving. She's yelling and asking me wtf was going on. I told her I asked for the test so she'd calm down and stop flipping out on the staff.
She takes my arm and we go out to the car. The whole time she's telling me how ridiculous I am. We get in the car and leave. Next day CPS shows up. However, the Dr office told them she grabbed me by the neck and shoved me in the car.
Thinking back I wonder if they were trying to give me an opportunity to get out of a bad situation. Regardless, I'd already tasted the foster system when I was living with my father so I wasn't about risk that. My mom was an ass but it wasn't the worst situation.
Funny side story. I grew up in the south, mom moved to New England with her affair family after the divorce. I moved in with her a few years later. They lived in a nearly all white town. My half sister was about 5 when this happened.
The social worker assigned to our case was a black woman and I guess my sister had never seen a black person before because she when she saw her she said "what happened to you, why are you burnt" and I watched my mom lose her soul thru her ass. I enjoyed that but felt bad for the woman.
Inevitable-While-577@reddit
Blowing their smoke into my face 24/7.
Yes, 24/7. We lived in a small apartment and I didn't have my own room.Ā
I have a lung disease now.
supenguin@reddit
They left me and my brother in the car to run into the grocery store to get things. Iām thinking it was around the time I turned 8 or 10 theyād leave us home alone.
BaldHeadedLiar@reddit
Abuse- sexual, physical, emotional Domestic violence, exposure to drugs, and exposure to violent criminals
Nice_Exercise5552@reddit
ALL of them, if anyone were paying attention and cared to follow through. But, most of the time this still doesnāt happen.
Well - I mean - they were visited by what was then called DSS, but follow through was not a strong suit in an underfunded, broken system (that is still needed, despite its issues, so I hope it isnāt cut and it is actually bolstered rather than wiped out all together).
blanksix@reddit
Neglect, definitely. Probably also physical abuse but the cuts and bruises were 100% self-inflicted with the assistance of trees and rocks.
darkiya@reddit
I have words today I didn't have then..
I was 100% parentified. Bad babysitters from age 6 to no babysitters by age 9 I was expected to watch my younger siblings. Who learned if they just called mom and complained I'd get yelled at and they'd get their way.
I could do no right.
We were often sunbathed, dirty clothes and home alone because I was an overwhelmed exhausted preteen "parent" with crippling depression and anxiety.
Now I'm an adult with depression and poor self esteem who continues to be ridiculously sensitive to criticism.
Good thing people are always kind on the internet rofl
BenignAtrocities@reddit
When I was about 3 apparently I had new shoes and just gotten over a cold; we had a spiral staircase that caused me to trip. On the other side was a stained glass window that I put my head through and being 3 didnāt know not to pull my head back out.
We went to the hospital and most certainly words were had, accusations made. But for scars Iām fine all these years later but we no longer have a relationship, not because of that but many, many other things.
Expensive-Day-3551@reddit
Wandering around in the woods by myself for long periods of time. Babysitting 3 kids at a time at the age of 11.
Worth_Concert_2169@reddit
Yes! As a parent now, I cannot believe that people let me watch their children when I was 12!
Expensive-Ad1609@reddit
They still do that now. I wouldn't even trust a teenager to babysit my 8-year-old daughter.
Livid-Condition4179@reddit
Yes and yes - I'm in NJ and families would leave their kids with 11 year old me and go out in the city... I look back at that as a mom now and can't even imagine
Bibblegead1412@reddit
Yeah- I was fully babysitting babies and toddlers in the 6th grade. I don't even fully trust myself to do that NOW!
MotherofaPickle@reddit
I know better now. If they arenāt my kids, I do NOT want the responsibility/hassle.
Check_Fluffy@reddit
Yes! I was so young, and it wasāt siblings, these were other peopleās kids!
Bibblegead1412@reddit
Totally. It's so wild to think back on!
camptastic_plastic@reddit
I was doing all of those same things. We lived on a 60 acre farm and I was deeep in the woods playing with my ninja turtles in a creek alone. Nobody would have had any clue where to look for me. My parentās friends used to leave their slightly younger kids at our house. I got in trouble once because we were all so busy playing that we forgot to eat lunch and then one of the kids mentioned they were hungry when they got home.
FoppyDidNothingWrong@reddit
The spoon š®š¹, the back of the hand, being called outside my name, and you know what. No one pitches a perfect game, my parents were in a fucked up situation too. A lot of our parents grew up in a day where strangers laid them out.
I think the lack of boundaries has openly harmed children way more. As a parent, I really don't see other parents out there executing techniques I wish to rip off of. And I plagarize life advice freely. Much more of us self identified as happy in the days of west coast hip hop and grunge music. While we grew up with a level of brutality what we are doing now clearly does not work.
Now what was uncalled for was that we did not have enough money and enough food. My dad would complain I ate too much even after we got out the hole. (I was never fat) Fuck that shit!
Expensive-Ad1609@reddit
The spankings. They used a sjambok at times. The shouting. My mom once banged my head against the wall.
badteach248@reddit
Getting spankings.
spookyhellkitten@reddit
Leaving me home alone in the summers so she could work. Necessary, but for sure illegal considering I was 3-7 haha Poptarts and PBS for the win!
Probably the CSA. Not by my mom, but by the random people she'd leave me with so she could party. I told her it was happening, and she'd still send me there.
Smoking weed in the house with me there. Just the overall party scene in the house. Her favorite story is me putting a washcloth on my head and telling all her high friends that Jesus was coming in the clouds. It really messed with the potheads. Uh, was your toddler suffering from a contact high, Elizabeth? Perhaps not a "cute" story lol
After she found Jesus (and my first step-dad), maybe educational neglect? I was homeschooled but from a strictly Christian curriculum. I know everything about Moses. And anything else I know, I learned on my own.
Opunaesala@reddit
Nothing for me, I was born in 84 and had my parents when they were in their 30's and calm. My older brothers were born in 72 and 76, and had my parent's when they were in their early 20's. They have stories of thrown radios and being spanked with an empty drawer because they were both troublemakers.
Fabulous-South-9551@reddit
Interesting. My brother was born in 66 and I was born in 81. We have a pretty big age gap. Same dad, different moms. My brother says we grew up with vastly different dads. My dad was 45 when I was born, plus Iām a girl. I was daddyās princess, my brother was his whipping boy.
a_solid_6@reddit
Spanked with an actual drawer? That's no spanking. š¬ That should've been a call even in the 70s friend lol
Fabulous-South-9551@reddit
Walking home in second grade and crawling through a window bc they didnāt trust me with a key
jackytheripper1@reddit
Not providing food, not providing clothing, not cleaning at all making me a housemaid to a 45 year old man. Came home from a trip to maggots and other bog infestations because he cooked and just left food everywhere for 3 weeks while I was gone, and had obviously funded the trip on my own. Also, stealing money from me.
gimme3strokes@reddit
Probably bruises, lack of food, and acting out in school. My parents were visited by CPS and they did all of jack shit.
fairlyaveragetrader@reddit
The better question is how many of us would be in foster care š
Did you know your son was driving around a car at 11 years old? We found your son shooting guns in the backyard after school. Did you know your son made a pipe bomb and blew a hole in the baseball field? Grade school kids should not be riding motorcycles down gravel roads. Oh yeah and we found your teenager out wondering around the streets at 2:00 a.m. with his friends on their little BMX bikes
lexluthor_i_am@reddit
My parents now are emotional unavailable. They were 20% available in my childhood, not a lot, but not zero like now. But they aren't CPS visit bad. So that's good. My parents were actually fosters parents for 2 years when I was a kid. So kids taken by CPS would end up at our house. So I guess they were actually pretty good parents growing up when I really think about it. I totally forgot about that. So thanks for helping me realize that!!
Crusty-Watch3587@reddit
BB gun fights. one pump rule, no head shots.
Helo7606@reddit
I mean, now my parents are chill. Back in the 80s. My step dad was an alcoholic and abusive.
vanity1066@reddit
We would drive around our very small town in a golf cart, a rope tied to the back, pulling each other on rollerskates. No helmets. Under 12 years old.
FergalCadogan@reddit
Letting their kids throw lawn darts straight up into the air and then dodging at the last minute.
Happy_Confection90@reddit
I imagine leaving a 12yo in charge of a 6yo for 45 hours a week all summer would be frowned upon these days.
redditshy@reddit
all of them.
m1ke_tyz0n@reddit
weekly until I was asked to leave high school.
Fr4gd0ll@reddit
My sister fell out of a second story window. We were both under five, unattended, and the window had no screen.
YanniqX@reddit
š«
B-SideQueen@reddit
Mines a little differentā¦great and happy childhood but a different time we were living inā¦.my mom would have me run in the to Krausers to buy her cigarettes from the clerk! And they sold them to me because I was so little it wasnāt a threat of me smoking them and it was āpractice talking to grown ups and using money at the store.ā
tabrazin84@reddit
I was also sent to the corner store to buy cigarettes. Then my mom would send me with a note saying it was okay! š
BrucetheFerrisWheel@reddit
When I was about 11 we used to forge those notes to get cigs to practice smoking. Ugh. Took me 26 years to stop smoking after that.
Thamnophis660@reddit
My mom decided that Dr. Spock's book, which apparently suggests that you leave your infant to their own devices, was great advice.Ā
Later on, she applied the same lessons, because I don't even think she knew when I was at the neighbor's place riding bikes and setting things on fire or playing with pellet guns.Ā
SubversiveKitt3n@reddit
We would sit on lawn chairs in the back of our Chevy van because it didnāt have any back seats. If my dad took the corner too fast we would tip over.
And my parents would be chain smoking the whole time with the windows rolled up, of course.
Stock_Worldliness_91@reddit
Using the local library as free afterschool care, meaning at 10 I was walking about a mile there and just hanging out for hours until my mom got off work and picked me up.
I had tons of of fun though, absolutely never used the time to do homework but read hundreds of thousands of pages of books and my first Steven king novel.
Oomlotte99@reddit
My mom smoked in the house? Iām reading this thread feeling really lucky, ngl.
Careless_Ad_9665@reddit
Being 11 and being in charge of a newborn. Hereās your brother, take care of him with every spare minute of your life.
PetMonsterGuy@reddit
My parents were visited by CPS in the 80ās and I ~~turned out ok~~ am a fucking wreck of a shell of a person.
RicketyWickets@reddit
ā¤ļø I'm a wreck too, but I have found a couple things that are helping me. 1 walking in the woods. 2 listening to these, and otherĀ audiobooks while I walk.
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, Or Self-Involved Parents (2015) by Lindsay Gibson
Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving (2018) by Pete Walker
SunshineofMyLyfetime@reddit
Yep, that Pete Walker book will get you.
Adventurous_Pin_344@reddit
That Lindsay Gibson book was GREAT. It gave me great tools for dealing with my parents.
I co-hosted a party with them and my mom and sister had a knockdown, drag-out fight while drunk. I just sat by and observed.
PetMonsterGuy@reddit
Appreciated, thanks. Iāve been in therapy and on meds for a little over a decade now and have cut contact with most of my family a long time ago
RicketyWickets@reddit
Good to hear you have had some support and healing time. I had to cut out most family too. I don't miss them but the holes they left are still empty.Ā
odin_the_wiggler@reddit
A regular Bart Harley Jarvis
whistleridge@reddit
CPS, police, the works. Time, education, and therapy have helped me to be happy and fulfilled but holy shit was I a hot mess in my late teens and early 20s. Thank fuck I never turned to substance abuse or crime as outlets.
Weak-Virus2374@reddit
We were too once, but here I am nonetheless.
the-cookie-momster@reddit
My parents had the visits too. I still can't believe we lived in that way. I made a goal to provide a better life for my kids so I just hope I can fulfill that.
dsteazy80@reddit
I am an only child and started staying home alone for 2-3 hours after school in third grade. I sometimes got left alone for 8-12 hours at a time on Saturdays when I was 9.
My bus stop was several hundred feet from our house. (Now in my local district bus drivers wont unload an elementary child if an adult isnāt visible. My bus driver used to smoke on the bus with the elementary students on board. Times were different. Lol)
Got caught by the cops at 2 a.m. riding bikes with a buddy at age 10. We snuck out of his momās house and went to the 24 hour convenience store to get some Nitro cola and candy in our mission to stay up all night. The store was about a half mile away. We had to cross a major four lane highway to get there. Cops busted us in the storeās parking lot. We had no clue two 10 year olds on bikes at 2 a.m. was a bad idea.
Cops put us in a cruiser, put the bikes in the trunk and took us to his house. He got grounded and spanked. My parents were called and came to pick me up. I also got grounded and spanked, double for my parents having to come get me around 4 a.m. on a Saturday. My dad called me a vagrant and criminal for a few days to shame me for āgetting picked up by the law.ā
I should also clarify my childhood was great. Mild corporal punishment was the worst I endured, but I never got hit hard enough to leave marks, never got hit in the face or beaten, etc.
Nice_Improvement2536@reddit
So many things. The most obvious and egregious probably leaving 9 year old me to take care of my 1 year old sibling for hours on end.
rialucia@reddit
Oof. Been there. Itās a miracle my baby brother is still alive because I was a literal child who was supposed to look after him more once.
Desperate-Cost6827@reddit
Yep. Also the time I went to a friend's house and her older brother was "watching us" but he was messing around with his bike and suffered a concussion and we were both like 9ish I think and had no idea what to do while he was unconscious.
Nice_Improvement2536@reddit
Wow! So what ended up happening?!
Desperate-Cost6827@reddit
It's been ages. I just remember 100% but I feel like after he woke up, which thankfully he did, we did the thing of "Don't tell dad!".
Nice_Improvement2536@reddit
Looool
Vesuvia36@reddit
Drugs, abandonment, abuse. Everytime my mom was visited she or my stepdad would do āfavorsā for them, so we didnāt get taken away for a long time. They finally slipped up when I was 12 and I thankfully went into foster care.
catlovingmusicbaby82@reddit
Yep back in the 80s & 90s when I grew up, it was COMPLETELY NORMAL to:
Yea it does seem like a MUCH DIFFERENT world nowadays than it did during our childhood for us 80s/90s kids! I believe I heard/read somewhere that our Generation was the VERY LAST generation to experience "UNSUPERVISED FREEDOM" like the generations before us also experiences when they were all kids... But at some point during the 2000s after our generation grew up & became adults, things changed, & I mean EXTREMELY CHANGED...
DontYuckMyYum@reddit
I'm sure there's a ton more stuff but that's all I got for now.
IndomitableAnyBeth@reddit
That time little sis and I feared for our lives. The day after parent 1 had left for a new job, we got snowed in with parent 2. Who no more than a day in, went mad. Said they "need to kill someone" to feel better and started talking about how they'd go about it. Methods, hazards, etc. They gasped at the notion that 12 year old me might hurt them in defense of my life. And started describing how they'd murder my 7 year old sister. As it was, I talked our way out of immediate danger... by taking their terrifying talk lightly as I dare - going on about how much a hassle murder would be. They went on to threaten our ever-so-smart gerbils (chosen for that from pups) who, swear to god, treated that person as a mortal threat from then on.
I wish I'd reported. Not spent weeks with hidden improvised weapons, always wearing sneakers, having "sleepovers"night after night, holding my sis as she cried herself to sleep. It was awful. And I think it was the one thing that could've gotten attention. That parent talked seriously about each of us several other times, but people tended to wrongly figure it was "kidding." Never.
I also really hats that, to this day, parent 1 thinks I did the best thing by not "blowing up the family" by calling authorities for help. Pardon me, serious threats of filicide hadn't done that? The right solution was for we kids, 7 & 12 to directly deal with a carer that wanted to murder for stress relief? No way. That can't be the most right way.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
šššši feel this so much! same stress to shut up about what was wrongā¦the abuser/neglector was protected, not us.
IndomitableAnyBeth@reddit
We weren't the only targets. But when things got bad between them, parent 1 would drive off... leaving us there. Didn't think she'd do anything to kids, they said. Right... they weren't there to see how very much their partner enjoyed fantasizing about murder. Oh but they're better now. Really? On my 18th birthday, parent 2 was going on about things they could no longer legally do to an adult. Deny me the right to leave, strike me, etc. Ended with "I cant even kill you anymore! At least Ihave 5 more years with the other one." Pardon? Not ancient Rome. Parents do not, in fact, have a right to end their children. Parent 1 didn't know a lot that went on because they refused to listen. To be " put in the middle" between me an their partner. Sorry, that's their job.
That first day at 12, talking my way out of filicide while figuring out defenses... that was the day I grew up. Had to, I had a little one to protect. It's funny, though... they didn't need to pressure me to shut up. To keep things "in the family". The bad stuff tended to be literally incredible - people tended to not believe me.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
š¢šhope you guys are ok now
DonnyBoyCane@reddit
The phrase "I'll give you something to cry about!" along with the time my mother "accidentally" broke a wooden mixing spoon over my head. Was that pasta sauce or blood on it after? We'll never know.
Henchforhire@reddit
Don't remember what I did but my mothers friend got mad at me and hit me on the but with a flyswatter and it went flying and I started laughing. Than her husband got out the hot sauce yah that didn't work.
Than that nasty bar soap that worked in the mouth.
NoMercy767@reddit
I dropped a bowl the other day and it gave me a flashback of clumsily dropping a cup multiple times and getting yelled at. I've copped the wooden spoon many times too. I don't understand how you can get so mad at a kid you are using weapons against them. Sorry for your experince.
After_Preference_885@reddit
Are we the same person, those exact things happened to me
FlatRooster4561@reddit
The simulation is good, but thereās a limit to the variety
SciFi_MuffinMan@reddit
You knew Mr Spoon too?!
MotherofaPickle@reddit
The lady who did daycare for us had a paddle for her kids. It only came out after all the clients left for the day, except for as a threat during summer.
I remember the oldest of her kids bragging about how his butt ābroke the paddleā.
Surprise, surprise, the husband was arrested for assault or DV or something a few years after we moved away. Not shockingā¦dude was clearly a ābecame a security guard because he couldnāt get in to Police Academyā kinda guy. For good reason.
sorrymizzjackson@reddit
My mother had a red snake skin belt she whipped us with. Long standing ājokeā was she chose that one to hide the blood.
SourcePrevious3095@reddit
Spanking with yard stick. Thrown fork that stabbed into my head. Being kicked while on hands and knees for god knows why.
missgiddy@reddit
Walking a few miles to 7-11, apparently. I saw a video recently of a mom being visited by the police because she let her kid walk to a store. Or maybe she was even arrested, I canāt remember a
JMurph3313@reddit
I wrote an answer to this twice but could not post it. Neglect is the short answer.
clayoban@reddit
Kids now get taken away for biking a mile away unsupervised now, I think it would be a shorter list on what good parenting examples from your childhood that would be widely used today and accepted.
ResponseBeneficial17@reddit
Hitting as normal punishment maybe, or leaving ushime alone from age 7 lbevause they couldn't find or afford a sitter (one parent at work, otherneeded to run errands). But also there was the combination lock and padlocks dad put on the kitchen cabinets and fridge when we were teenagers so we couldn't eat anything except what they left out for us which I once calculated as less than 1000 calories for the day. Maybe my dad's rule that we had to use the stationary bike for 1 hr every day and he had turned the tension way up so it was hard as hell, and duct taped it so we couldn't move it. He'd yell if he didn't hear the bike (cause it made a swishing sound when you pedal). When I tell ppl I know now about our childhood, they are usually a little horrified. š¤
Yes, we used a screwdriver to take the padlocks off a cabinet a couple times... but there was mostly just flour and other baking ingredients that we were sure they wouldn't notice if used. They would mark the level of things like cereal or milk to make sure we weren't havimg more than we were allowed... We once made plain cookie dough to eat when we were really hungry. š
Burlington-bloke@reddit
Mental, verbal and physical abuse by my homophobic father. I have a very good life now but I'm a wreck. Panic disorder, major depression. On Tuesday I had an "Acute Major depressive episode" that involved 50ml of midazolam, about 25 Tylenol 3 and a 40 pounder of gin. Midazolam is unbelievably bitter and I couldn't swallow even a drop of it. I called my friend crying and she rushed to my side, I got some help and I'm no longer in danger. The drugs were taken to a pharmacy and disposed of. That is what years of parental abuse does to a man. It destroys you. My father should be charged with something but I'm 44 years old and live 2 thousand miles away.
basswired@reddit
I'm glad you called her. I'm glad you made it.
Burlington-bloke@reddit
Thank you. I'm getting more help.
arcxjo@reddit
Most, if not all, of our parents intentionally infected us with herpes instead of getting us vaccinated.
Anyone got shingles yet?
arcxjo@reddit
My sister's allergic to bee venom and they got her epi-pens.
I'm allergic to everything else and all I got was force-fed my allergens.
southdakotagirl@reddit
I lived in a small town of 500. In the summer I ran around feral. No adult supervision. I could ride my bike to the pool, softball field, and town park. My parents worked 2 jobs so I had to make my own lunch and dinner. I lived off of spaghetti o's and hotdogs. In the 80s my uncle was in a friend's backyard and flagged me down. He was out of his mixed drink and had me ride a few houses over to make his mixed drink Morgan and coke in his mug and bring it back. The friends my uncle was sitting with the town cop and the town mayor. They didnt say anything. The 80s were a different time. Now any of the above would probably get the CPS called on my parents.
knotalady@reddit
Drug use around minor. Minor children left unsupervised. Driving under the influence with children in the vehicle. Excessive use of corporal punishment against minor child.
ParkourZoomies@reddit
Leaving me alone at 8 years old to babysit her best friendās 2-year-old asthmatic son so they could go party. Leaving me alone by myself for hours at that same age so she could go party, with only a pot of cold macaroni on the stove to eat.
basswired@reddit
uh, probably for the same reasons they were visited by CPS in the childhood that did happen back in my childhood.
C1sko@reddit
Child neglect, abuse, abandonment, possesion of stolen property and manufacturing of illegal substances with the intent to sell.
grayscaleRX@reddit
When I was 2, my parents had a party and I was apparently left unsupervised to the point that I drank the dregs of all the open beer bottles and got drunk.
I was allowed to go to the playground down the block at 3yrs old as long as I was with my 4yr old neighbor!
firewings42@reddit
Likely the same reason as in the 90s. But maybe for letting me wander alone? Walking to school alone? Forgetting to pick me up at school?
She was never dumb enough to leave marks but verbal abuse is still had to prove today. But maybe easier now that we all have phones and can record anything?
Easy_Independent_313@reddit
I was a latch key kid at 6. My older sister was 8. We would have been removed from the home.
Abject-Twist-9260@reddit
The police came and I had to go down to the station to tell them my mom wasnāt beating me. She was very verbally abusive but she didnāt physically abuse us.
cacecil1@reddit
Left in a hot car alone on multiple occasions
Betteronthebeach@reddit
They let me walk to school
piscian19@reddit
Oh yeah forgot about that. Walked a mile back and forth to school by myself or friends starting in 1st grade.
Desperate-Cost6827@reddit
I knew the guy really well at the elevator because anytime it was -10 to -20 and school was still open it was the only place in between warm enough to stay so I didn't freeze going back and forth between school and home.
MotherofaPickle@reddit
In first grade, no. By fifth grade, it was the only way to get to school if I missed the bus. And I LOVED school. No abuse other than light emotional that I totally saw through in my family.
AlwaysAGroomsman@reddit
Yeah. What the fuck is with all these parents driving the kids to school? It's daylight. It's only a few blocks to the bus stop. If anything, drive your kid to the bus stop.
flatulating_ninja@reddit
Mine would've let me if it wasn't 15 miles away.
giraffemoo@reddit
My mom told me I should k*ll myself when I was 14 or 15. Because I had a messy room and bad grades, lol
AlwaysAGroomsman@reddit
Spanking/whipping comments incoming. Also, fuck my dad for using the metal end of a belt. Still hate that fucker to this day.
Left_Development_994@reddit
I have 4 sisters. One of which is seriously disabled. She canāt walk or talk. Sheās like about an 8ish month old baby mentally and she has seizures. So medication, feeding, changing. The whole deal. Sheās older than me by 5 years but I was taking care of all of them every day by the time I was 10. Parents eventually divorced but, dad would disappear for 3 days at a time doing coke and God knows what and my mom was going to night school to get her nursing degree. So when she wasnāt working her to support us, she was in school. That put me in charge.
I donāt blame my mother because she did the best she could and I had relatives on speed dial who showed up if I called for help, but no one knew what was going on and how I was basically doing everything for my siblings. Momās plan had been to get her degree, divorce dad, and move closer to my grandparents. She couldnāt take it anymore one day though and called my grandparents who lived a state away.
Grandpa came and got us all that night. I woke up thinking I was late to school and instead ended up helping pack up my sisters and we moved that morning. It got easier living with them but I was still responsible for a lot. And since my motherās credits didnāt transfer she had to start nursing school all over again. She did it though. There was a lot of messed up stuff about our childhood but Iāll say that my mother never gave up. I was never hungry and I had no idea how poor we really were. It could have been so much worse.
elkniodaphs@reddit
I would drive to the grocery store to buy food at 13-years-old, just like a normal shopping trip. And literally nobody cared.
Difficult-Mountain36@reddit
My mother beating the hell out of me with the wooden spoon on the reg.
jenbenfoo@reddit
When I was like 1 or 2, I toddled out of my mom's sight and made it out the front door and fell off the porch into a rosebush š (it was like 2 feet high) I made it out unscathed somehow! But I feel like if this had happened now instead of 40 years ago, it would have been captured on a neighbor's doorbell camera and inevitably it would be the ultra-nosy Gladys Kravitz type, lol, and they'd call CPS.
Late-External3249@reddit
My dad was a farmer. I don't think I need to add any more detail
TraditionalManner582@reddit
Starvation
bikeonychus@reddit
Smacking us with a cane when we were bad. Leaving us with the known Uncle Pedo when we were little kids while my parents went on a weekend break (went exactly where your dark thoughts are going). Leaving us alone for a week while my parents went on holiday when I was 12 and my brother 15.
The more I look back, the more I realise that it's no surprise I'm a total fuck up. Still managing to raise a kid better than they did though.
Ippus_21@reddit
That time my dad lost his temper over some shit I pulled when I was fighting with my little brother and whacked me enough times with the belt that I had bruises on the backs of my thighs. Mom wouldn't let me wear shorts for a couple weeks, and it was summertime.
balding_git@reddit
i got the belt across the thighs once. i had snow pants on so i didnāt feel much and no marks but that was probably the āworstā time. pretty sure he knew he wasnāt doing much so he went even harder and got madder
my crime was coming home at like 5pm after it was already dark in the winter
i tossed every one of his belts in the snow, that didnāt end well, but i think that was one of the last times i got it lol
MioMine78@reddit
My mom still sent me to school wearing shorts with the bruises all over my thighs. Teachers didn't care.
mottledmussel@reddit
A big part of corporal punishment is the humiliation and psychological aspect of it.
MioMine78@reddit
Yup. And itās why I hardly speak to my parents anymore.
digitaljestin@reddit
Okay, that actually sounds like a legit reason to involve CPS. I hope you're okay.
Ippus_21@reddit
I know I'm FAR from the only person in this generation who grew up with corporal punishment, some of which went way too far.
I guess at least my parents weren't drug addicts or something, and they didn't do that kind of thing with my younger brothers.
sorrymizzjackson@reddit
Oh yeah. If you put your hands back there it was long pants and sleeves. In July. In memphis.
myco_lion@reddit
Burning half my face when I was 12 would probably guarantee a visit these days.
MisRandomness@reddit
Well my mom got arrested yesterday so Iād say thatās why
ElmerTheAmish@reddit
True story: my mom did get CPS called in her because of me!
We were at a strawberry patch doing the pick-your-own thing. I was, allegedly, being a proper shithead, and got spanked because of it. Some lady was not having any of that, and followed my mom to the parking lot to get her license plate. A while later, CPS showed up at our door. I'm pretty sure I was grounded for a while after that! lol
WhatTheCluck802@reddit
You didnāt get spanked because you were a shithead.
You got spanked because your mother was not a good parent and did not understand how to discipline a child in a healthy manner.
CuriousRiver2558@reddit
Leaving us in the car while they went shopping!
SkylarSea@reddit
My mom slept later so often times as a young child, I was unsupervised in the early morning.
We lived in an apartment house when I was younger and one morning when I was around 4ish, I was hanging outside on it. Needless to say, someone saw me and either spoke to my mom or called the building's super about it.
WhatTheCluck802@reddit
Getting hit and screamed at regularly would be the biggest thing. The time I called my counselor to tell her that my mother hit me so hard I had an indent in my leg from her hand, and the counselor told me not to bother her at home (I was like 9 years old at the time and looked her up in the phone book to call for help) - in this day and age of mandatory reporting, that counselor would potentially lose her license for failing to report child abuse. I still cannot believe that woman did that, chastising a child calling you for help. Useless bitch.
picklepuss13@reddit
Iām home by myself and 7Ā
ApatheistHeretic@reddit
Neglect.
"Ma'am, what do you mean you'll be home at 9p to talk about it?! I found your kid and his friends skateboarding down at the grocery store parking lot after sunset twice this week."
Character_Bend_5824@reddit
Spanking, riding bikes without supervision, using lap belts riding backwards in the trunk, no home office for schooling
UnluckyCardiologist9@reddit
Iām sorry, the trunk? Did they at least leave it open so you could have air?
Character_Bend_5824@reddit
The back of a station wagon. And no, the window was closed and no ducts back there. You'd have to ask Mom to turn the fan up higher and angle the vents towards the ceiling.
MotherofaPickle@reddit
My cousin and I rode in the back of my uncles pickup for the 90 minutes it took to get to my grandpaās house. It had a cap on it, but no seatbelts and the only padding was sleeping bags if he brought them.
He stopped giving us rides because we would sit on the wheels and bounce up and down when we went over railroad tracks/bumps until our heads hit the ceiling. We āruined his shocksā. Good times.
Unfortunate-Incident@reddit
Probably station wagon. I rode in the trunk of one often. Usually I was crammed into little corner surrounded by stuff while we drove for 2 days to grandmas house.
atlantagirl30084@reddit
What does your last point mean?
Character_Bend_5824@reddit
In the '90s, a home office was unusual and only for adults. In COVID times, kids were expected to attend elementary school on a screen and ve attentive at home. I can't wrap my mind around that.
Chango-Acadia@reddit
My mother once packed what she thought was a Pepsi for my brother's lunch, but at school discovered it was a Labatts Blue ...
piscian19@reddit
mmm.
I never had a babysitter. Period. Early on I just got left at my cousins house who were barely older than me. Once I was around 7-8 they'd leave me home all the time. That would be a huge today. At least affluent communities. Nobody would care even today in the neighborhood I grew up in.
Drinking and negligence. Basically some days the only thing in my house was alcohol. Fridge would be empty for days and I'd go forage for food at other peoples houses.
MotherofaPickle@reddit
Number three I feel is totally normal. My 2yo is working his way up to that. Luckily, I know all his tricks. Unluckily, heās a crafty little chimp. I was shocked the first time he used emotional manipulation on us. At 2!
Designer_Home2755@reddit
Drugs, too much alcohol, and violence in the home. Also, going home alone with my mom's estranged husband, who "lived in" our backyard. Threatened to kill my dog and me, and r*ped my mom. I was not allowed to call the police, but the neighbors called one night. I learned at 10 years old that the police could give a F about women. He's dead now, and I still want to hurt him.
To this day, she tells me I am ridiculous for thinking that affected me. It was just here.
Mission_Spray@reddit
Making a homemade chess set out of lead fishing weights?
Nah, itās actually never taking my siblings and I to the doctor during severe illness so my dad could spend money at the horse races.Ā
odin_the_wiggler@reddit
Joke's on you: CPS can't visit my parents if they aren't ever home!
lsp2005@reddit
Babysitting at age 10 for a newborn and three year old.
The yelling so loud the house shook and you could hear it four houses away.
There was worse, I just donāt want to write it down.
GenXMillenial@reddit
I shudder to think of the neglect I experienced that I cannot recall because I was too young when my mom was mourning her sister passing via self action. I was too young to know how she suffered.
DisastrousBeautyyy@reddit
Animal hoarding & getting our asses whooped.
Sympathyquiche@reddit
When I was around 5/6 I was left home alone in the mornings and had to get myself to school. I used to get in trouble for not always shutting the door properly. Seems wild to me now.
idkidc9876@reddit
My dad was physically abusive and an alcoholic. The cops were at our house often all the way up into when I was in high school. They never did anything. I remember the last time I called the cops and one guy showed up around midnight. He basically took my dads word that heād calm down and stop chasing me around the apartment screaming at meš¤¦š½āāļø I begged that fucking cop to take me with him but it was a ādomesticā issue. I was 14 or 15. And according to my mom I just had to ādeal with itā. The bar was so goddamn low for boomer parents.
polygonalopportunist@reddit
Mine were fairly involved, for the time. They cared about me, but were divorced and just didnāt have the time. They were only meddling when I did stuff like not come home for days.
I had some friends whose parents were never fucking around. I mean like, leave them alone every weekend and go to a casino. Or be over at a significant others house, all the time. Or just away at a second home and never actually home. So I feel like I spent a lot of my youth just in other friends houses for extended times. My parents werenāt like āwhere are youā.
HeelsOfTarAndGranite@reddit
Maybe someone would have actually followed up when my mother was slapping me a lot in public and a man asked her to stop?
She said that if they did come take me I didnāt get anything in the house.
Roscoe_P_Trolltrain@reddit (OP)
Sorry to hear that. Did you relationships with her improve at all as you got older?
KeyboardMunkeh@reddit
I mean, all spanking is basically off-limits now, right? My step-dad had a paddle that he made that he carved the names of my brothers and I into it.
thegirlinvisible@reddit
I was chronically absent from high school, I just didnāt go. Like, all the time. Looking back, I honestly donāt know how it wasnāt made into a āthingā. I guess they donāt have truancy officers everywhere?
Welp; I just Googled. āIn New York, a truancy officer can arrest a minor who is unlawfully absent and must then place them in school while notifying the parent or guardian and possibly initiating court proceedingsāā¦.glad that didnāt happen.
Yestie@reddit
My two sisters and I standing barefoot on the bumper of my dad's pick up truck, laughing and hanging in for dear life, while he drove around on gravel back country roads
Being dragged through freshly fallen snow by hanging on to a chain my dad attached to our snowmobiles. Yep usually my dad was driving them. This was a fave.
Dad driving us in our family van into the "river" - actually just a creek - bc he thought it was fun to scare us. We loved him so much!
When my one sis did fly off the truck, my mom was LIVID. Two black eyes and a few other bruises later, bumper rides were strictly banned. Even seat belts became mandatory.
i_AntiSocial@reddit
All of them. Short of negligent homicide LOL
FickleAcadia7068@reddit
My mom hit me with a belt while I hid under the bed because I didn't want to take medicine.
kathatter75@reddit
It could be the orgy party she had once that my brother and I came home to, endangering us by driving drunk or stoned with us in the car, having drugs out where my brother and I could get to them, leaving us alone all night while she went out to party (after weād gotten ātoo oldā for the only overnight babysitter around our area).
ObjectiveFlatworm645@reddit
They did get visit by CPS. I'd definitely be taken away, but at a younger age. I'm wonder how much worse or better life could have been.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
me too, i think i wouldve ended up in a group home (which back then was similar to lockdown)
ObjectiveFlatworm645@reddit
I did end up in a group home. I was a juvenile felon. Don't worry I'm better now, all grown up, no crimes or drugs since then lol.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
can i ask how old/how long did u stay in the group home and how was your experience.
Mysterious_Fennel459@reddit
CPS wouldnt do sht about it even if they were called. I called CPS on my sister in law and so did most of the rest of my family and they didnt do anything. She was literally too flippantly dumb to care for her kid and the dad didnt want to participate in parenting at all.
lordoftheslums@reddit
Half of these responses have me checking to see if itās my sibling. Had to stop ready r/raisedbynarcissists for the same reason
espressocycle@reddit
I was a latch key kid and one time I forgot my key in winter and had to sit in the dog house with the heat lamp while my dog was stuck inside waiting to pee.
Sad_Limit_1472@reddit
Physical, emotional, and mental abuse.
MioMine78@reddit
Lots of things similar to what others have mentioned, but I'll add that my parents sometimes left me in the care of my godfather who was a great guy, relatively speaking, but was also a drug-addicted Vietnam vet dealing with bad PTSD. His biker friends would come over and do coke and drink in front of me. From what I remember, they were nice too. Good thing the cops never showed up.
Perfect_Mix9189@reddit
The drugs
TBShaw17@reddit
For being responsible for my brothers aged 10, 8, and 4ā¦I was 12.
207Menace@reddit
Taking me to the bar and making me sit in the car fridays
woolsocksandsandals@reddit
So many thingsā¦
Starting in 4th grade I was walking to and home from school almost a mile to school with my 1st grade brother. I was often left to supervise him until 5:30-6:00 until my mom and dad returned home from work. He was very unstable and frequently quite violent towards me.
Once she got home to a chaotic messy house she would yell at us (mostly me) for hours and would frequently get verbally abusive and physically violent towards me.
The summer before fifth grade I started regularly speaking up about what it was like to be stuck with my brother and her treatment of me. To teach me a lesson she dropped me off at a Catholic diocese building about 6 miles from my house that used to be an orphanage and drove away.
At some point, maybe 6-7th grade I called her a bitch and she slapped me in the face about 10 times with both hands one after the other.
Spanking for very mild offenses. Soap in the mouth for talking back.
My the end of seventh grade I had such severe depression and was sick of being bullied at school I was missing/skipping at least a day every week. Which continued through high school.
I could go on but this is depressing.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
ššši feel thisā¦although by 5th grade an inner anger had developed in me and when she tried her bullshit it came out and she mustve seen it in my eyes (kinda like when Riggs jumps off the building w the guy)ā¦she backed off and leftā¦ permanently not long after
RicketyWickets@reddit
My parents were Seventh Day Adventists on the more extremist end. My mom's parents took them to court several times to state that they thought my parents were unfit (probably because of the extreme vegan diet and restrictive home schooling). I was too young to know all the details but definitely remember having to hide in the bathtub when anyone drove up our driveway. My mom was convinced cps would come take us kids for their religious beliefs.
Rat_Cabbage@reddit
All the farm work I had to do. No one taught me to life properly as I grew older and taller and at the age of 20 I was diagnosed with a back injury. I felt like I have never not worked and at 42, I am fucking tired. and in constant pain.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
šŖš
belunos@reddit
Probably not knowing where I was 10 hours a day during the summer
misskellycupcake@reddit
My whole childhood was unsupervised. And we ride in the back of the truck without seatbelts. Hell my dad would let us steer the car on his lap to park because our driveway was tandem. Then there was the other stuff, I'll leave it out but 80s with an old school military dad....
BigPoppaStrahd@reddit
Simply put: nosey neighbor or karen interfering. For example I remember sitting in the car listening to the radio while my mom ran in to Target, I was perfectly fine, today a passerby would see that and call the cops.
A coworker of mine said that she had cps called on her because her child was having a tantrum in the front yard. I only have her word to go on so I donāt know if there was more to the story that she didnāt divulge, but that kind of stuff scares me that your life can be turned upside down and every action you make be scrutinized because some stranger is getting involved in your business.
Dull_Morning5697@reddit
I was maybe 4 or 5 and we were at the local farmers market in the 80's. I was thristy and my mom could only find lemonade. She offered it to me and I turned my head and wouldn't take any. She pulled it away and I began to cry. She offered it to me again and I turned my head. She pulled it away and I began to cry. This pattern may have repated itself once more and then she threw the entire cup of lemonade in my face.
People were shocked at what they had just witnessed. If it was today, I can't imagine someone wouldn't have reported it. My mom had never done anything like that to me before or after this incident. I also don't blame her one bit and believe I deserved it after the way I behaved.
I still don't drink lemonade.
AppropriateAmoeba406@reddit
Riding unrestrained in the back of a pick up truck
Kalle_79@reddit
Uhm none?
ERuth0420@reddit
Hoarding, hard drug use, tens of thousands of rounds of ammo and dozens of unregistered semi automatic firearms, pool with no fence around it, death threats registered to classmates and neighbors, active antisemitism (see death threats), ratty clothing...
Oh who am I kidding, my estranged parents are kinda the norm around here.
I still am told to quit my job, divorce my wife, sell my house, move back in with my drug addict mother into a house that was willed to the neighbors (I've been written out of my parents will since childhood), and give her my last dime, by complete strangers (to me, they know her I suppose).
Consistent_Law_3857@reddit
When i was 3 my mother would plop me in front of the TV, completely alone, and go off to drive a school bus. Kids at 5 or 6 could play outside riding bikes or "big wheels" completely unsupervised. Not to mention physical abuse that would land parents today in jail.
JenSlice@reddit
I was an extremely picky eater and went thru a phase where I would only eat plain hot dogs, so my mom sent one to school w me every day and that definitely raised concern lol.
BloodbuzzLA@reddit
The whippings with the bamboo stick that left welts for days
beccadahhhling@reddit
I meanā¦
-riding my bike over a quarter mile to school from kindergarten to 5th grade
-being home alone after school for hours
-having our water and electricity shut off for non payment a bunch
-getting smacked across the face
-any family party we attended was full of drunk people and loud music, thankfully no drugs
-having 7 untrained dogs at once in a very small home
Beginning-Pen6864@reddit
95' my dad once held me to the wall by my throat, he would lose his shit all of the time, he was a good person, but had 0 emotional control.
CatsEqualLife@reddit
Riding in the truck bed and leaving a broken bone untreated for three days.
_shaftpunk@reddit
I was basically free roam and unaccounted for at all times.
gimme-sip-cmon-share@reddit
My mom tied me to a chair, arms bound, when I was 11 because I wouldnāt/couldnāt stop stimming on my hair (undiagnosed OCD and ADHD and there was a chunk of my hair missing from trichotillomania).
yowza_wowza@reddit
CPS was all up in my house as a kid.
CauliflowerBoomerang@reddit
Leaving me in charge of my siblings (home alone) from a very young age.
Drinking and driving.
Letting us get sunburnt every single summer. I got heatstroke at the age of 5.
MadameLeota604@reddit
Burning my hand with a cigarette at my birthday party. Then yelling at me to stop crying.
averageduder@reddit
I donāt ever a time that they didnāt leave me home alone once school started. Like 8 years old. Granted I had neighbors that lived close enough but Iād be home from 3-530 or so just doing whatever
Mapper9@reddit
Home alone at 5 and 7 years old. Walking to school at the same ages. Mile plus bike range at the same age. Medical neglect.
BlacksmithThink9494@reddit
Not getting your kids to school on time (like 5-10 min late too often). No joke. Absolutely insane. Yet they were never called when I was getting bruised by a belt regularly.
Appeal_Such@reddit
Shoot- drinking and driving. Unlawful discharge of a firearm. Shit was wild.
hi984390@reddit
Probably for the screaming that apparently the whole neighborhood could hear. Found that out later when talking with my friend who lived a few houses down from us.
Yeah. I hate when people yell now.
dadjokes502@reddit
Standing in the backseat looking out the back window.
sed2017@reddit
I was thrown in the pool multiple times as a 4 year old to ālearn how to swimā¦ā it didnāt work. My dad tried to āteachā me how to swallow pills when I was young and was freaking out and splashing water in my face multiple timesā¦ also didnāt work. Good times.
DaughterofJan@reddit
Hahahaha. Yeah.
Defiant_Cookie_4963@reddit
These responses are interesting. Thereās some that I think are the intent of the thread, like what things were pretty much fine but frowned upon today (like being unaccompanied). Then others are things that would have warranted CPS involvement back then too but were normalized (mostly physical abuse, some actual neglect which is very different from being unaccompanied).
Internet hugs to everyone in the latter category who went through childhood trauma that was unacknowledged!
Unique_Ad_3312@reddit
The number of times we went to the emergency room for injuries for my brother. From the ages of 1-13 we were probably at the ER several times a year at least. He skateboarded, biked, climbed, etc. and was always getting hurt.
One particular time I was watching him, he was maybe 12 and I was 15. He put a pipe against the retaining wall in our backyard and tried to slide down it with those shoes that had a hard plate on the bottom (I canāt remember the name). He fell and broke his wrist, it was obviously displaced. Instead of calling either parent at work, or 911, I just called a friend who had his license. He picked us up and drove us to the ER. Not even sure how we knew where it was to be honest.
Burntout-Philosopher@reddit
Whipped with a belt. Left in a hot car while parents went shopping. Wandered the neighborhood unsupervised.
midnight-dour@reddit
Letās not do thisā¦š
BritOnTheRocks@reddit
My fatherās use of a belt that did not involve holding up his trousers.
And yeah, me and my brother walking to elementary school by ourselves.
s-multicellular@reddit
If? Hahaā¦.When I worked for CPS, I found my and my siblings names in old records. I would just guess it was for leaving us unattended or my mom doing wacky stuff (bipolar in part but also just eccentric related).
jaywinner@reddit
Nothing much. Maybe being at the park without supervision.
BananasPineapple05@reddit
Leaving me by myself for more than one hour at a time at home (clearly, I was kidnapped and tortured to death as a result), letting me walk to school by myself and letting me read books that were for adults are the ones that come to mind.
Homelessavacadotoast@reddit
The biggest one, at least in my state, is that we donāt treat weed use the same way. It used to be treated on par with every other substance, meaning you would lose your kids for use.
Now itās considered the same as alcohol.