Taking Babies for Walks, in the 1950's.

Yes - I still have nightmares about it! I was about 7 and was allowed to take a baby from across the street out in her huge (to me) coach built pram. I don't remember where I took her but I ended up in the small derelict school yard at the end of the street which had a high step. Got the pram in just fine but when I tried to come back down the pram tipped backwards as I obviously didn't realise not to put the front wheels down first. It could have ended up in disaster but as luck would have it my dad was just walking past and he caught hold of it before it fell completely and saved the day. I was never allowed to take her out again!!

When I was 12 I got a 'job' taking a 2 year old to ballet class on a Sat morning - no mishaps but we lived in a seaside town which was very busy in the summer and there were several roads to cross. I think my mum volunteered me for it as her mum ran a guest house and Sat was changeover day.

When I was a child we knew the neighbours for several houses along both sides of the street. I don't think I ever asked to take a baby for a walk but I did occasionally ask to be looked after when I came home from school because my mother was a little bit late home from shopping.

However, I do remember that the day my dog died when I was a teenager. The adult friends whom I used sometimes to meet when we were both walking our dogs, never hesitated when I knocked on their door that evening and asked if I could take their dog for a walk. The lady of the house started to ask why, stopped almost immediately because she saw the tears in my eyes and handed over the lead. Sheba and I walked for a very long time but she was safely delivered home. My Spanish homework, however, was not done, but my Spanish teacher also recognised the tears in my eyes when I said why.

Hope you get treatment Willow. You shouldn’t still be suffering nightmares from 60+ years ago.

OldMeg

Yes, Lyndiloo, I used to take babies out for ‘walks’ in their proms. I think I was probably around 8/10 years old. Neighbouring Mums were glad of the odd half hour.
Can you imagine that these days ?

Would have been early sixties in my case.

I don’t ever remember taking a baby for a walk, although I knew children that did in the fifties, but my friend and I would walk past a large house where a child who used a wheelchair lived and we were allowed to take him for a walk on a Sunday morning. He lived on a relatively steep hill, so we were never allowed to take him down the hill, only up it, but fortunately he lived pretty near the top where it levelled out so it wasn’t too arduous and he was quite small for his age! He seemed to enjoy it enormously and his mother said the fresh air was good for him. Then they moved away, so we never saw him again. I often pass the house and wonder what happened to him.

Oh this brings back memories in the 50s, after asking that very question, I regularly took neighbours babies for walks. I think I was older than 7 but not much as on a wet day I struggled to see where I was going over the pram hood! The workings of the sun canopy on a bright day always defeated me!

My mum used to say that if I was 'missing' I could always be found leaning into the nearest pram and admiring the baby. I don't remember taking a baby for a walk, as a child, but when I grew up and had children of our own, I did borrow a neighbour's baby and walk her and the pram into town. My own two were at school and I missed them being around. Then we had our third, and I lost the urge for others babies. Funny that

There were a lot of babies in our street in the 50s and it was a regular thing for us to push the prams to the local park. I do not recall any accidents even though the coach built prams seemed enormous.
When I was ten my mother had another baby and for some reason pram pushing did not seem quite so attractive.

Most of the children in our area were the same age as me. The two that had younger siblings were occasionally told to take them for a walk and I would accompany them and get to push the pram which I thought was great. I never asked to take the baby on my own though.
It wasn't so great a few years later when they had to "drag their kid sister" along to the park. We would be about 10 and the younger sister 4, the park was 3 streets away and we'd be gone hours.

My brother was born when I was 5,meaning I had to take him with me wherever I went.I was 7,when a friend and I decided to walk into town about 2 miles away over several main busy roads,passing a bomb site on the way,a game of hide and seek with my brother ..who didn't "get it" followed on the bomb site,we couldn't find him so carried on our way,then went home.Mum went absolutely mad and clumped both my ears and sent me back to look for him,he was nowhere to be found so I carried on to the police station where quite a few hours he was sitting waiting to be claimed eating sweets and biscuits, meanwhile dad who was in a night shift got up early to look for us both,fully intending to carry on cuffing my ears where mum had left off but he took one look at my tear stained face and took us and bought us an ice cream each.My brother being the drama queen that he is still likes to dine out on this story of sisterly neglect,and I still had to drag him wherever I went.

I remember doing that as well Lyndiloo and prams then were big affairs, no buggies invented. It was a different time but scary when one thinks back to what could have happened.

Yes, my sister was always walking babies in their prams, but I would rather read a book!!!

God, yes, this thread just brought it back, I loved babies and would beg to take them out in their prams, however, double standards were in operation when I had my own son, I would NEVER allow anyone except us and family to take him out !!!

I remember doing this in the 1950s. I was probably about 10. Me and my friend would knock on doors where we knew there was a baby. The mothers never hesitated to give us their babies to take for a walk, some of these mothers didn't know us from Adam! We used to only knock on doors where the baby was particularly cute or they had a posh pram. We would take the babies to the park. It's unbelievable to think of it now. These were the days when babies were left outside shops in prams while their mothers went shopping.

Yes, I loved it, but one day I undid the baby’s reins so that I could take him out for a cuddle, I’m sure that I wasn’t supposed to to but that never stopped me. I put him back in but never put the reins back on. Then I stopped right up against a shop window and went into the shop As I came out he toppled over the side of the pram between it and the window, I was terrified but I never told his mum what I had done, and to this day I wonder if she found any bruises or scrapes, with hindsight I should of course have told her but I was only about 8 at the time and far to worried that she wouldn’t let me take him again.

Yes! Dogs and babies! My friend and I used to do this all the time so the mum's actually came to know us but they certainly didn't the first time and I was very young (maybe 9 or 10 at most). As you say, can't imagine it in this day and age and I certainly would not have let anyone take my babies out!

Oh, I remember doing that when I was a child, think the mums were glad of a break!

I used to take my baby sister out for walks in her pram. In the '40s.
Interesting how attitudes to child safety have changed. Maybe it was something to do with the war. Children weren't supervised much in those days. Often the father was away for years, rest of adults busy working. Me and my friends got up to some dangerous things and Mum etc never knew about it.
There were 'bad men ' around too. Not saying it was a good thing, just trying to explain.

I've never heard of this. It sounds quite scary. I lived in a community where we all knew each other but never considered asking to take a baby - or a dog - out!

My mother managed singlehandedly to keep me supplied with babies who had to be taken for walks! As I was a bookworm I would much rather have been reading, but looking after the baby was always delegated to me, in spite of me having an older sister. I was 2, 7, 9 and 11 when they were born - then I got sent to live with my father who had a newborn, a 1 year old, and a 2 year old. At the age of 16 I went back to live with my mother briefly and she'd had another baby who was a year old. I spent most of my young life taking care of babies - then had my first at 19!

The winter of 1963 I remember almost crying with cold as I was detailed to take the baby for a walk every day in the snow. I had holes in my shoes, socks on my hands (couldn't afford gloves) and an ill fitting coat that was too small to be buttoned up and honestly believed I might die of cold - but the baby, snugly wrapped in her pram, had to be walked!!!

I used to look after 3 tiny cousins when I was only about 13 as their mum was unwell. I simply walked them back and forward to the park all day collecting ice lollies every time. The oldest one thanked me for it once and had fond memories of that summer. I wasn't exactly the best babysitter, but someone thought so.

1960, Camberwell. One of my 9 years olds, living in a Peabody Buildings flat, described her weekend. ‘We went to see if we could take a baby for a walk but nobody needed us to so we took a dog instead.’
She was a lively girl, good at standing up for herself and for her siblings and her fighting ability earned respect from the boys! Often late on Monday mornings as she ‘took the bagwash’. I wonder what became of her!