Taking Babies for Walks, in the 1950's.

Yes my two friends and I would knock on doors where we knew there were babies and ask to take them a walk. I can’t remember anyone ever refusing.

Even until the late sixties, babies were regularly left outside shops while mothers got their shopping and babies were put outside in the garden while mothers did the housework.

I had a neighbour who used to send her two children, about three and five, outside to play while she did her housework. She used to lock the door on them!

When my two were babies it was the thing to do to take them a walk in their prams or pushchairs every afternoon, weather permittting. Now they are dragged around shopping centres for hours on end.

Grannyactivist, sorry that your memories are so bad. My best friend was the eldest of six and more often than not she had to bring one of her siblings along which didn’t go down too well when we were teeenagers. She only had one child herself and before she died she confided in me that she had no maternal instincts and hated being a mother until her daughter reached adulthood.

I’d forgotten about this! I can remember knocking on doors and asking, but I don’t remember anyone saying yes!

I was 10 when my stepmum had her first child and when she was a few months old i was allowed to take her for a walk to the park which ran along the other side of the road. There was a strict proviso that she was never to be taken out of the pram but as soon as i was in the park and out of sight i did so! I was also allowed to help bath, feed and change nappies. I loved her so much and she is still my favourite sister even though we are now 54 and 64, we get together as often as possible.

I was never inclined to take anyone's baby for a walk but I do remember taking someone's dog for a walk often, miles across the common when I was only about 9 or 10. He was a Pekingese who 'grinned' with his bottom teeth.

Times were a lot safer in those days.

Yes I remember knocking on doors and asking to take babies for a walk it would have been mid 60s and I would only have been about 9 or 10. Unbelievable really! I also remember babysitting when I was about 12 and the child probably around 4. I would have had no idea what to do in an emergency. Or how to cope with a crying baby. I have to say things have changed so much for the better!

Yes, I too took babies for walks, and at the age of 10 regularly got two little boys aged four and six washed and ready for bed in the evenings. Neither their mother nor mine saw anything odd in a ten year old girl being a capable nursemaid, quite the contrary.

I'd had practise with my sister, who was 3½ years younger than I and with a little cousin, who was 5 years younger than I.

At 14 I was a mother's help during a whole summer holiday. The four boys were 11, 9, 7 and 5. I seemed to be forever scrubbing knees, necks and ears that summer.

When I was nine I used to call at a neighbour's house every afternoon to take her baby boy out. He had a huge pram which I could hardly manage. After walking for a while i would take him back to my own house where my mother and gran would take him out of his pram and play with him. The neighbour had four children and didn't seem to care who had her little boy. When the child was three his mother went back to work. He was left roaming the streets all day and was allowed to drink the pint of milk the milkman left on their step. There was a loose arrangement that the neighbours would keep an eye on him. It beggers believe doesn't it.

Yes I remember this very well. Times were so much different then and life seemed much safer. As children we all played out together in the street, as we only had small pocket sized gardens so everyone knew everyone else really well. Communities were different too, people helped each other all the time out of friendship and neighbourliness. Mothers were quite happy for a girl they knew well in the street to take their babies out for a walk in the pram and it made us feel very grown up. I used to take a baby out regularly called Anita when I was about 11 and had the added bonus that her mum would let me wear her high heeled shoes as well! I felt like a mini mum and loved it...such happy memories.

'Times were so much different then and life seemed much safer'
Probably the biggest difference was much less road traffic.
Also in the days before the 'pill' women had bigger families so harder to cope. More childhood illnesses so poorly children to look after.

Yes there were lots of babies in our street and I could always find a pram to push up and down when I wasn't trying to get a ride on somebody's bike, my dad didn't think girls needed one. A friend and I also took dogs for a walk although I was a bit frightened having been flattened by one when I was about 4. My brother was allowed to go off with friends for long cycle rides from about 12 years old, he was gone all day.

born in 57,was at a sitters from 6mnths to 9 years but then mom remarried and had a baby brother by 10,he is/was the love of my life.i hated being the only "only child".mom was sick and baby was colicy.got very good at walking,and caring for the little guy.2 yrs later sis came along.
i became the nieghborhood sitter.no other girls around my age.
by 16 i was making more than my mom.sitting after school and weekend.in the winter they would have midnight snowmobile partys and all the kids-infant to 10 were put in one house and i was there til daylight.never any problems.there was always 2 or3 adults that could be called on if needed.
i was tall and gangly and aquired the name bigbird.
forward-am in my late 20s walking down the street and a ford van went by with driver yelling" hey bigbird".he pulled over and he and his gf got out.she was very angry(jealous) until we explained that i had been his sitter from age 1-9. we went to lunch..
where i live now there are no children.my nieces bring thiers to see me so i can get my baby fix.
now my babies are 4 legged and more work than the 2 legged ones ever were.and yeah i became a teacher.

We lived in a block of flats when I was 9/10 in the 50s and used to take the baby, of the family upstairs, over the park in his pram, with no time restrictions. Also, when I was 13 during the whole of the summer holiday from school, I looked after the 3-year-old son of a neighbour after she had another baby. I absolutely loved doing it and was thrilled to bits when she bought me a paper nylon petticoat (who remembers them) for doing it. I also remember baby-sitting when I was about 12/13.

I must have been about 12 when I would knock on a door down the street and ask to take the baby out. We had a black family move in down the road. The black baby was so beautiful with tiny plats and wore amazing clothes, all frilly and pink. The pram was all covered in lacy frills. The English white babies just had knitted clothes. The girls in the street used to compete to get to walk the black one. If it started to cry I used to take it to Mum and she would stop it, otherwise I would have to take it back. Different world!!

We always used to 'borrow' babies for walks. I was however, allowed to take my baby brother in the pram when I was only 4, I couldn't see where I was going and when I came to the kerb, the pram tipped over, leaving him dangling in his reins. I decided to run back home to mum to ask for help but got sidetracked by friends on the way. Half an hour later I went back home and mum asked where the baby was and I told her I'd forgotten him and he was up the road, she rushed up there and luckily someone had righted the pram and put him back on the pavement, needless to say it was sometime before I was allowed to take him out again on my own.

missdeke
TG he was ok!

I was approaching 14 in ‘67 when I was asked to look after an 8 month old baby during the summer holidays as her mother needed to return to work. I remember how proud I was at getting my first weeks wages and how much I enjoyed my job each day.

I was very well used to looking after infants having been surrounded by them throughout my childhood and thankfully was also very practical and could manage well.

I too remember my mother leaving my younger siblings outside our front gate each day so that they could get some fresh air. (We lived in central London and it was quite commonplace to see babies in their prams outside the front door). Meanwhile, my mother would be busy downstairs in the kitchen at the back of the house completely unable to hear or see anything that might be happening on the street. Needless to say each of the little ones survived childhood!

I seem to remember my mother saying that girls used to come round and ask to take me out when I was a baby but she always refused. I never did it.
As far as child care changing over the years my mother's mother was one of 13 and every summer they were taken to a house at the sea side and left there. The parents visited at weekends. GGF had to work and GGM stayed home with the baby and looked after him. A hamper of food was sent by train everyday for them.

I was obviously not very maternal as a child as I preferred taking the dog for a walk.
Not as scary as a baby!

Ohhh YES! I had forgotten and thank you Lyndiloo for this post, it has set me back years ...remembering!

When I was growing up we lived in two story flats in London. There was a communal garden and babies were put out in their prams (presumably to what? air?) Older children would take the babies and prams for 'walks. Now we may have asked? but not totally sure... So us 9/10/11 year olds would just take a baby and pram for a walk around busy roads near Kilburn High Road.

I also remember regularly taking my 18 month old brother on the tube (at 11).....finding a transport cafe and stopping for a drink. (so I must have been given money from someone) My mum and I speak about this now and wonder WTF??? Mum, who is so over cautious with her grands and great grands can't actually believe she let me! (she feels my 14 year old niece is too young to go into town alone) All she says is "well I must have trusted you" but as you say...changed days.

Going back to mum's childhood - kids as young as 4 and 5 used to be sent to the off licence for jugs of beer!!!!! (incredible but true) My grandparents owned an off licence and it was considered normal.

I had forgotten about the times I took the baby from across the road out in the pram complete with its older sibling in tow. Their mum had four children and was glad of a break! I also taught one of the children to read when I was 7 and she was about 4! Sometime these posts bring back long forgotten memories.

Oh yes-it was the thing to do in our street as well!! I was very lucky as we had a young family next door to us and I was allowed to take the youngest little boy out-his older brother wasn't as popular as he wasn't as cute-poor thing. I also helped at bath time and used to go round every day after school-my mum used to knock on the adjoining wall to tell me to come home for tea. I would do anything for the young mum next door but never helped my own mum-I remember doing her ironing and washing up-it must have been a bit like playing at house. They moved to Scotland after a couple of years and I used to go for my holidays and eventually took my husband and our children too- she was like the big sister I never had and I learned such a lot from her.

Yes my friend who lived opposite and I used to take a neighbour's baby for a walk in its enormous pram (guess we were about 10) to the local park which was a long way away ...gone for hours, be she never said Where have you been ? also used to take the local Old English Sheepdog belonging to the local shopkeeper for a walk every day (paid 2/6d a week ..a fortune in the late 50's !) used to take it round the country lanes, through fields of cows, for a paddle in the brook (no one told me cows don't like dogs !) When I used to return hours later, the owner would say I don't know where you take that dog but he is so exhausted he sleeps until morning....

No I never took a baby out or a dog for that matter blimey I must have led a sheltered life
Can you remember how we used to leave the baby and pram outside the shop when we went in to buy stuff though?

Yes Bluebelle, everyone did it -I think the prams were too big to take into the shops! I used to come put of the shop to find old ladies leaning over the pram admiring the baby. We were certainly encouraged to leave the baby out in the garden for fresh air (with a cat net!)
My D and DiL would have 40 fits if I left a baby outside a shop even for 30 secs!!