I was on the bus on my way home as a youngster with a fag in my mouth, smoking away, my dad was on a coach on the opposite side of the road watching me smoking,
…what chance of that happening…
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Not parents as Dad was dead by the time I was5 and by 8 I was with my paternal grandparents.
When they left off being publicans, they moved lock, stock and barrel to Teddington where I made new friends and there were eight of us. We were warned repeatedly not to go anywhere near a certain part of Bushy Park that was walled and fence off due to deep water. One summer’s day, eight of us climbed the challenging wall and messed about with the water, but that day, only seven of us returned😢 I’ve been very wary of dark still water ever since.
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You don’t want to know, I got home, and I had to feel all the anxiety of what he would say to me when he got home from his trip,…fear is an awful emotion.
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LD, I’m so sorry! It reminds for of Phil Collins song In the air tonight
a hug for you LD.
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Can you imagine bringing up 3 boys on your own, they ran rings around me at times, my youngest when a teenager came home by ambulance one night, he’d been drinking, how he ended up in the ambulance I have no idea…another had been drinking ,he phoned me at around 3 am, saying can you pick me up,…
They have children of their own now, not quite the age of causing major problems yet.i wouldn’t wish on them what I went through though.
I love my boys dearly, it was all part of their own growing up.
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Four girls with my wife was challenging enough, but alone, I would have floundered!
Edited to add …but I would not change any of them for anything. They always were and still are the apple of my eye 
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Tell me about it Pauline!
My own brush with the wrath aka. my parents happened when I fibbed to my Dad that I was going to the Library on a Saturday.
Instead, I was going to meet my sweetheart from school - my only ever boyfriend (who later became my husband)!
In any event, my boyfriend took me to the only Mall in town and we had lunch and watched a movie. We were walking hand in hand in the Mall when who should come up behind us but my father!
He very calmly said ‘it’s time to go!’. Now, my Dad was a kind, gentle man- but don’t ever lie to him! And, I had!
That car trip home was deadly silent! And the belting I got when we finally got home for lying 
was let’s just say memorable!
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My dad said the same thing before he passed away. 
Good memories. He was the best dad ever!
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He belted you!...
I remember a time I gave my mum cheek, my dad chased me up the stairs , got hold of me, pulled my trousers and knickers down and slapped my bottom,…I remember it to this day and the humiliation of him doing that.
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Oh, we’ve had plenty beltings. My parents were really tough on us four girls. They most certainly did not spare the rod - ever! Very strict as well hence the lies!
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You have to see it from a father’s point of view and being a father, especially where girls are concerned, is difficult to say the least, because we can remember how a teenage boy’s mind works.
For my girls, I took the wide angled approach and allowed male rendezvous, but with strict time lines and a full run down of who they were etc etc. It worked too and all four were not too much of a worry.
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I’m sorry. That’s not pleasant. I bet you never gave your mum cheek again though.
That’s good parenting LD! Trusting!
My parents were not so ‘modern’ in their approach.
Oh I did, trust me!..
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Awww …no need for turning physical 
…
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Perhaps it’s growing pains with boys.
We had four girls and our only son did survive his first day, so all four girls have been a very special gift to us
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I’m sorry to hear that LD.
I’m so glad your lovely daughters kept you on your toes!
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I have a late discovered genetic problem for male children and when I eventually get my PM’s restored, I’ll tell you what it is, but not in open forum.
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