When I had my first baby, my mother acted as if she had been personally appointed by the Sock and Hat Commission to make sure my newborn’s feet and head were covered at all times. “She’s fine, Mom,” I’d say as she replaced a fallen sock for the 9800th time. It was like she had a fear that her grandchild would come down with a life threatening disease if her flesh was exposed to natural air.

As my kids grow up, she is still the grandma who hovers over them in the playground and looks at me sideways when they climb higher than she is comfortable. My stepdad is even worse. He’ll freak out if a knife or a hot stove is even in the same room as my kids. “Watch their fingers!” he’ll yell across the room while I cut strawberries a good ten feet away from them. “I see them,” I insist. “We’re good.”

Meanwhile, these are the same people who let us run wild as children. I’d ride my bicycle to my friend’s house, with no word on when I was coming back. There were major roads involved! We’d walk through the woods and nobody checked us after for tics. It’s more than the supervision that was virtually non-existent, even supervised outings were questionable. I’m not talking about modern day concerns like high fructose corn syrup and chemicals in plastic. I’m talking about seatbelt and car seat laws. Apparently, back in the 70s, when I was a baby, car seats were an optional thing. My own mother can’t even remember if she used one!

I also remember riding next to my mother in the front seat and can’t even imagine how old my daughters would have to be before this acceptable. Or legal. And I vaguely remember a friend of mine whose parents had a car where an additional child could ride up front in the middle. I always wanted that seat!

Compare this to an incident I experienced over the summer, when I was stopped by a police officer for taking my 4yo out on a tricycle without a helmet. It was a radio flyer with a long handle attached so that parents could push in the back. Basically a stroller built to fool toddlers into thinking they are riding a bike. And I was in a residential neighborhood right outside my house! He let me off with a warning, thank god.

Obviously, the rules and regulations that went into place since the 70s and 80s have been for good reason and because of very real accidents, but hopefully the lesson here is that we can all relax a bit and our kids will still probably turn out okay.

Grandmas everywhere— lay off with the socks, okay?

1) They let us ride bikes without helmets

2) They left us in playpens they put together without reading the instructions

3) They incorporated cocktails at a bar in their basement into our bedtime routine

4) They used a Heineken box as a baby carrier

5) They thought a middle hump and a seatbelt around the elbow was all the car safety we needed

6) They called this a car seat

7) They attached our car seats with rope

8) They threw those “car seats” in the front seat

9) They balanced our carseat on the back of a tractor and let our older sister drive it

10) They thought four kids hanging out the back window of a station wagon was a great idea

11) They let us take a nap above the seat in the back car window

12) They let Uncle Steve drive us around on the back of his Harley

13) They put us in bouncy seats on top of the stove

14) They let us cook while sitting on top of the stove barefoot without a potholder in sight

15) They helped us drink beer from a mug

16) They helped us drink beer from a can

17) They helped us drink beer straight from the bottle (presumably as a rite of passage at our first birthday party)

18) They congratulated themselves when we learned to drink beer all on our own

19) They let us unwind by ourselves after a rough day at school

20) They propped our bottles with pillows so they wouldn’t actually have to hold us

21) They filled our bottles with apple juice

22) They started us on orange juice at four weeks

23) They thought introducing solids meant a slice of pizza

25) They took us to parties at the playboy mansion

26) They let us ride killer whales because it was a major crowd pleaser

27) They stuck us in a cage with a bear and made us give it a hug

28) They told us to stand behind a lion for a photo op

29) They put a garbage bag in a Miller box and called it a pool

30) They turned their backs to us while we drank beer on the edge of a rocky cliff

31) They thought a PBR box hat would help cushion the fall from our metal stroller

32) They didn’t use bouncer straps correctly

33) They let us dive head first into one foot of water

34) They let us go paragliding in a chute that was clearly ten sizes too big

35) They redesigned the basement to be the perfect watering hole for preschoolers

36) They were not concerned about second hand smoke

37) They thought smoking from pipe was fine as long as it was supervised

38) They balanced our birthday cakes on a six pack of Coors

39) They sent us out in the lake by ourselves on a raft that wasn’t fully inflated (no life vest either)

40) They thought attaching a sled to a motorcycle by a long rope in a heavily wooded area was an acceptable winter activity

41) They sent us into alligator infested swamps with nothing but a tube and a paddle

42) They carted our high chairs around the house with a dolly

43) They stuffed our play pens with bears large enough to suffocate us

44) They filled our cribs with every flammable object imaginable

45) They trapped us in walkers on wheels and let us loose in split level homes

46) They let our older siblings drag us from their bicycles by a long rope down a main road

47) They let us build our own soapbox cars and then pushed it down a hill with no regard for oncoming traffic

48) They used us to improve their television reception

49) They passed out drunk while holding us

50) They thought three was old enough to shoot a gun

51) They thought the perfect place for their gun rack was hanging above the crib

52) They put their liquor on the kitchen counter with a handy step stool to make sure it was easily accessible

53) They told us to “smile for the marijuana!”

54) They let us use a pack of cigarettes as a teether

55) They let us take a nap in the front seat next to a shotgun and a dead bird

56) They got us drunk so they’d have free entertainment at their lawn parties

Seriously— how the hell are we all alive and well today??? Luck, I think. Pure luck. That, and probably our parents did a few things right. Like hug us every now and then and make sure we didn’t starve.

Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Do you have any old photos that could get your parents arrested? Share them on the Mommy Shorts facebook page or hashtag them #myparentsshouldbeinjail and tag @mommyshorts on Instagram.