'My dad let us ride on the roof of the car' 14 of the WORST parenting mistakes according to Reddit

Sometimes it can seem that kids these days are sheltered, especially when you think about how you were brought up.

That's not to say that parents back in the day were bad at their job, but the days of letting primary school kids roam around unsupervised are long gone!

When Reddit user 'Acenose' posted the question: 'What did your parents allow you to do as a kid that your friends were not allowed to do and you now realize was bad parenting by your parents?', Redditers replied with their upbringing stories, and quite a few of them will most definitely surprise you...

1. Letting your kids on top of a moving car

'My dad let us ride on the roof of the car. Amongst other things, he probably wasn't winning any parenting awards, but I thought he was the coolest.' - JeffMartinsMandolin

2. Leaving your teenager to live by themselves

Image: Home Alone/Hughes Entertainment/20th Century Fox 'My parents moved out and left me to live in the house when I was 16. We had exactly one conversation about it, whereby they asked if I wanted to move with them and I said no.

'It was cool, I was never into drugs or alcohol or parties, so I didn't ruin the house. I wasn't allowed to heat the house up much, so I always wore a snow jacket inside, and basically just came home to sleep.

'But now that I'm older, I realize that it's more on the line of child abandonment...oh well.' - MissWilkem

3. Funding their smoking habit

'My mum used to buy me cigarettes when I was a teenager. I thought it was cool. Now that I'm a parent, I'm like... f***.' - xplasticastle

4. Pumping them full of sugar

'Just a shit ton of sugary snacks. Holy s*** I ate so much sugar as a kid.' - LordFirebeard

5. Letting them stay up all hours

'We didn't have any bedtime hours established, I could just go to bed whenever and then miss the first period of classes. This sounds very cool when you're a kid but one day you realise you might have a problem with schedules and discipline.' - kronkspinachpuffs

6. Allowing them to strut around in heels

'Got my first pair of four inch heels at 11 years old, maybe just turned 12. Shiny black patent mules. I mean, I begged for those shoes, but as an adult - ew.'

'By 15 I'd worn high heels so much that my tendons shortened and it was painful to walk in flat shoes or even bare feet. Thankfully I'm no longer an idiot and have accepted my shortar**dness. - blinky84

7. Helping them become scarred for life

Image: Boy Meets World/Touchstone Television '[My parents] let me watch whatever violent/scary movie, but any kind of nudity and they would cover my eyes. I was so traumatized by those scary movies. I think I could have handled boobs just fine.' - dragoncrown

8. Letting them make the medical decisions

'We didn't have to get our vaccines if we didn't want to (I guess my mother couldn't be bothered with us crying) so as a result I was about 16 when I got my vaccination straight.' - kronkspinachpuffs

9. Using them as a rubbish disposal service

My younger brother and I were allowed to smash things apart and/or set things on fire in the back yard as long as our parents confirmed that the thing in question was no longer needed/already not working/unfixable, that we cleaned up everything afterwards, and that there was water nearby in case the fire got too crazy (it never did).' - 1WomanSOP

10. Having chips for every meal

Image: Wet Hot American Summer/USA Films 'Having French fries as a meal. I learned in high school that French fries were usually considered a side dish, not a main dish. My brother and I were both overweight, fortunately we both got fit in our early adult lives.' - Ser_Rodrick_Cassel

11. TV all the time

Image: Spongebob Squarepants/Nickelodeon 'We could watch ungodly amounts of TV.' - kronkspinachpuffs

12. Allowing fun times with a drill

'[I was allowed to] play with my grandpa's power tools.' - RobotPolarbear

13. Underage driving

'My dad would get in the mood for something from the corner store, but didn't feel like moving. So he'd toss me the keys to his truck, at age 13, and send me on the mission to retrieve goodies.

'I had such a hard time maintaining a view over the steering wheel while also trying to keep my feet on the pedals.' - Mechdave

14. Using them as a bar buddy.

Image: The Simpsons/20th Century Fox 'My mother got me a fake ID when I was 14/15 so we could go bar-hopping together. She honestly thought she was being responsible by holding onto it so I could only go out with her.' - gjiodjf