What mementos from their offspring’s childhood have British parents held on to?
A well-worn ritual for most parents will see them creeping into their child’s bedroom at night to hustle away one of their detached milk teeth for a nominal cash value.
But what to do with the carried-off canines? For many parents the solution is obvious: keep them!
A new YouGov survey finds that one in three British parents (33%) still has their children’s milk teeth somewhere at home. Among those parents with children under the age of 18, that figure is higher still, at 48%, while 26% of parents whose children are now all grown up have continued to retain their child’s gnashers.
An identical number of parents (33%) have also kept a lock of their child’s hair, and 24% have a memento cast of their baby’s handprints or footprints.
More parents are happy to hold on to depictions of their children, rather than literal parts of them; 97% of parents say they have kept photos of their young offspring, and 69% have video footage. Given how much more affordable video camera technology is now than in the past, it isn’t surprising to see that parents with children currently under 18 are far more likely to have videos of them (93%) than those parents whose children are now all over the age of 18 (56%).
Having proudly displayed their children’s artwork on the fridge, 74% of parents have kept such creations permanently, including 66% of those for whom all their children are now grown up.
Most parents (58%) have kept some of their kids’ childhood toys, and 43% still have some of their baby clothes.
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Photo: Getty
