Silly things your mother did (lighthearted)

Oh and doesn't everyone still have a carrier bag full of carrier bags and The Drawer with all the random things?

I use cut up old clothes for dusters (not pants though).

Re washing, DH says I am weirdly oversensitive to the smell of damp, even the hint of the smell of damp. I swear unless clothes have been dried in a tumble dryer or radiator or on a line on a properly windy or hot day, I can smell damp. I have been known to take down a line of washing and rewash it on the grounds that it smells damp because it's not dried fast enough. We argue over the towels regularly, him saying ffs unmarked they are perfectly fine they don't smell of anything and me saying listen you noseblind eejit they reek of mould because they've been hanging damp.

I cannot stand the smell of damp.

It's interesting that a lot of the posts are about previous generations being natural conservationists, ie washing clingfilm for reuse, saving plastic bags for reuse, using up every scrap of leftover food etc.
Much of this stemmed from necessity. There's no doubt that in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s living standards were much lower than today and people were poorer.

I read a lot of guff these days about baby boomers having had such an easy life. But I do often wonder if the people who say that were actually there at the time, getting by on very little, making do with 2nd hand everything, darning their socks and sewing patches on their clothes to cover the holes!

But funkbus how the hell do you then hang a tshirt out to dry if not by the hem? Anywhere you hang it (by shoulders/ middle) you're still going to get peg marks! My mind is on a boggle as I was taught to hang them by the hem , all connected to each other by the middle peg!

DM (who is only 65) never liked any mention of a shop, in a different shop. So taking an Asda carrier bag into Tesco was a no-no! Nowadays she's better about it, what with bags for life, etc, but it really bothered her when I was young. We were also never supposed to speak of other shops, in the shop. So if we were looking for a washing machine in Currys, we couldn't say "we did look in Dixons but they didn't have the right one" because the shop assistant would be offended at our mentioning a rival store! Once we were in Tesco and asked about something, and the staff member said, "we don't have any, have you tried Sainsbury's?" and I thought DM was going to faint.

And I was never allowed to take anything into a shop, in case they thought we'd stolen it. I remember thinking no security guard is going to want to question us about my manky old stuffed rabbit... It was only once I became a parent that I realised it was more that she didn't want to carry it, or deal with the fallout if I lost it. I understand that one a lot better now!

Also, if she was talking about someone who had passed away, she had a habit of saying, "Lord rest him/her". Occasionally she'd pause and say, "Oh no wait, he/she's actually still alive" .

She warned us girls not to have baths when we were having our period because she heard of someone who bled to death doing this .

@Onlymeandthedognow I love this !!! haha

The only thing I thought was weird is she told me not to eat cakes until they had cooled down as I would get stomach ache.

I asked if that was also true of sponge puddings! She had the grace to look a bit embarrased!

Catholic family:
When I was 6/7 yo DM sewed a square of fabric containing an image of St.Christopher (I think) onto my vests - to ‘keep you safe’.

Oh and sending us for a 1/4 of boiled ham and make sure its 3 slices you hear me? from our local shop! such happy days...brilliant thread this one OP

my mum used to send us to the icecream man with a bowl and ask for 50p worth to take home for desssert! Then every wednesday she was to be found at weightwatchers with her friends after a disasterous weigh in and being shamed we used to meet her and go to the fish and chip shop to all get fish and chips to eat on the way home! Shes done so well on her life long weight loss programme ...I reckon shes lost 5lbs in 40 years! I love her so much the mad head she is!

Was anyone else's mother obsessed about half day closing for shops?
She used to mother about it every time we went on holiday. My parents would discuss picking up extra groceries and my mum, without fail, would say "Best go in the morning in case it's half day closing." Even though this no longer existed where we lived, but because we were in a different county..... This was in the 90s.
We all went on holiday together before the 'Rona. DH and I decided to buy some groceries on holiday rather than schlepping it all down there. It was 2018 and guess what... "What if the local shops have half day closing?"
Mum, the local shop is a Tesco. I'm pretty sure half day closing went out with the Dodo.

My mum liked to blindfold us for surprises, so she could do a "big reveal". We'd be made to wait quietly for a few minutes, before being led to whatever it was. This happened for birthday presents (especially big ones), or the room being decorated for a birthday or Christmas.

Occasionally this was done for more mundane things, such as seeing the garden being re-landscaped, or the outside of the house being painted a completely different colour, which mostly happened while we are at school, so we didn't see it much in progress.

My mum was very house proud, and she would be irate if I didn’t open my curtains in the mornings. What would the neighbours think! She was also obsessed with coasters under drinks.

I'm disturbed by how many of these I find normal.

Airing stuff - normal. I don't do it because I don't have an airing cupboard. But we grew up in a place with freezing winters and nothing ever dried out properly so it makes sense.

Ironing everything - again, I don't do it, but it would help dry everything.

Fruit in curry - I love it. I don't care if it's 70s or naff or anything else, I think it's delicious. Potato in curry is very normal imo, even in Asian countries, but especially in the UK where we can't grow a lot of types of vegetables.

Cutting up old clothes to make dusters - again, why not? Saves money, saves it going into landfill. Underwear too. It's been washed.

Shouting/eating in the street - I honestly can't stand when people do this. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's common, but it's sloppy.

The stuff that amazes me about my mum, and many women from that generation, is the constant cleaning and up-keep of the house. My mum always dusted then polished. The windows got windolened. The cooker never had a build up of gunk like mine. Things were baked even though she wasn't much of a cook. We were never allowed to slop about in pyjamas all day, whereas me and my husband have specific lounging pyjamas. She was horrified that I would nip out to the car in my dressing gown.

And the money-saving. We were absolutely never allowed to stop at cafes or whatever on a trip to the beach. It was always soggy sandwiches and flask coffee. Me and my husband think nothing of buying two coffees just because we're passing somewhere. And never paying full price for anything (something I struggle to do these days, I am ALWAYS in the sales area of websites, I hate feeling like I got ripped off.) Everything liquid getting water added to it to make it last, washing liquid, hand soap, shower gel etc.

And all the stuff kept for 'best'. The 'good' china (that never gets used, not even at Christmas, because then we have the Christmas china.) The 'good' spoons. The 'good' curtains that were expensive. The 'good' pillowcases that my grandma got on her wedding day that were never used because they're 'too good'. A much less disposable culture, but one that is sometimes a bit melancholy I think.

Never ever ever complaining for bad service, someone could have spat in our food in front of us and my mum would have said it was delicious.

Yes, all the washing line stuff, things have to be placed in a certain order and in certain directions (a tshirt hung by the hem?? You'll get peg marks on it!). Leaving washing out overnight? Unthinkable.

She also has a deep hatred of anything remotely vintagey because to her it just looks like all the stuff she grew up with, whereas I think the MDF of my childhood looks shit.

Loving this thread!!

I’ve got a few...

No shouting in the street
No eating in the street (except fish and chips at seaside)
No smoking, drinking in the street
^^ all ‘common’

Carrier bags turned inside out, unless from a ‘posh’ shop ( then they were used constantly!)
Best clothes worn for visits to Dentists, Doctors, Solicitors etc as they were our ‘betters’
Having to stay in bed when poorly as a child, def no tv downstairs.
ITV was ‘common’ apart from Coronation Street. Any American programme was declared rubbish and Grange Hill would give me ‘ideas’ about bad behaviour at school😯
Same food on certain days of the week with no exception apart from Christmas. ( I hated this, but found myself doing it when I left home...why???) Still feels daring to not have a roast on Sundays!!
Cups of tea were very much teapot/cups and saucers scenario even from a young age.
Girls were expected to ‘keep house’ but boys certainly weren’t!!
Glad I taught my son otherwise!!😃

Lots of superstitions, throwing salt over your shoulder etc if we had toothache it was boiled water and brandy, if we had stomach ache boiled water, sugar and brandy. Butter on head bumps. You'd damage your kidneys if you wore a crop top. Cold if you go out with wet hair. Cucumber with onion and vinegar as part of a salad.

This thread is amazing thank you. I'm remembering so many things my DM does and DG did then realising how many have rubbed off on me

Ooh I’ve just remembered another. We had a twin tub washing machine which would only ever be used on a Saturday (tough shit if your jeans needed washing mid-week) It was my job to poke it all around with a big stick to fully immerse it - and for some reason this was called “quashing”. I’ve no idea why!

If I did anything slightly out of line pointed to the sky and said “God is watching!”
Had strict timings for the immersion heater and flipped out if anyone didn’t stick to them (ie. 20 mins for a hair wash, 45 mins for a bath) it was constantly getting turned on and off and everyone would be arguing about whose turn it was to use hot water. Why the fuck she didn’t just have it on for a few hours to get enough hot water for the day I do not know.
De-nitted my hair by picking the lice out with a sewing needle and then drowning them in a jug of water! She was very tight my mum.

She " turned " sheets - no idea either.

Cutting a bed-sheet worn in the middle in two halves, and then re-joining the two pieces by the two original sides. Not very elegant definition, but I hope it's clear.