Silly things your mother did (lighthearted)

She tried using fitted bed sheets but couldn't get on with them as they were "Too hard to put on" - she also tried to iron those too.

My mum always ironed bedding. I don’t sleep well in unironed bedding. It’s the only thing we do iron other than DD’s school shirts. Perfectly possible (and often necessary) to iron a fitted sheet as none of mine fit the mattress so perfectly the creases come out.

@Knittedfairies - oh my God the Brillo pads! I'd forgotten mine did the same until I saw your post!

I could write a book on this:

She always asked my dad about the ratio of pasta (only pasta for some reason) she should use when cooking even though she was an excellent cook and my dad didn't have a clue about cooking. He'd always give her an answer but she'd go on to add as much as she liked anyway. It was like a weird tradition every time we had pasta.

She insisted that I should never sit down on any cold surface because my vagina would catch a cold (based on her personal "scientific" data). Also I was never to go out with wet hair, even in 40C heat, because I'd catch my death!

She also repurposed pretty much everything. It used to drive me insane when I was younger but now I admire her resourcefulness and ability to see how different things can be used for different purposes.

Does anyone have an actual recipe for 1960s egg curry with sultanas? I grew up eating it and loved it but have never managed to recreate the taste and texture of that sauce.

[quote WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants]@unmarkedbythat. I'm glad you can
laugh about it!! You're lucky to get on with your brother 😊[/quote]
I am very, very lucky in my brother :) He's a good egg.

[quote Velvian]@unmarkedbythat, have you ever watched Miranda? Her mum does that.

I salute magpies, don't put new shoes on the table, chuck salt over my left shoulder...I don't iron underpants and flannels though.[/quote]
No, but I have to now!

@raffle
Those salads sound awesome, my nan always put mash and pork pie, and loads of cheese with a salad, so never actually healthy,.but she was such a good cook. (Mum not so much🤣)

Btw it was very enjoyable and I will watch the other episodes on catch up.

Yes to the curling of hair for special occasions! I was a bridesmaid when I was 13 and my mum insisted on ragging my hair the night before. I look absolutely shocking on the photos - no skill or styling went into my spanielification.

Underskirts/slips with all skirts and dresses was essential. Possibly the worst shame in the world was if your skirt had any hint of translucency

My DM has siblings who live at opposite ends of the country and one who lives in another country. It was rare they would come to visit when I was a small child as travelling wasn't as easy. Its only now that Im older that I realised and can't figure out why if one of them came to visit the house would get some form of redecorating. I must actually ask her about this. I couldn't imagine having to paint or get new furniture just because a family member was visiting 😂

I remember getting my first pair of Levi's and my mother promptly cut off the label!

I most certainly was not allowed to eat anything walking down the road as this was very common!

She insisted on curling my hair very elaborately for school photographs.

She used to get very cross with my grandma for filling my head full of superstition (which I am still a slave to!), but them promptly followed them all herself.

If we went shopping in London (about a 2 hour drive away) we had to dress up in our best clothes.

My dad would also iron the pleats into his trousers whilst wearing them. Like full iron heat but he was hard as nails god rest his soul.

Also we had to unplug the fridge when we went on holiday. No other appliance - just the fridge.

It wasn't spicy at all but it wasn't completely unpleasant. Not a dish I'd request seconds for.

As children we weren’t allowed to eat sweets made in Thailand, Japan etc because my Grandmother was terrified we would get radiation poisoning.

If we were ill we could only drink boiled water cooled down, not tap water or bottled, tepid boiled water.

Then again there were lovely classic aspects that I really try to uphold - shoes polished every Sunday night, I try to iron everything (not underwear though!) and I try to home cook most nights.

I wasn't allowed to watch ITV as a child either. Last year I told her about a property programme I'd seen which was filmed in the tiny W Yorkshire town where she was born and raised - I suggested she watched it on catch up but she snootily replied 'I don't watch Channel 4'

When we reached the dizzying heights of using a word processor (late 80s), my mum still insisted on planning everything she wrote on paper first: not one word could be typed until she had finalised the paper draft. She tried to make us children do the same; to her, a word processor was no more than a glorified typewriter.

DM repeatedly told (indoctrinated) me it was ‘common’ to allow your bra straps to show so I was always careful with what I wore. Until one day when I wanted to wear a dress with narrow shoulder straps for work (it was very hot) - so I put a bra on, then dress, then sewed the bra to the dress fabric so that it couldn’t move and be seen. Great, it worked perfectly - until I came to take the dress off and forgot I’d sewn my bra to it. I didn’t do that again (and I never wore the lovely dress again).
Sad really because throughout my life I’ve never been able to shake off that voice telling me that some clothes/way of wearing them are ‘common’ or ‘fast’ and it really limited the choices I made.

Silly things (but probably lifesaving) - she would take ages when we had to leave the house (by car) to ensure everything turned off, the gas, cooker etc.

I recall a few times we had to drive back to the house to ensure e.g. the cooker, iron etc was turned off. She was really paranoid about this.

@RaraRachael My uncle used to turn carrier bags inside out, he had many principles like that. He would video record everything he watched that wasn't BBC, so he didn't have to see the adverts.

Having bought me a plastic lunchbox, my mum ripped off the Snoopy insignia (she loathed cartoons), and replaced it with a picture made of stickers (balloons, rainbows, animals etc.), with sticky-back plastic over the top. It wasn't exactly cool, but it lasted many years!

If magazines or cereal boxes had a prominent ugly face, my mum would cut it out so she didn't have to see it - the Radio Times was a frequent offender, especially if it had a wide-eyed grinning celebrity. The ultimate evil in this was a red nose, as worn for Comic Relief.

Not my mum, but my aunt: she had "magic story time", which I thought was weird at the time, but now I realise how lovely this was, and how much thought she'd put into it. She'd make sure we children were blindfolded (eyes closed wasn't enough - any peeping would break the magic), and she'd tell us a story, getting us to feel objects related to it, such as coins for pirate gold. Sometimes this was really ambitious, lifting us up and telling us we were flying (with help from other adults).

@Oneearringlost

My mother was very keen on keeping up appearances.

We were allowed to wear jeans around the house, but going out, we had to get 'properly' dressed; ie. proper trousers.

When we did start wearing denim outside, she insisted on ironing it.

I spent my entire childhood from 10 onwards, with ironed creases in my jeans, which were hung up on trouser hangers as if they were 'proper' trousers.

She was a domestic slattern though. For insane cleaning rituals you need my Aberdeen grannies. Both were also passionate about food packaging which must never be seen. I once actually offended my gran by casually handing her a tub of lurpak. She was unable to use any product until it had been decanted into something else.