Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Mumsnet classics

Relive the funniest, most unforgettable threads. For a daily dose of Mumsnet’s best bits, sign up for Mumsnet's daily newsletter.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

Silly things your mother did (lighthearted)

461 replies

RaraRachael · 26/01/2021 13:44

Trying to lighten my current mood and started to think about things my mother did - and insisted that I do - as they were "the done thing" back in the day.

Turning the clothes inside out to put on the washing line in case a bird shat on them
Lining every shelf in your kitchen unit with patterned greaseproof paper
Stuffing the chicken and then sewing it up with a needle and thread

Suffice to say, I stopped these ridiculous traditions when i realised there was no valid purpose to them Grin

OP posts:
MorrisZapp · 27/01/2021 09:15

My mum topped macaroni cheese with crushed ready salted crisps, and eschewed garish ruskoline in favour of crushed weetabix to fry fish with. Hard boiled eggs in fish pie and 'chicken supreme' with mushrooms in, yum!

bestbefore · 27/01/2021 09:09

@Shosha1

I still line shelves! Especially the ones that hold food such as oil or treacle.

My favourite of my Mums was after ironing dry clothes, she would then but them in the airing cupboard before they went into into the wardrobes. Why!

My mum does that with the ironing...in fact she's fretting this week as they need a new boiler and - what if they don't have a hot water tank in the house anymore (they will) what will happen to the airing cupboard...Lady down the road has a radiator in theirs...ShockWinkConfused. I've never really thought about her process though, I just iron and put away in wardrobes etc. It will stem from days before steam irons I think but I don't understand the logic..
Original poster
RaraRachael · 27/01/2021 08:59

Yes to the twin tub washing machine thing. My mother would never have an automatic one because "She'd heard that they went wrong".
Her answer to any query on her batshittery was that "She'd heard.........."

OP posts:
Longdistance · 27/01/2021 00:00

Dinner always on the table for 6pm. If it’s late the world would end. Big roast dinner on the table for 1pm. You can’t eat anything else on a Sunday.
My dm used to own a twin tub washing machine. It took me until I moved out at 25 and bought a ‘normal’ washing machine, that she actually bought one and realised that laundry wasn’t such a drudge job Confused

ParkheadParadise · 26/01/2021 23:53

One batshit thing she insisted on though was that you mustn't put a hot tea bag in the bin until it had cooled down incase it set the bin on fire.grin

🤣🤣🤣

Furrybutts · 26/01/2021 23:47

Yes to lots of things on this thread.
Lots of things were 'common' too according to my late mum - putting clothes on the radiator to dry, ironing in the living room, wearing any earrings other than small studs, not wearing an under slip with a dress or skirt.

One batshit thing she insisted on though was that you mustn't put a hot tea bag in the bin until it had cooled down incase it set the bin on fire.Grin

JumboShiitake · 26/01/2021 23:45

Buys things in ridiculous bulk so you open a random drawer and find twenty deodorants for eg

Puffalicious · 26/01/2021 23:12

Pants (clean) on your head like a sort of head scarf holding your hair back whilst you did make up/ cleansed/ moisturised! I still do this!

Original poster
RaraRachael · 26/01/2021 23:07

We weren't allowed to watch sci fi - "far fetched rubbish" or American programmes- "noisy American rubbish " or films- "waste of 2 hours".

She used to turn supermarket carrier bags inside out as she didn't want to advertise them.

OP posts:
RealisticSketch · 26/01/2021 22:22

My mum has always been a little barking mad round the edges, so as a teen I certainly wouldn't have brought a boy home as the process of her trying to make him very welcome would have been mortifying. I was 18 and 3 friends called to the house to start our night out, they were really weird towards me that night, wouldn't touch me when we were dancing in the nightclub, generally odd. Turns out while I nipped upstairs for my coat and lippy she'd grilled them about whether I was in fact a lesbian as she feared as much. She denies it to this day, but it put me on tricky ground with friends at a tricky age. These days it would probably have made me cool to be friends with, but these were different times.

thebabessavedme · 26/01/2021 22:11

My dm does most of the doolally stuff mentioned on here but one of her most irritating habits is explaining to us all (in the 'old days' of family gatherings) why she is putting on the dishwasher, I think she feels it is very extravagant to have it running twice a day and very possibly 'common' Grin

YukoandHiro · 26/01/2021 22:11

Curry with sultanas in is bloody lovely, don't know why everyone's knocking it

Puffalicious · 26/01/2021 22:09

I remember people having their pieces in the plain bread wrapping! We had proper 1980s Tupperware- yellow with a clear lid for our pieces, with a glass bottle of soda stream. So healthy!

FunTimes2020 · 26/01/2021 22:04

@Knittedfairies

My mum always cut Brillo pads in half; it gave me the heebie-jeebies.
I do that! Grin
AnnaSW1 · 26/01/2021 22:02

Making coffee before bed for all of us compulsory

ParkheadParadise · 26/01/2021 22:00

@missrm
I still buy a plain loaf when I go the messages😆😆😆. Yes the papers still waxy😆😆

Eleoura · 26/01/2021 21:55

OMG- I just remembered my aunt sending my cousins and me out to buy her cigarettes. We were 6-9 yrs of age in the mid 1980s and shop keeper always obliged! Confused

missrm · 26/01/2021 21:51

Or a piece 🤣

missrm · 26/01/2021 21:51

@ParkheadParadise

My Mammy would wrap my da's pieces in the bread paper from a Plain loaf. She would go mental if he didn't bring it back to re-use it the next day😆😆 She also sent us to the shops with a note and money inside for 10 Benson n Hedges for her.
Do many people here won't have a clue what a plain loaf is!

Is the paper still waxy?!

spidermomma · 26/01/2021 21:44

Always said if I look at dog poo I'd go blind, still to this day I'm shit scared of looking at it haha

ParkheadParadise · 26/01/2021 21:42

My Mammy would wrap my da's pieces in the bread paper from a Plain loaf. She would go mental if he didn't bring it back to re-use it the next day😆😆
She also sent us to the shops with a note and money inside for 10 Benson n Hedges for her.

WinterdiscontentGlorioussummer · 26/01/2021 21:41

Sorry double post Hmm

WinterdiscontentGlorioussummer · 26/01/2021 21:40

Not my dm, but re. underwear as duster.

When very young i had a cleaning job in a solicitors office for pocket money. The owner asked if I could please do his house too.
First thing I was presented with (by his wife) was his very worn (clean) underpants Confused. So I've dusted with a supreme court laywer's (in my country) undies Grin. Never, never seen that before or after.

WinterdiscontentGlorioussummer · 26/01/2021 21:39

Not my dm, but re. underwear as duster.

When very young i had a cleaning job in a solicitors office for pocket money. The owner asked if I could please do his house too.
First thing I was presented with (by his wife) was his very worn (clean) underpants Confused. So I've dusted with a supreme court laywer's (in my country) undies Grin. Never, never seen that before or after.

Eleoura · 26/01/2021 21:33

@polkadotpixie- hehehe, as a result of my nans 'advice' to my mum (mum is now 74!) she still gets anxious eating cherries or apples incase she swallows a pip!!! Mum is well aware it wont grow a tree or cause appendicitis, but was so ingrained a child, she used to sweat and chew every bit with such cautious tension, she now hates cherries and apples!