Silly things your mother did (lighthearted)

Regarding mums telling us to ask Mr Magpie about his wife.....

In today's Guardian magazine! 😂

A hysterectomy was referred to as 'everything taken away', Overheard an old dear on the bus saying 'I had everything took away. I'm on my way to the doctors to see if I can have it all put back as I've just met this bloke'!

My DM doesn't have any of these weird quirks - my nan on the other hand did. I think.mum purposely doesn't have any because of that.
My nan ironed everything. Pants - socks - handkerchiefs - towels - sheets. She was in her 60s before relenting to a tumble dryer.
Whites HAD to go on a boil wash to keep them bright.
She always went through any small bins - like the kind you have in a bathroom or next to a desk - incase any of the screwed up paper in them was needed.
She cooked some pretty horrible dinners too. One of which consisted of cod boiled in milk. Not parsley sauce. Just milk. No seasoning or anything. She did that with boiled new potatoes and peas. It. Was. Vile. But she insisted it was good.

My gran used to call Thursdays “common sense” day - basically cos payday was a Friday so on Thursday you made the best of what you had left in

I also remember an example from a boyfriend's Mum in my teens after staying over at a boyfriends parents. His Mum was really upset he hadn't decanted the milk into a jug at the breakfast table and had just plonked the milk bottle on the table. This was "common" apparently

I remember the fear that was instilled in you in case you did anything that would lead others to label you 'common'.

I do the spaghetti thing.

Making "splodge" which was everything left in the fridge stirfried on a cast iron griddle to use it up before the big shop.

Writing down all expenditure, "reconciling" it with bank statement, querying bank if any difference, even one or two pennies.

Saving pennies in an old Johnnie Walker whiskey bottle.

Washing foil to re-use.

Saving old terry nappies to use as cleaning clothes.

See also "rags" which were all our old clothes. They went in the rag basket and yes, of course included old pants.

Washing all floors with Dettol. I still do this periodically!

Calling things by slightly the wrong name - e.g. next door's dog was called Dylan and she referred to it persistently as "that Leroy" until it died (not as a result).

Claiming random things make her sick if she doesn't like them - "I hate Picasso. Makes my intestines feel funny."

Putting utterly random foods in otherwise normal meals, like recently serving a very nice roast with a plate of mini croissants on the side, or making proper tapas for my birthday meal with bread and dripping as one dish.

Shaking her bedsheets out the window "to get any bits out" every morning.

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

A lot of Mums and Grans obsessed with pneumonia!

You’d ‘catch pneumonia’ if you...

Walked around the house with bare feet.
Went out with wet hair.
Went to bed with wet hair.
Wore your coat indoors (you had to take it off inside to ‘get the benefit’ when you went out).

@Oreservoir my Gran, Mum and all Aunties used to insist no laundry New Year's Day or you would wash a member of your family away. Even now I can't do it, not because I believe it but because I know how upset they would be with me if they were still alive.

My Mum used to scrub our doorstep on her hands and knees once a fortnight. She used to stand on a chair and have some flash in with water and wipe off the top of her doors once a month. She used to iron everything even knickers. She made the best steak and kidney pie ever and made the pastry herself.

@50FootWave I throw pasta at the kitchen tiles, I heard it means it's done blush I'm 31, not handed down to me by my mum

I first heard of this when staying with very smart friends in Paris - I was dumbfounded when our hostess flung some spaghetti at the kitchen tiles to see if it was done! Must be something in it.

Doesn't everyone keep ice cream tubs for storage and freezing food in?

MIL insists on keeping everything in the fridge. She was a farmers daughter, and would never had had a fridge in her early life - yet she now puts eggs in the fridge and and insists she has always done so. I bought her a jar of sweet chilli sauce the other day and she said 'does it go in the fridge?' I said the larder would be fine. Went round the next day and had realised she'd need help opening it as there was a very stiff plastic bit round the lid. She got it for me - out of the fridge.....

I know some people keep opened sauces etc in the fridge - but this was still sealed!

She also keeps red wine in there if it's been opened, and all kinds of things you'd never even think of. Bless her.....

"The lunch box would be a walls ice cream tubs, the old blue ones with the white lids. She used to wash out any ice creams tubs or anything similar and use them for storage."

My mum used to do this too. I still have her blue icecream pot with white lid with christmas cake and birthday cake decorations in -not that I have ever made a christmas cake- but it reminds me of her

[quote Sohelpmedog]@Fuckingcrustybread something like this? My mum collected recipe cards, I’ve got several sets, can’t bring myself to Chuck them, I know she spent a fortune on them[/quote]
I've got those-they sent a set every month.

The one clock in the house was always 30 minutes fast,so that we would never be late.

Never eat in the street.

Don’t sit with legs in front of the fire,gives you chilblains.

The list is endless when I think back.

My aunt still answers the phone by saying her landline number. Which I always found weird as a kid because I knew what number it was, I'd just dialled it in!

Don’t sit on a cold floor, you’ll get piles.

My mum's version of this was "Don’t sit on a cold floor, you’ll get a chill in your back." Mentioning anything bottom-related was totally taboo.

They were much more frugal, they had less. They reused, they recycled.
They didn't get in to huge debt. There wasn't the "instant gratification" - you saved for what you wanted/needed.
We want it all now.

If we had a chocolate bar like Mars or Milky Way we were only alowed to eat half of it and then have the other half the next day. Even creme eggs.