Things you don't do because your mum did

[SodaSloth]

Just for fun. Because mum did these when I was growing up: I don't peel potatoes in a bowl full of cold water. I don't buy margerine. I don't have Sunday pre-roast dinner ritual whereas she listened to The Archers then watched The Waltons before potatos would go in the oven to roast.

Smoke

Peel any potatoes, ever

Boil vegetables into mushy oblivion and then complain that a) I don't like them or b) force my children to eat them

Put 10 tonnes of salt into my cooking and then refuse to use any other seasoning

I'd love to say that I don't live in a messy house full of clutter but unfortunately my dc have other ideas

Don't insist only one box of cereal is open at once.

I don't insist people get up and washed and dressed early on days they have nowhere to go

I don't let my DH sit around waiting for me to pander to him because "men don't know how to cook/ use the washing machine/ hoover etc"

I don't have a telephone voice (well I do, apparently, but not a Hyacinth type one)

I don't insist the DC wear pyjamas if they don't want to

I don't go into fits of what will the neighbours think if someone gets pregnant/ dyes their hair/ fails an exam/gets drunk and sick in the street

I don't cook the same meal on the same day each week year after year

Read the Daily Mail
Smoke
Overcook absolutely everything

Go to 6 different supermarkets to do the weekly shop as X is better at Tesco and Y at Lidl and Z in Aldi...

I don't make milk jelly or blancmange.

I don't make salad with pilchards (or on Sunday tinned salmon),a leaf or two of soft round lettuce, cucumber, half a tomato, salad cream and beetroot in vinegar bleeding onto everything else. (The tomato was cut that fancy zigzag way though)

I don't comment on other people's sobriety status after one glass of wine. "You are drunk!

I don't beat my children.

Im not picky about food and I don't feel the need to tell everyone which food I don't like while they are eating it.

I don't tell people who have cats, that I hate cats. In fact, I have 6!

I don't let my husband walk all over me and just sit there in silence while he shouts and hits my kids.

Wear lots of make up
Dye my hair
Wear heels
Criticises my husband
Control the tv remote

I

Don't barge into the kids bedrooms expecting to catch them up to something. I moved in when I first left my husband. I was 34 and she did this.

I dont by margarine.

I dont obsessively bleach the kitchen, or really use bleach at all

I dont watch soaps.

Live as a complete social recluse outside my family.
Raise my children with no emotional or social guidance.
Rely on my husband's career.
Pass judgement on other people's life choices and voice unwanted and uninformed opinions as fact.
Tell my siblings everyone else's business without thinking that some of that should maybe remain private.
Have such poor food hygiene that it results in food poisoning my children.

Omg sodasloth are you my brother? ( I don't have a sister) that was my mum's Sunday routine!!

Make dinner with tiny portions of everything and save 1 floret of brocolli and 2 potatoes because "there's enough there for another meal" 😁😁

• watch soaps
• watch shit reality tv
• hug everyone I meet
• tell people my life story when I meet them
• over share with everyone including my dc

Put my hand on my face when sitting down or thinking.

Go food shopping every Saturday.

Have a roast every Sunday lunchtime even though it's only the two of them but I suspect this is more of my Dad demanding it.

Wear American tan tights all through the year including hot summers.

Have a shampoo and set.

Aw. I smiled at some of these and was horrified at the ones where abuse was suffered, but otherwise I find it all a bit sad. My DM did some of this but I'm not ready to scorn her for buying margarine and boiling spinach to death. It was a different time, and she was a very loving woman... even if she did treat my tonsillitis with homeopathy.

Wake the dc every day at 7.30am by vacuuming their bedroom carpet, weekends and school holidays included. It served two purposes firstly she felt it obscene that anyone should be in bed at 8am and was part of the housework routine.
Spring clean the house weekly from top to bottom including washing down paintwork, emptying cupboards and cleaning all windows inside and out. The house was pristine at all times but uncomfortably so.

My mam was not the best when I was growing up probably til I was about 9 but she probably just had me too young. She'd been married three times by the time I was 9! I would never do that!
She is amazing now though and most things I do are to emulate her. I love it when I meet someone and they know her and say wow she's such an amazing person. Everyone says it.

Oh but she still buys margarine!! I love my butter and hate margarine!

Force my child to sit through an adult church service.

Tell other adults negative things about my children in front of them.

Never plan any fun activities or hobbies for my child ever.

Abandon my child with a man I have never lived with/father she has never met.

Not help my child learn the times tables or go through her schoolwork.

Never tell my child how much I loved them ever.

To be honest, she’s much better now. She’s actually really sweet but I try not to be like her when I was little.

I don't put vinegar in tuna like my
Mum did 🤮🤮🤮

This has depressed me and made me realise I’ve turned into my mum 🤦🏻‍♀️

I don't:

Drink heavily and eat a bad diet
Drink heavily in front of my children

Always blame being tired as an excuse / permission not to exercise or be active (it would actually improve her energy levels)

Say I'm vegan and then have a KFC binge

Make everything about me, if anyone else is having a hard time its never as bad as her life, or how "hard" her life is.

Gossip about my children's problems to my friends while they're in earshot, or at all for that matter.

Berate my husband constantly for just about anything

Have affairs and when I get caught expect my teenage daughter to be my supporter and confidant. (Don't have a teenager yet but you get my drift)

Deliberately sabotage my daughter - when I was younger and wanted to do perfectly reasonable things to my hair, like change the style, she would call up while I was on my way to get the hairdresser to talk me out of it or refuse any haircut but the one she wanted.

Make fun of my children's hobbies while they're in ear shot.

Put the remains of the Sunday joint through the mincer on Monday to make another meal

Force my kids to go to church

Not ask about feelings / how are you today?

Speak loudly

Sing out of tune

Get very drunk once a year ( New Year’s Eve)

I don't walk in from work and start cooking dinner before I've had time to take my coat off, god forbid my husband would have to wait past 5.30 for his meal.
I don't feel the need to iron everything, I rarely iron anything. Husband irons his own stuff and I buy stuff that doesn't need an iron.
My mum is lovely and so kind but she's such a martyr, she loves to feel put upon and that we are need her. We're all grown up and even my dad has realised he can cook and clean just as well as she can but the martyrdom persists.

I love my mum but do spend most of my life trying not to make decisions that she would have!
Mine are:

• watch soaps
• smoke
• constantly bitch and moan about other family members, whilst remaining nice to their face
• live on frozen dinners and ready meals
• live in a dirty house with a 'fuck it' attitude to any general housework
• have credit cards to spend money I don't have and later whinge about

She's a lovely, kind hearted woman but never really grew up. She's the teenager of the family (in her 50s)