Did anyone else have parents who would toast themselves to a crisp every holiday?

[Imreallysnowedunder]

Another thread made me think of this. Both my mum and dad would go on holiday and just lie under a baking hot sun on the beach all day. Sometimes they’d briefly dip in the sea but the main portion of the day would be spent roasting.

They would both get extremely narky with me if I sought shade.

Yes. I loathe being too hot and I’m not keen on sand. They would roast themselves in the day and then soak up sangria at night. It was mostly shit.

It was the trend then I suppose … suntans were the height of chic!

I had exactly the opposite. DM and I burn very easily so if we ever went anywhere warm I was the only child around that was forced to cover up/constantly reapply sunscreen (1980s so no high factor around) and seek shade. I thought everyone else had a better time and other parents were much DH on the other hand had parents like you describe. Unfortunately he's much paler than either of them so his overwhelming memory of foreign holidays was being sunburned on day 1 and in pain for the rest of the holiday. MIL is still adamant that to get a good tan you need to burn a bit first.

Yes, those are my memories of holidays with my parents. I've never been interested in 'a tan', dislike the heat and sitting in the sun, so found it mystifying. I sat in the shade and read a book a day ...

Yep, always covering themselves in coconut or carrot oil with no protection from sun!

My parents are still the same now. Two solid weeks of sunbathing all day and drinking all evening.

Yes. My childhood holiday memories are of being told off for wanting to sit in the shade and read a book, rather than lying on a sun bed getting skin cancer like everyone else.

I now recognise that I should have been more grateful about summer holidays, but I still hated them as it was uncomfortable.

My mum never liked sunbathing and always stayed covered up, something she passed on to me and I don't think either of us ever had a tan. My dad on the other hand would grease himself liberally and sit out all day!

My DM was a real sun worshipper. Every year she'd lie out on her sun bed any time the sun was out and she'd wear Factor 2 or 4 tanning oil. She loved the sun and having a dark tan. It was very much the fashion in the 70s and 80s to be tanned - it was considered 'healthy'. Now, not so much!

My dad is 70 and still loves to tan himself to a uniquely 1970s shade of teak every holiday. Mum sits in the shade with a book. They enjoy their hols! 😆

Yep it was the 80’s and sun awareness was severely lacking.

we’d use factor 15 for the first 2 days, then go to factor 3. adults would start with factor 7 and go down to sun oil.

I am irish blue and would burn. Same at home, no sun cream, so days like today I’d burn within the hour.

then my mum had the brainwave of hiring a sun bed for 2 weeks before we went away to get us a “base tan” so we would tan better and not need suncream.

fortunately my dad is also pale and at least made sure we swam in t-shirts/had some shade.

No thank god, sounds grim and dire! My parents couldn’t afford holidays anyway 😄

Yup - my DM would put oil on herself (she is olive skinned anyway)
I inherited my Dad's blue Scottish skin that turned white / red / freckley
When I was 11 we went to Barbados and I ended up in A & E on our return with huge blisters across my back
40 years later I still have marks on my back
It made me v v (over?) careful in the sun with my own DC - Factor 50 then a T-shirt / hat etc!

People still do this though. Beaches are still full of people laid out and hotel holidays are still sold around the idea of sunbathing around a pool. Not for me but people still make comments about people's tans when they come back from holiday.

Yep we live near the beach and I'm still bitter about this. They would go eadpy2to get good parking and wed be there all day with no shade. They didnt want bothering and I remember being hot and bored.

Now we go to the beach for an hour or so or in winter for a walk. I never go anywhere eithout shade as an adult or for too long!

(See also smoking in cars and being cross at me trying to lean into the tiny crook of open window. )

Yup. My mum and dad used to have some sort of glob that came in a pot that they put on that had zero sunscreen and was marketed at accelerating or darkening your tan. I tan easily but my brother got sun stroke more than once and burnt to a crisp every holiday. No such thing as factor anything

No thank god, I think my parents gave me the bug for holidays in quiet cool places - love my holidays in Scotland! We are on the south coast though this week staying in my aunts holiday house and there are sooo many people in skimpy swimwear with no shade. I was the one all covered up sat under an umbrella slapping factor 50 on every hour tolerating the heat so DS could swim in the sea.

Luckily no - DM has pale skin and burns easily so she always covers up and she always made sure we were covered in sunscreen and wore T shirts for swimming etc. That was the 80s.

Both of my parents are pale skinned and didn't really go for sunbathing much and we only ever went on one 'sun holiday' anyway. Most of our holidays were in caravans near beaches, and it mostly rained!

Dh, however, has a relative who still worships the sun and is never happier than when she is literally roasting herself on a sunbed somewhere.

She is 8 years older than him and she honestly looks 20 years older. She is tanned, there's no doubting that, but she's also very wrinkled and leathery looking.

She talks a LOT about getting a tan / being out in the sun / other people going on holidays and not getting a 'good colour' (ie. us!)

I find it amusing to a degree but also think she has done shocking damage to her skin / looks and she doesn't seem to be able to see it

Luckily my parents weren't that bad, although some time was spent sunbathing.

In Spain earlier this year I was shocked at the number of retired British couples I saw from our hotel baking in the sun, they were already the colour of conkers. I don't mind a tan tbf but some people take it way too far.

Of course... but that was the times. In fact we were rather odd in that although DM was Italian, and we were on the beach every day, all summer, the family was fair skinned and blue eyed, full of doctors and pharmacists and we always therefore put on factor 6, which was the highest then available. It's not strictly true to say no-one knew back then, I just think few cared. After a couple of weeks though, with a bit of base tan, we always dropped to some lovely factor 2 dark brown oil. Lovely stuff. Still remember the cocoa smell. We all went a deep golden brown.

I still get really good tans now, and never burn, so either I have some extra Italian genes going on in there, my skin although fair is not white, or early exposure gave me some protection.

So many of you must be my age

Yup, this is my recollection too. Unfortunately I also overdid the basking on several girls holidays in my twenties and I can 100% see the damage on my skin in particular face and chest.

I do still love how the sun feels and like 5 minutes in it still - currently drinking a lovely coffee from my Mokka pot while chatting with you lot in the sun ... off back inside in a mo! - but I always seek out the shade now and use SPF 50 on face every day regardless of whether I'm planning to go out

60s we were out in full sun, mum didn't as she didn't like the sun. We would burn every summer and inevitably peel. I put on an SPF moisturiser even in winter now. Hoping that years of burning won't end up with me having skin cancer.

they still do - current look is massive red stripes down legs from sitting in the same position in the garden for hours and hours, no shade or sun cream. When I get back from sunny holidays I’m always met with a very disappointed “you don’t have much of a tan!” 🙄 I am always a bit terrified of it being really hot when they have the DC as I have lots of photos of me as a child looking very burned

Carrot oil! Yep, it was SO boring as a kid. My parents seemed to spend thousands on holidays with the SOLE purpose of tanning. It was like a full time job on holiday and we never left the hotel complex

I burn like crazy