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 😂my dad wittering on about factor 2 and oil… and insisting in me sitting in the sun (I got horrendously sunburnt).

In fairness we went to Turkey every year and all the Turkish men assumed he was one of their own 😂

I’m an 80’s kid and can clearly remember my mum toasting herself with factor 4 tanning oil. My dad is naturally dark and would turn brown very quickly so was never bothered. Even now my mum would refer to SPF as “sun TAN cream”.
I on the other hand would burn very easily. I remember the pain and heat in the evening and being so uncomfortable trying to sleep, even in the 00’s as a young 20-something. It took me a while to understand that burning in the sun is not expected and can be avoided. I try desperately not to let my kids suffer the same and my mum just rolls her eyes at me - whinging that I’m depriving them of vitamin D!

No but I have a nieghbour who does.

She cooks herself in the sun until she is brown as a berry and me and my other nieghbours who burn like carbonised toast jump straight into the shade......like I did today. 🤣🤣🤣

Oh yeah, the peeling 🤮 the tiny bubbles of dry skin followed by the huge sheets of burnt epidermis that would flake off with the slightest brush - no amount of aftersun could save!

I was a child in 70's/80's and do remember Factor 8! And the tanning oils that my (Portuguese) dad sneered at, because they were just frying oil. I used to think they looked exotic and quite exciting. We were as sensible as the 70's allowed us to be, we children were slathered in sun lotion all the time for the first couple of weeks, but once we'd gone brown (which, thanks to our southern European genes, we tended to) I don't remember parents applying it as often. Sunhats though, if on the beach, and we'd always have a parasol. Like sensible Portuguese people we'd leave the beach at lunchtime and have lunch, and parents would then sleep the afternoon away while we were sat indoors or in the shade outside, bored bored bored.

Invariably, and too late into the month away (yep) we'd burn a bit and then my skin would flake off and I wouldn't have enough time to top it up and would have to return to England a bit blotchy in places. My tans used to last well past Christmas though - I was always fairly olive-skinned as a child. I seem to have lost that now.

I burnt so many times as a child. I remember rhe sensation so well. I have quite dark skin and my mum was so proud of how dark I would go in Summer. We had weird rules, like no suncream needed on arms and legs, only backs, necks and shoulders. We were encouarged to lie out in the sun as much of the day as possible. My skin is so damaged now and I hate the heat.

Oh yes and the expectation that you would need aftersun. Imagine that now, slathering your kids with cream because you had encouraged them to lie in the sun and burn? Cruel.

I did too

Yes to all the experiences including getting ridiculously burnt and carrot oil. My mum used to tell me I just needed one good burning and after that I would just tan. Well I got lots of good burnings as a child and I still have pale freckled skin that just goes red and back to white again

I read the original post as being about parents who toasted themselves as in, ‘To us!’ on holiday with a crisp instead of a drink. I think I need to go to bed 😂.

Oh - I just realized I was not alone!

I was on holiday in the med recently and this is still a thing. Parents lined up on sunloungers like sausages on a barbecue, beer/wine on the table next to them all day, kids pretty much ignored.

We were the only family that interacted with each other, read books and sat in the shade for portions of the day.

I seem to recall in the '50s that children were seated on front of a sun lamp for health reasons.

Not so much on holiday as we couldn't afford them, but most summers, mum would make some oil concoction and roast lay in the sun in the garden. We burned a lot but there is a certain smell of sun lotion that takes me back to childhood, so we must have had some on sometimes.

I seem to recall in the '50s that children were seated on front of a sun lamp for health reasons.

Rickets? It may come to that again.

”However, in recent years, there's been an increase in cases of rickets in the UK. The number of rickets cases is still relatively small, but studies have shown a significant number of people in the UK have low levels of vitamin D in their blood.”

www.nhs.uk/conditions/rickets-and-osteomalacia/#:~:text=However%2C%20in%20recent%20years%2C%20there's,vitamin%20D%20in%20their%20blood.

*Rickets? It may come to that again.

”However, in recent years, there's been an increase in cases of rickets in the UK. The number of rickets cases is still relatively small, but studies have shown a significant number of people in the UK have low levels of vitamin D in their blood.”*

nothing to do with suncream or tanning though. The populations we’re seeing rickets in are the darker skinned- as the darker your skin the slower the conversion to vit d. Plus cultures where covering is the norm - generally darker skinned plus covering all but the face. The last group are kids/adults who stay inside all day- gamers for example.

your average white brit with a half decent diet who goes outside now and again, suncream or not, isn’t at risk of rickets.

Oh yes, the heady smell of Ambre Solaire oil, factor zero probably every holiday for years.

We've just returned from a very hot country and I was shocked at the crispy bacon people oiled up in the midday sun for hours. I felt like a proper spoilsport but all I could think of was the damage they are doing just to go home looking mahogany.

I used to go on holiday with a friend in the 80s and it didn't matter where we were, the only thing she was interested in was getting as dark a tan as possible to show off when she got back home. I, on the other hand, burn in about 10 minutes flat, so refused to lie on the beach all day and spent time not in the water covered up or in the shade. It was a source of some friction.

No thank god! My dad was born in the far east and would get reoccurring malaria if he was in the sun too long. My parents had a static caravan on the east coast of Scotland for years which we loved.

We went abroad for FILs birthday when DD was six weeks old. MIL kept moving her pushchair into the sun and I’d keep moving it back. She drives me mad as she always has to know best.

That's shocking, babies should be kept in the shade

Started big in the 60s peaking in the 70s some realisation of skin damage being discussed by the 80s. I enjoy sunbathing and swimming with an umbrella. Used to lay out in heat of the day when young. Even in places like Mexico !