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.

Why were you doing that?

I wonder if our children will come on MN or whatever is the thing to sneer at things that we do now that, with hindsight, is not a great idea?

Anyone remember this Ambre Solaire advert from 1979?

My mum grew up in a hot country and married a very white Englishman so she was very sensible with the sun...I can remember being smothered in Nivea sun cream on a beach in Spain 😂

Ah c'mon - that was just shit parenting, not due to ignorance. I was a child in the 80s, my mum liked lying in the sun, but we ALWAYS had suncream on and were made to wear t-shirts, and if we went abroad we'd often come out of the sun for a couple of hours at its hottest.

We didn't know that sun damage leads to skin cancer, but we all knew about burning and how painful it could be, and about heatstroke too.

Probably over supervise and not give enough independence.
I already see young adults talking about this.

Mine were ok. We didn't do many foreign holidays but we used to go to the beach a lot, and my dad used to come swimming with us and my mum would be chilling on a blanket in the shade. Mum used to cover us in sun cream twice a day and if we burned we had to wear t-shirts when swimming. Getting a dark tan wasn't really a thing where I'm from do you could do what you wanted when on holiday. 😂

My DM would spend as much of the holiday topping up her tan. Also had a sunbed at home. DF spent more time in the shade or the pool. Ironically he was the one who got skin cancer (luckily treatable)

My dad had lots of bad sunburns as a kid from his parents insisting he go out in the sun. As such, I wasn’t allowed out on holiday without a sun hat, glasses, and a dark T-shirt over my swim suit. We went to Florida every other year, and my mum would bulk buy high factor sun screen in Walmart to use at home as well.

My Dads currently waiting to have his third cancerous mole dealt with, and I have very similar skin to him, so I’m very thankful they took it seriously for me.

As a child I was always embarrassed about my parents, they would be covered up in the shade and make us all wear the highest factor sun screen we could find, and I was made to wear a t shirt over my swimming costume as everyone else turned mahogany brown! Now I'm grateful they were so safe in the sun. We are all really pale so tanning really wouldn't be good for us. I'm in my 40's now and know several people my age with skin really starting to show signs of ageing due to the sun

Yes and I was always told off for trying to find some shade to sit in and read my book. It was a crime to not be out in the sun and staying indoors simply wasn't allowed. My mum had the same ancient bottle of Nivea sun cream for my entire childhood. It came out about once a year...

Not only that, but they went on and on and on at me about how I needed to sunbathe and get a tan as I would look so much nicer.

I fucking hated sitting in the sun and sought out shade as soon as I could.

Still got way too much sun on my skin and have lots of damage. Not as much as my sister who didn't fight them over it though.

It was the fashion then, nowadays tanning salons seem to be the trend, who knows that long term harm being done there, all to look orange! This too is the era of everything false, boobs, trout pout etc..

Festoon I agree - I love the sum & take every opportunity to get out in the sunshine ... I don't burn, I tan easily...I am 65 and no wrinkles or leathery skin... neither has my DM at 90 ...

JudgeJ totally agree ... a fake, orange tan looks hideous.

My parents were similar. My dad was dark haired and had olive skin(I’m sure there was a Mediterranean gene in there). So he always went brown as a berry at the merest hint of sun and on holiday often got mistaken for Italian or Spanish. My mum has a red haired mother and very pale skin and blonde hair. She always tried to be as brown as my dad, she’d come home absolutely scarlet with her skin peeling off and convinced it would go brown. No it won’t.

Good for the young adults recognising their helicopter parents' failings, hopefully they will do things differently.

My dad used to put oil and vinegar on his skin, and smelt like a warm salad.

Both. Dad hated the sun and mum loved it. So we had a sunshine holiday in May/June and uk in august and October. Very fortunate and I loved them all equally as I still do now

I have sallow skin and to this day my DM will ask where my tan is when I come home from holidays! I have zero interest in getting a tan, used to fry when I was younger and have scars because of the blisters. My children are lathered in factor 50 when we go away. I will never subject them to “tanning.”

I grew up in North Africa, my mum bless her was quite prim, sunbathing was “ common”. Dad was very white and avoided the sun.

Good god no, we’re a family of gingers and natural blondes, being in the sun has never been a thing.

Wasn't there something called Hawaiian Tan in a brown bottle, I also recall something that stank of coconuts. I lived in the Med for a while in the 70s and we were pretty cavalier about sun protection, one thing I do painfully remember is being out sailing a dinghy all afternoon and my back being blood red when I finished, lots of after sun lotion. Who was covered in calamine lotion as a child that made you look like a ghost as it dried??

Another one with a mother sitting in the sun covered in oil. She had only got sunburn once in her life, when she spent the entire day on a beach in Italy covered in olive oil. She was also mystified and quite cross about my preference for being inside on sunny days. Holidays abroad were all about us starting off on factor 15 and 'working down' to factor 4.

I though burn with factor 50 now and once got burned through a window indoors when I didn't realise how close I was, so basically stay in the shade as much as I can. My eyes can't tolerate very much sunshine so sunglasses are an absolute essential for me.

My mother never realised how different we were so was very relaxed about the sun cream/covering up. End result was several very severe bouts of sunburn as a child, including one which left me unable to wear clothes for 48 hours as I couldn't bear anything touching my skin. As a young adult I went through a brief period of deliberately burning myself to get some sort of tan, but snapped out of that quickly thankfully.

Yes was my experience too! Mum would hire a sun bed for for two weeks prior to our holiday to use at home so we’d get a nice base tan (I was 11). We’d start off (abroad) with factor 15 and gradually work our way down to a 2 😬.

Yeah my mum did. My dad was more interested in propping up the bar. My mum still sees getting a tan as one of the main objectives of a holiday.