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.

No my dps,weren't interested in sunbathing and dm burns as I do

I did get burnt in Torquay and I remember feeling really uncomfortable

I did get sick of stupid comments people used to dole out (probably a couple of times) always male about being pale

Yes absolutely, and my mum still does!

I'm pretty sure it was because if you had a tan everyone would know you'd been on holiday - maybe before people started posting their holiday photos to social media you needed a more visual way to boast that you'd been on holiday?!

My mum still does. She is quite dark skinned but it worries me. Insists she never sunburns but definitely has a red tinge.

I worry about my SIL too. She’s mid-30s and blonde and spends her entire holiday on the sunbed. I honestly don’t know how she doesn’t burn to a crisp. She’ll occasionally slap on a bit of SPF 15 but that’s it.

I was always slathered in suncream, as was
my brother and sister. But I definitely remember my parents having the Ambre Solaire oil and roasting themselves! Such a contrast to now, we were at the beach yesterday and it was factor 50 all round and rash vests / T-shirts on.

Hawaiian tropic. Still exists in exactly the same packaging in a range of factors. Smells of holiday. 😆. I'm a fan.

Yup! We never did foreign holidays as couldn’t afford them but any sign of the sun - my mum would be under it burning. That’s how she would tan - bright red, peel then tan. She’s ginger. She also did the same with us and I’d not used sun cream until I became an adult. We’re all covered in moles and fair skinned so high risk factors.
she got melanoma about 6 years ago. Caught early thankfully but then another a year later. Again caught it and now she’s very judgy about people not using suncream. I get screened every 6 mths as does my sister. Massive risk factor for us aside from skin type and history is that we spent the best part of our youth sunburnt whenever the sun appeared. Had a few moles removed but nothing awful yet thankfully.
not blaming my mum at all - there wasn’t the same knowledge we had now. She used to use sun beds as they made you look and feel healthy. Crazy.

My dm made a small tube of 'sun tan cream' last at least 3 years & that was between me & dsis.
She wasn't a sunbathers as such but would garden all day with no protection resulting in a white body & brown arms & face!

My first holiday abroad I took factor 8 suncream which was very high for those days but I burnt to an absolute crisp on the beach. I looked awful & it was really painful. My 'tan' afterwards lasted 2 days before peeling.
I'm factor 50 & plenty of shade nowadays!

We never went on foreign holidays when I was a child, in the 70s and 80s we stayed in Scotland. Because the weather was iffy, at the mere HINT of sun the parents would rush outside and sunbathe and we were encouraged to do likewise. All a fair skinned, freckled family. Sun protection was not a thing - one bottle of Avon factor 4 which was applied in hte morning to children and never to adults. Dad used oil to tan better/quicker.

Not really and I'm older and we had holidays in the South of France, Florida, Hawaii and and Italy in the 60s and 70s. I am olive skinned and tan very easily. As a child I didn't burn and rarely used sun screen but was always moving and/or in the shade. My parents used olive oil. I don't recall ever burning then. My best ever suntans were in the summers of 75 and 76 in the UK on the beach all day with chums but not burning.

I recall "roasting" with carefully curated factors 6, 4 and 2 in Greece, Spain and Portugal in the 80s. In the 90s/early 00's being caught without sunscreen watching/,playing with the dc and ending up red and stingy in Cornwall/Norfolk.

I went brown, generally didn't burn. It was the thing to do then. In the last 18 months I have had two BCC's removed. Let it be a lesson.

We were more cautious with the DC as the times have changed.

DH is blonde, fair, freckles and has been burnt so many times - mainly face, head, arms, neck. Narry a problem. Same for mummy and her very fair dh who have sun worshipped more than me.

I also remember very late 80s when my parents went to the Caribbean for a landmark birthday, probably when mum was 40, they hired a portable sunbed to "get their skin used to the sun" before they went away.

Utter MADNESS. Also relate to the scornful comments about not being out in the sun and "wasting" a holiday being stuck inside. I burned so many times as a child and I am now totally anal with my own kids. Rash vests, factor 50, constant nagging to stay in the shade.

My parents were like that. Both had skin that didn't really burn. I used to love it and always came home with a tan from being in the pool all day.

I now wear factor 50 365 days a year.

I have friends and acquaintances that do it now. They put some sun cream on, but the idea of going away to solely rotate on a beach for two weeks simply does not appeal. I used to go with friends, but their kids are older now, and are now also happy to lie on a sunbed with a phone for a fortnight. My (younger) DD is bored stupid, so I have to play in the sea with her (no space to play on the sand because of rows of hired sun beds) all day. Perhaps I’d enjoy it more if I could just lie around, but dragging all the shit I’d need to be comfortable for a day at the beach seems such a faff. You get sand in everything, can’t keep drinks cold, no shade or comfy seats. It seems so uncomfortable. I’d rather hang out in my comfy recliner under the campervan canopy, next to the fridge for cold snacks and drinks, my non stinky loo, my comfy bed for a sneaky nap and lots of little friends for DD to do kid stuff with without me. Later on, we’ll go off to the beach for a walk, a swim, an ice cream or a meal. No frying required. Lots of days we go and see local sights instead. The beach is hot, sandy, sweaty and boring for kids. Not for us. We join them for a few days, and then go off and do our own thing now. Life’s too short to go on someone else’s holiday.

They also drink quite a lot, which gives me migraines, and I know they’re just being sociable, but it’s hard to keep saying no thanks.

sunbathing is so dull! not my cup of tea at all.

No, we are delicately and pastily Irish skinned but a family member from the English side of our family did and got skin cancer, it was a horrible slow death for her and everyone in the family has been even more adamently 'anti sun' since.

My SIL deliberately BURNS herself (not even attempting to tan, shes quite pale and no urge to 'brown' but bright red burns) then peel all her skin off. It looks agonising but she loves the feeling and swore that it would 'fix' her psoriasis until it heeled.

I hate to think what long term damage shes doing, shes also heavily tattooed and they are horrifically faded/damaged from doing that.

My mum more than stepdad used to tan herself every year, usually in this country but abroad before. She tanned well and used proper sun protection factors but she did like a deep tan. I think she realises it wasn't great for her skin now.

DM used to use a mixture of olive oil and I think vinegar (?) when she went on holiday as a teenager in South of France to help her get a better tan, she told me!

My 'father' who was a cunt in many, many ways thought he would 'treat' us to a day out at the beach one day. Our packed lunch consisted of warm orange juice and sandwich spread sandwiches. We were not allowed near anything remotely resembling shade 'because I've spent good money bringing you here'. His idea (mid 90's) idea of suncream was baby oil because he didn't believe in any of 'that fucking stuff' and thought we needed to toughen up. We didn't even get an ice cream because they were 'overpriced' and he wanted to spend everything in the bookies on the seafront

Neither partial thickness burns or heatstroke are much fun, I can assure you.

I am absolutely paranoid about creaming my children up if they are in the sun now, and regular drinks of whatever they will drink, however they like it is an essential part of my plan. As is covering up properly and staying in the shade as much as possible.

And I haven't seen my father for 25 years now. I went nc in my teens.

It looks agonising but she loves the feeling

She loves the feeling of sunburn??

No - they didn’t have the kind of skin that tolerated it for a start.

In-laws were like this, and continued to be up until one of them got skin cancer (they both do tan well). I offer MIL some high factor sun screen when out one day (I was putting some on me and DC) and she looked at me like I was offering her a shit sandwich 😄. FIL also faux expressed concern when DC and I returned from a 2 week holiday with only a very light tan - I self congratulated myself for staying in the shade and putting on a high factor to him in return which really pissed him off 😎(this was before the skin cancer).

In my teens/early twenties (late eighties/early nineties) I can remember thinking factor 15 was high and it was cautious to start at factor 8 and then move down. Also used sun beds to prepare for holiday.

So many of these posts are familiar. My (olive skinned) mum would lie out for hours by the swimming pool, without any sun cream, getting a deep tan. I’m paler skinned than her and remember asking her for suncream and eventually she agreed to get some even though ‘you won’t get a lovely tan!’. She bought me some factor 4 cream, and I burned a bit less than I would’ve without any cream at all I suppose.

Even now her first remark when anyone returns from a holiday is whether they’ve got a noticeable tan or not. I think a holiday without a tan just wouldn’t register as a holiday in her head!

As well as no suncream holidays also involved a distinct lack of water/drinks. We’d walk somewhere in 30C heat and - every bloody day - she’d be astounded that my sister and I were thirsty. Yet no one ever seemed to have the brainwave that taking a bottle of water out with us on hot days might be a good idea.

I remember my mum burning her back so badly that it blistered one year. Why oh why...?

Yes. Both have skin cancer now!

My DM used to slather herself in olive oil in the early 80s and sunbathe in the garden.
She had surgery to treat stage 4 melanoma about 5 years ago in her early 70s. Thankfully it was caught early tho had travelled to lymph nodes, but no further and she's had all clear.
Scary stuff tho, and no doubt linked to her sun exposure when younger.

Yep! I was left to my own devices begging to go in the sea as they lay there my mum reading and my dad chain smoking.

I was then bollocked for annoying them and was taken to play for approximately ten minutes before repeating. I was bought a portable DVD and spent the holiday in the shade watching videos, bored out of my mind as they moaned I was 'ruining the holiday'.

To this day I detest heat.

Yes! my mum and stepdad would spend all holiday baking themselves and I hate heat so I’d be miserable.