Things your parents made you do.

[Daffodilwoman]

Hi all
This is a lighthearted thread. Something I’ve been thinking about. What things did your parents do/insist on which you may or may not have continued.
For example my mother always made me save things ‘for best’. She also saved things for best too. I had clothes ‘for best’ and everyday clothes. If ever she put sun cream on me I always had to wear everyday clothes, I could never wear my best clothes if she was applying suncream. She saved things ‘for best’. This included towels, curtains, bedding, clothes, shoes. Quite often ‘best’ never came and I’ve lost count of the number of times things which have never come out of the wrapping have become unfashionable and she has got rid of them. For example chintzy curtains, flowery towels, patterned duvets.
She used to buy dd clothes and shoes which were too big saying that she would grow into them. However when the right season came for dd to wear say, a summer dress, it didn’t fit her so I would give it away. She doesn’t do it so much now as I refuse to accept things from her which I don’t use.
Whilst I do save sone things for best I’m nowhere near like my mum. Only things like certain shoes or clothes do I save for best, the rest I use.
I also understand buying things in the sale but my mum always bought things in the sale and never wore them. It took me years to get out of this mindset. A friend actually introduced me to the concept of cost per wear and I try and go by that now.

Mine made me go to church and wear ugly clothes at home. I quite get it, there were different times, my family wasn’t well off, but she keeps wearing ugly things at home now when they have much more money and I refused to do so:P I wear what I want and use expensive perfumes if I feel like it.

My mum made me wear skirts most the time and occasionally a pair of brown cords. I wasn't allowed jeans, although I think I had denim shorts. Once I started working part time at 13 I bought a pair of jeans and have spent the past 42 years wearing jeans 99.9999% of the time.

Both my dc hate jeans and never wear them 😂

Tried to make me wear my brothers hand me downs for "playing out"
I flatly refused to wear anything deemed as boys clothing

We were the exact same with "good"clothes. My mum still can't get her head around wearing nice things even when it's not an occasion. She is flabbergasted with the clothes DC wear for everyday wear. The amount of times I've been that that a certain item is too nice for "wearing around" and should be kept away. Yet she can never answer when I ask what exactly should I be keeping them away for.

Made us eat breakfast on Christmas morning before being allowed to open our gifts under the tree. We thought they were being so mean! I remember one year my brother and I mushed up a couple of cornflakes in a little bit of milk in a bowl, to make it look like we'd eaten!

I now know that they would be up until 2am wrapping presents, then we would be in their room as early as 4.30am with our stockings! So it's no wonder they wanted a few minutes extra sleep!

On days when I had a test or exam at school, I had to drink a full-to-the-brim glass of milk in the morning to 'help my brain work better' (barf).

We weren't allowed a microwave (because radiation) and if we were in someone's house and their was turned on, I was meant to leave the room 😂(I didn't)

If we drove past a skip, she'd send me out to stick my head in and see if there was 'anything good' in there (having seen the recent thread on here about skip-diving, I was clearly an undercover criminal at 7 years old)

My mum wouldn’t let us get the bath mat wet. I mean, I understand you don’t want it dripping wet, but we had to stand on one leg - ballet style - dry the foot, put it on the mat and then dry the other one. She’d have a heart attack if she saw how DH leaves it!

They bought me an entire set of Childrens' Encyclopaedia Britannica, and then refused to let me read them. Apparently I was too young, and could spoil them, and since they were so expensive they could only be brought out on specific supervised occasions so something could be looked up. By the time I was a teenager and allowed unsupervised access, the books were both out-of-date and way too childish.

We had to wear shoes in the house ALL THE TIME. I've no idea why but since I left home I literally hate wearing shoes and take them off at any opportunity. When my kids were little she was aghast that they could even <shock> play in the garden barefooted.

I could never leave the house with wet or damp hair-ever. It was thought I would catch a cold.

My mother would have a coronary at the very thought !

We were in florida and we all went to bed with wet hair. When Dd mentioned it to my mum afterwards I may as well have told her we took them down the local gun range and let them loose.

i live in Germany and no one would dream of going out with wet hair here. Either you will die of cold-catching or granny-nagging. School swimming is a nightmare.

I had to wear a skirt to church, never worn one since (don't go to church now either)

Wear wellingtons to school even if there were only a few flakes of snow.
Secondary school. Must have been 14 or 15.
I used to get changed into school shoes on the way, bag up the wellies and pretend to my friends it was my PE kit that I'd brought on the wrong day. I used to dread snow. Dread it.

Go to Mass every Sunday. I'm a very, very lapsed Catholic these days.

Take turns opening Christmas presents (after breakfast and getting dressed)
Drink milk with meals
Write thank you letters for every gift I received at Christmas/birthday
No videos (we didn’t have a video player)
No foreign holidays (we never went abroad)
Worry, worry, worry about everything
Judge people from lower income backgrounds/state schools as “thick” or “common”

I wasn't allowed long hair as a kid. By 'long' i mean any longer than touching my shoulders.

I wasn't allowed to wear my PJs downstairs or go about bare foot.

I wasn't allowed to take snacks upstairs.

And I wasn't allowed an etch a sketch or a girl's world doll !! <stamps foot><and shows age!>

I had to wear home-made sundresses with tight, shirred elastic tops and tie straps. So uncomfortable in the heat. I notice they’re (inexplicably) back in fashion!

@ItsCalledAConversation oh god the bloody thank you letters! Boxing day, every year, hours of writing thank you letters even to the people i'd thanked in person at the time. And having to add 'news' as well.

AND the same thing on holiday. Load of bloomin' postcards with witty snippets and how are you's 🙄 Ugh!

I was not allowed to wear my pyjama top inside out, if it was the wrong way out I had to change it. I now love to wear it inside out sometimes just because

We couldn't store spare loo rolls in the loo, so if you got caught short as a kid and ran in and then realised there wasn't enough loo roll you had to call for it to be passed in. I've reacted by having a tower of spare loo roll in the loo

I'd like to say:
My 4 DCs are fine to run around bare foot in their PJs (pisses DM off on xmas day) fine to eat snacks upstairs if careful and all have bum length hair 😃 (all girls) None of them know what an etch a sketch is but if they did and wanted one i'd get them it!

this thread is very cathartic OP, thanks!

Made me go to church. Catholic schools. Mass every Sunday & holy day. Confession every Saturday morning. Stations of the cross. Benediction, whatever that was all about.
I rebelled at 15 & refused to go to church again, which caused a massive row, but I haven’t been inside a church since, apart from weddings & funerals.

I was dressed up like a doll, complete with wavy hair created by tight plaits and wet hair that gave me a headache as they dried overnight and patent leather shoes so that you had to walk like a show pony so they wouldn't scratch. Thank fuck my brother came along eventually, standards were dropped and I could have feral hair and trainers.

Absolutely nothing terrible ... the more I read on Mumsnet the more I appreciate just how great my parents were, in fact better parents than I am . She did 'encourage' me to write thank you letters for presents .. but nothing wrong with that and I do the same with my DC. She was an elocution teacher (that's something you never hear of these days) but again .. nothing wrong with speaking correctly.