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.

Wasn't allowed to watch soap operas on TV because they "rot the brain". Mum would be absolutely furious if she caught me trying to watch a bit of Neighbours. Yet no other TV shows were off limits. Awful reality TV, music videos that were innapropriate for my age, dodgy movies etc. Apparently that was all fine but soap operas were the work of the devil!

I don't now watch a lot of soap operas tbh but I do think watching a lot of rubbish reality TV as a teenager did me a lot more harm than anything on Neighbours or Home and Away could have done!!!

.... go to elocution lessons ... I now sound like the late Queen Mother!

My mother kept my hair short as a child-until I was 12-i got my ears pierced around then,so I looked like a girl in drag
People thought I was the eldest of 4 boys-not the only girl

She stopped buying me clothes aged about 10/11
Anything she did buy (which was rare) was a smaller version of what she wore
Just what every teen wants-to dress like her (very overweight and unfashionable)
mother with no money of their own to buy trendy clothes

When I was little,she'd randomly bin stuff
Didn't matter if I played with it or not-shed take a dislike to something and in the bin it went

She refused to allow us to wear slippers or dressing gowns
She wore them,but us kids where not allowed to
The house would be freezing in winter and we'd be turning blue

Children where not allowed hot drinks in any form,salad,fish,curry,full English breakfasts or any processed foods-i didnt know a lot of 80's foods even existed until I was an adult

She'd hang onto crap like our old birthday cards or old school work
We where given all this stuff as adults and she got all huffy with us when we went through the lot and handed it back
She slung the whole lot back in a box and back to the attic it went

She'd see something she liked (like the necklace I was given for being a bridesmaid or the trinket boxes I was given as a present when Charles and Di got married) and just take them for herself
I still haven't got any of it back all these years later-she claims she doesn't have this stuff anymore (I'm now nc,but my children tell me she wears my necklace and my trinket boxes are on her bedroom windowsill)

We would be into something-a range of toys for example-and she'd go out of her way to not buy us it
Money was tight I get that,but we had utter crap for birthdays and Christmas-stuff she wanted us to be into,rather than what we liked
My own children got what they liked rather than what I wanted them to like

My mum did this too - I'd forgotten all about that until reading this just now!

Go to church every Dunday , no excuses.
Total non believer now!

We weren't allowed anywhere near a pool on holiday if we so much looked at food, and we were always told "you will get cramp and sink". I've been in many a pool since adulthood after snacking and i'm yet to experience this 😂.

my mother told me never to buy pre chopped vegetables, never buy childrens costumes as they can be sewn. And never buy anything nice that brings you joy 🙄
she’s the most tight fisted penny pinching women. When my girls were little I would stay up to 3am sewing red riding hoods all because of how my mum brainwashed me. I very quickly changed my attitude and now life is so much nicer.

go to elocution lessons ... I now sound like the late Queen Mother!

God.

I was made to do these too Although they've thoroughly worn off now

Maybe we should form a 60's cliche club?!

My mum made me these and i loved them. They were so cool and comfy. I think your DM must have made them too small for you.

You think you had it bad my mum bought florescent hi Viz waterproof overalls from the covered market of the sort workman wear on the road, she then got her sewing machine out TOOK THEM IN to fit 12 and 10 year old and made us wear them to school on wet or snowy days. In fairnes there was scant chance of us ever getting hit by a car but the embarrassment was entire and total and I still flinch going through roadworks to this day.

This was something my mum inflicted on herself really but everything had to be decanted. Milk into a milk jug, butter into a butter dish, jam into a little pot etc.

She managed to get over this eventually, rebelliously putting the plastic milk bottle straight onto the table the horror!!

She is still very funny about tea cosies.

My mum used to buy the little balls of bath oil (possibly bubble bath?) that were sold in The Body Shop in the 80s. She'd display them in a little ceramic bath ornament next to the actual bath. I was desperate to use them but was never allowed. Over the years they gradually melted in to one another, attracted a thick layer of dust and were eventually thrown away having never been touched. Such a waste! I'm still slightly bitter about the fact I was never allowed to use them.

I was never allowed anything white. As a teenager I was allowed to choose new curtains and bedding to make my bedroom feel/look more grown up. I fell in love with a matching set from Next that were white with tiny blue flowers embroidered all over. However, my mum was adamant that I wasn't allowed them because they were white. I was allowed the yellow version but I never really liked it. This also happened with a dressing gown I really liked, a dress and other items. Now, I have lots of white (or white based) items - bedding, curtains, crockery, dressing gown, towels etc and I've not manage to ruin any of them yet!!

@Lillieth what?!?

@Lillieth erm????

How did that photo get through? Fucking hell, MumsnetHQ.

Lillieth
Reported!

So anyone can register and just post pornography on MN now? Fucking great. I come here to get away from that shit.

My mil is still like this. The horror if I use the supermarket milk bottle for a cup of tea! Also breakfast must be eaten at the table, bread must be a proper unsliced brown loaf (which I can’t slice straight for toffee so I get glares for mangling it). Muesli with skimmed milk. Fil is only allowed proper butter when he’s on holiday (and has 50:50 toast to butter then) otherwise he has to have margarine because some idiot in the 70s thought it was healthier. Ffs.

Goodness - what have I missed.

Ballet lessons
Endless shopping
I had to have something on my feet at all times
I had to smile at everyone
My bedroom was immaculate, she put everything I owned away. My space was not my own. I don't think Inwas ever allowed to finish a jigsaw - it always had to be tidied away.

Christmas- all family had to be washed, dressed, had breakfast, brushed teeth and gone to the toilet before opening presents.
Then one at a time would be opened
When my DC were little they opened theirs at break neck speed in PJs

When calling for friends - not allowed on a Sunday and not allowed to stand on people's doorsteps (it was rude)

We had to whisper in our back garden

Flies - if a fly was in the house - everyone had to stop what they were doing - windows closed, TV off (!) and we had to hunt it down with a rollled up newspaper etc

I wasn't allowed long hair- never had a pony tail or bunches. Never owned a hair bobble. In fact my mum cut my hair round my enormous ears because it was "practical"
Kickers were a thing when I was a teen. She made me wear a Clarke's equivalent which had a wedge heel which I hated!

Clothes could never be white or cream( not practical) and she once bought my sister and I some "dresses" from a catalogue. These were actually frilly nightdresses which I didn't realise until a friend at a party asked me why I was wearing a night dress...

Just remembered another - my friends dad was obsessed with my friend and her sister wearing slippers in the house - I still remember him yelling at full volume "SLIPPERS!" if they dared to be in socks in the house - never mind shoes. He was perfectly nice but could through a total fit over the absence of slippers. I ended up having a pair of slippers at their house too - he never shouted at me but there was a throbbing vein in his head if I was skipping around in socks so I took the hint.

Yep, same here, every Boxing day afternoon was spent writing neat thank you letters to Grandparents, Aunties and Uncles and Mum's friends who bought me a selection pack. Sometimes I had to sit and write 6 or 7 in a row.

Dad made me start a pension when I got my first pay packet. As it turned out that was a good thing but I kept thinking of all the stuff I could buy with.the extra cash at the time.

I was made to share my swing in our garden with a girl next door I didn't like. I was made to share sweets with her sometimes too as she never seemed to have her own. My Mum even gave this girl my favourite coat one year and got me a new one but I liked my old one better and it still fitted me. I remember being furious at the time.

I forgot one, me and my sister who is 4 years younger than me always had to wear the same dresses when we were taken out anywhere.