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Nothing like a teenage daughter to keep you humbled…

404 replies

JamieOliverPetrolStation · 19/07/2026 20:45

I leaned into the culottes and polka dot trend this season and was delighted with this bargain in Sainsburys last week. I thought I looked great. Effortless and summery chic etc etc. Until 14yo DD looked up at me with withering disdain and asked why was I dressed like a Tombliboo.

We had a similar situation last year when I bought a striped teeshirt and they called me Bagpuss for the whole summer.

OP posts:
Namechangewegovyjune26 · Yesterday 13:51

Puppylucky · Yesterday 11:42

I'm having a total sense of humour failure about this thread. I just don't find rude teen daughters undermining their mothers funny. How do you all put up with it?

It’s a fine line.

There can be funny banter in a family that gently teases each other. “Alright John Lennon” if someone arrives wearing round glasses would be an example. The Tombliboo one in the OP is hilarious 😆

But what I don’t agree with is the examples here of kids just telling their parents they look old or “like a granny” like it’s an insult. It’s a fine line but this is really misguided - like getting old is a crime, and that old people can’t be cool!

Notellinganyone · Yesterday 13:51

BauhausOfEliott · Yesterday 12:40

It's not 'rude teen daughters undermining their mothers', though, really. Bear in mind that tone might not come across in writing. I would guess that in most cases this is just families affectionately joking around with each other. Surely most families tease each other a bit in a lighthearted way?

I was a teenager at the height of grunge and I remember coming downstairs in a second-hand oversized plaid flannel shirt one day and my dad quietly singing 'Oh, I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK...' from Monty Python. I also remember when I was a student and there was a trend for military-style coats, and when he came to collect me to take me home for Christmas he said 'Am I only taking you, or are we waiting for the rest of the battalion?' 😂

I also remember that my dad wore a cream/pale beige suit to my graduation (it was boiling hot and he looked amazing) and when I greeted him I said 'Hello hello, it's Our Man In Havana'.

Exactly this! My DH had a cream suit and we all used to call him the man from Del Monte. He also bought a pair of old man canvas shoes from Marks that I dubbed his catheter shoes. I’d hate to live in a family with no jokes.

scorpiogirly · Yesterday 13:55

JamieOliverPetrolStation · 19/07/2026 20:45

I leaned into the culottes and polka dot trend this season and was delighted with this bargain in Sainsburys last week. I thought I looked great. Effortless and summery chic etc etc. Until 14yo DD looked up at me with withering disdain and asked why was I dressed like a Tombliboo.

We had a similar situation last year when I bought a striped teeshirt and they called me Bagpuss for the whole summer.

No idea what a Tombiloo is but I love those trousers. I'd be safe wearing them at the moment as my daughter is only 8 🤣

Pinkywoo · Yesterday 14:00

A couple of weeks ago I had DS2's sports day at the worst of the heatwave, so wore a leopard print maxi dress with wafty sleeves. When I came down the stairs my four year old went "ooh mummy, you look lovely!", his six year old brother eyed me warily and said "you look like a leopard" while backing away! 🤣

Applesonthelawn · Yesterday 14:16

I have a Ganni summer dress which is lovely colours but has puff sleeves (always borderline I now realise). DS said I look like I'm trying to get adopted in it, and as soon as he said it I knew it was true. Never worn it since.

Sparklier · Yesterday 14:22

BluntAzureDreamer · 19/07/2026 21:51

Well, you can forgive your daughter... It's my DH that does it to me... Fairly recently I've been told:

  • A furry hood makes me look like I'm in the East 17 Stay Another Day video
  • A new red coat I bought made me look like a Virgin trains ticket collector
  • A pale blue waistcoat and trousers set made me look like I was at a lesbian wedding
  • A blue and white striped dress made me look like a butcher

I tried a new cream and beige dress on this evening and he said 'you look like...' and I shouted "STOP RIGHT THERE. DO NOT SPOIL THIS OUTFIT FOR ME'. 🙈

Shall we string them up together??! I did laugh at tombliboo though 😂😂😂

new red coat I bought made me look like a Virgin trains ticket collector

Made me smile!

Runforthehillls · Yesterday 14:23

I have a dress I have worn for years. However, DD said 'No offence, but you look like a Wetherspoons plate in that dress.' Won't stop me wearing it but maybe not when in Wethers!

pontipinemum · Yesterday 14:29

😂lovely!!!

Optimisticdramalarma · Yesterday 14:38

Additup · Yesterday 13:46

TBF getting upset because your tactless DH says you look like a 'big, fat letterbox' in front of a roomful of people sounds perfectly reasonable and not in anyway narcissistic!!

He shouldn't have come out with that the way he did,but she is a narc

I'm nc with her due to her stunts and have no blood family because of her actions-i fit right in on the stately homes thread

I'm almost sure he's autistic (I'm not pulling the 'sn' card,I'm almost sure he is)

I can laugh at the letterbox comment because she did look like one but the neighbours heard her screaming at us-all she had to do is ask me for help to tone it down a bit and I would have gladly helped

I've had worse said to me over my fashion sense and just laugh it off

Pollyanna87 · Yesterday 14:40

I’ve always thought that the Tombliboos look like Neapolitan ice cream.

EstoyRobandoSuCasa · Yesterday 14:45

AmaryllisNightAndDay · Yesterday 13:48

"Well dear, I am an old lady".

I find it very funny that beige and faded pastels and plain fabrics are so cool for young women now and patterns are for the old. Because of course when I was young it was exactly the other way round. And that's the point, isn't it? They wont wear what we wore. They might wear what our mothers wore.

I still feel nostalgic for United Colours of Benneton. Though I have to admit that Lucy and Yak are a step too far for me. That combination of hippie fabrics and romper-suit styles, like the ultimate brown-rice middle-class mum dressing her toddler for nursery. I love the fact that the staff (young and often a bit blue-haired and gender-diverse) are kitted out in the stock.

My 16 year old steals my clothes and I never see them again.

That's the only situation in which I would invest in a Lucy and Yak outfit and pop it in my wardrobe. Cold-blooded revenge.

The other day I was feeling sorry for today’s teens. They have plain T-shirts, denim shorts, jogging bottoms, hoodies, white socks and trainers.

Whereas in the late 90s, we had sparkly tops, satin skirts and dresses, PVC jackets and trousers, platform trainers, diamanté chain belts, butterfly hair clips, tiaras, fairy wings, face glitter and hair mascara. I’m not saying it was sophisticated but it was infinitely more fun.

CountryMouse22 · Yesterday 14:48

JamieOliverPetrolStation · 19/07/2026 20:45

I leaned into the culottes and polka dot trend this season and was delighted with this bargain in Sainsburys last week. I thought I looked great. Effortless and summery chic etc etc. Until 14yo DD looked up at me with withering disdain and asked why was I dressed like a Tombliboo.

We had a similar situation last year when I bought a striped teeshirt and they called me Bagpuss for the whole summer.

How rude!

LondonLass2026 · Yesterday 15:01

I agree with @Puppylucky.

I joke around all the time, but if I'd ever spoken to my mother like that, I'd have known about it! I guess it was different being young in the 90s. We knew our place. At school and at home we were taught to respect any elder. We used to have to stand up in class if any adult walked in. That sort of thing. We were humble in the presence of any adult on the way to/from school.

I've had gentle mocking as an adult from friends and colleagues, of course! In 2011 I experimented with green nail polish and a colleagues called me Grotbags, which I still laugh about to this day. 😁

My then-10 year old nephew was rude to his mother (my sister) in a similar way to op when they came to visit me a few years ago, and I told him off, which he took very well, and my sister looked grateful. I do think kids today are a little much, and too comfortable with their criticisms.

CountryMouse22 · Yesterday 15:02

Notellinganyone · Yesterday 13:51

Exactly this! My DH had a cream suit and we all used to call him the man from Del Monte. He also bought a pair of old man canvas shoes from Marks that I dubbed his catheter shoes. I’d hate to live in a family with no jokes.

Why 'catheter shoes' ?

Additup · Yesterday 15:04

LondonLass2026 · Yesterday 15:01

I agree with @Puppylucky.

I joke around all the time, but if I'd ever spoken to my mother like that, I'd have known about it! I guess it was different being young in the 90s. We knew our place. At school and at home we were taught to respect any elder. We used to have to stand up in class if any adult walked in. That sort of thing. We were humble in the presence of any adult on the way to/from school.

I've had gentle mocking as an adult from friends and colleagues, of course! In 2011 I experimented with green nail polish and a colleagues called me Grotbags, which I still laugh about to this day. 😁

My then-10 year old nephew was rude to his mother (my sister) in a similar way to op when they came to visit me a few years ago, and I told him off, which he took very well, and my sister looked grateful. I do think kids today are a little much, and too comfortable with their criticisms.

Was this the 1890s when you were taught to respect any elder? 😂

Also, children still stand when an adult enters the classroom, or they did at DDs school when she left a year ago.

beencaughttrollin · Yesterday 15:15

14 is already geriatric, though, in TikTok years. Your DD may be closer than you are to remembering what it was like to have her finger on the pulse, but she too has been put out to pasture as a style dictator. The real fashion mavens these days are the truly chronologically youthful. It's best to find a three or four year old for a fresh, contemporary opinion - even seven is pushing it, and your DD is twice that age!!

glovebox · Yesterday 15:26

My three year old looked at my then new prairie style blouse and said ‘are you sure you want to wear that?’ and I wasn’t, actually, so I had to admit her perspicacity and get changed.

cheapskatemum · Yesterday 15:29

I don’t have DDs, but a 15yo in care that I was supporting commented, “Very Beetlejuice” when I wore a pair of navy with (thin!) white stripes cropped trousers to work. They were also by Tu at Sainsbury. I never wore them to that home again.

Siriusmuggle · Yesterday 15:38

My son (now 22) is also good at this, he’s mostly horrified if I wear anything his friends would wear.
He’s very scathing about any shoes my husband wears.

Back in the 80s my mum (very skinny) wore bright yellow drainpipe jeans and a bright green Bennetton t shirt. My dad described her as looking like an upside down daffodil.

OhamIreally · Yesterday 15:48

babybythesea · 19/07/2026 21:26

I have just remembered a conversation with DD1 aged 14 which went:

Me: Do you like this tshirt?
Her: No. Its rank. Wait, do you mean for me or you?
Me: Well I was thinking for me but if it’s that bad…
Her: It’ll be fine for you though.

Thanks. I didn’t get it.

I have had this exact same conversation

thisoldcity · Yesterday 15:53

When dd was about 6, someone gave me a lovely silky pair of big loose trousers, like harem pants sort of thing. I was thrilled because we were really broke and it was nice to be given something new to wear, but she said 'you're not going to WEAR those are you?' I hadn't even put them on!

Lifeomars · Yesterday 16:13

I was once told that my purse was "too young for you" 😂 it was bright and colourful and apparently once one is in one's dotage a purse should be plain black so as not to draw attention!

chesterelly1 · Yesterday 16:14

I’ve remembered some of DD’s comments to DH, and feel better realising she doesn’t just single me out.
He had a very shiny polo shirt for golf that he’d sometimes wear off the course - she started saying “Let’s play daaarts!”, funnily enough I’ve not seen him wear it as much. Bottle green polo shirt and stone cargo shorts - “are you off to feed the bears?”. Recent holiday purchase of a T-shirt with a coat of arms of a military service of the country we were in, “Thank you for your service” accompanied by salute. She refers to all his trainers as “big bouncy fellas” and refers to his most repeated outfit as him being in cartoon character mode.

Puppylucky · Yesterday 16:15

Maybe it is a tone thing and these comments are not meant the way they are coming across. It's just there seems in these posts to be a lot of withering glances and general off handedness by the teens alongside the comments, which smacks to me of contempt, whilst the poor mums are just grateful that their kids are "bantering" with them. But you all seem to be enjoying the laughs so I'll shut up now!

cornflakecrunchie · Yesterday 16:17

Oh, thanks OP for this thread, I've had SUCH fun reading all the posts!
I usually get in before my kids do, but not all the time. There was the long leather trench coat I ordered, forgetting I'm not a size 10/12 any more, & told the kids I looked like an upstairs seat on a bus.. (it went back..)

We really need a 'laugh' button!