To ask if anyone else’s family had this belief growing up?

[Latenightthoughts111]

NC for this as it seems like all my threads lately have been about my family and don’t want them linked

late night thought tonight is about when I was growing up (late 80s born to a mid 40s born DM) I was told that drinking from a can and eating in the street was like being a prostitute

im not exaggerating I can clearly remember being about 10 and told that walking home from swimming with my hair down and wet and drinking from a can made me look like a prostitute! What was this about?? Where did it come from?? Even now I struggle to drink from a can and I don’t think I ever eat whilst walking!

I absolutely hate having wet hair in public...it just screams "I'm stressed and can't cope"

I was always told drinking out of a can was dirty because you didn't know where it had been . Eating in the street was common also making a show of yourself was a bad thing too 🤷‍♀️

Interested to find out why ur dad knew the exact ankle positioning for various things 😂😉😉

I never had picnics or bbqs either so for me it was anything Al fresco full stop!!!

I was told off for swigging from a can whilst walking down the street and eating whilst on the move is not great. You should sit down and take time not be munching on a tuna sandwich whilst crossing the road.

I guess it is considered common behaviour and a lack of manners.

Um. No. Not at all.

Not as bad but yes eating drinking and smoking in the street was common and not ladylike. This was reinforced by school , we were allowed out in the fifth year and some girls went to the chippy and someone reported them to the school for eating in the street.

Haha you just unlocked a memory, I remember my grandma telling me that eating and drinking while walking down the street was really uncouth. She'd insist we sit down on a bench or something!

Eating, drinking and smoking in the street were all cheap common behaviours. Swearing was beyond the pale.

I would never eat or drink in the street (except perhaps from a bottle of water if desperate) as these were my mothers rules but I wouldn’t stop my boys doing it. I don’t like them when they’re hangry.

Recognise so many of these.

'Don't draw attention to yourself', 'Stop that, people are looking', 'Isn't she precocious' - lots of sentences I used to hear said in my local town.
Not wearing a bra in public was shameful.
Pierced ears were acceptable about 15 or 16 years of age but no more than one pair. Two was a no.
Agree about the view of ankle chains.
Tattoos were a complete no no for women and only acceptable on men who had been in the Army or Marines.
I remember the 'What' and 'Pardon' arguments.

I remember quite clearly my mum telling me that wearing an ankle chain made someone a prostitute 🤔

Agree about swearing as well. 'Listen to her, she has a mouth like a fishwife'

I can offer a magnificent response to such things from my Dad. The extended family were in the local pub on Boxing Day when I was about 19 or 20, including a rather prim and snotty aunt who only set foot in a pub once a year at Christmas and had STANDARDS and expected those STANDARDS to be kept by all women. Pa was off to the bar and I asked for a pint. Aunt pulled a cats bum face and said that a lady would never drink a pint. My Dad came back and out two halves in front of me. Which is why I love him and probably why I turned out this way!

Not 'like a prostitute' but absolutely yes to these things being 'common' or 'uncouth'.

• Eating and drinking in the street. Even now if I eat in the street e.g. if I've had to pop into town on my lunch break and have grabbed a sandwich I still feel like people will be looking at me and judging 😀
• Drinking out of a can
• Chewing gum
• Ankle bracelets
• Wet hair outside unless e.g. after swimming. I don't heat style my hair now and frequently head into work with partially wet hair and always think about this
• Ankle strap shoes
• When I started work and still lived with my parents my mum used to be horrified about a) bare legs for the office in summer and b) non-matching shoes and handbag

Yes, DM of the same generation. Was told eating outside, drinking from the can, God forbid doing one's makeup in public were all horribly vulgar. (NB the word "common" was only used by people who were themselves exactly that, was another rule in our house!)

It's interesting, isn't it? Our mums grew up in post-war Britain. Things were so different. Mine often describes her own parents as being very Victorian in the way they brought her up. These things shift so slowly. You raise your children as you yourself were raised, to a certain extent, and no matter if in the interim 40 years society has, erm, moved on a bit!

Not prostitute but I grew up with it drilled into me that eating and drinking in the street was unacceptable. It was 'common' and must never be done. You would be Judged and people would think you were that sort.
The only exception to this was fish and chips on the sea front. That was allowed.

I too was told it was ‘common’. When I asked for further explanation as a child, none was forthcoming (I never did like being told what to do, particularly if there seemed no actual reason for something - never did get to the bottom of what common actually is - defo no sexual connotations though). I don’t do it a lot, but I have on occasion partaken of a snack while in a street and I can confirm no one fainted and the world didn’t end.

Prostitute is a bit strong. My DGM thinks it’s common to eat in the street though, yeah. She’s probably a similar age to your Mum.

I was born in 1966 and grew up blissfully ignorant of most of these rules.

I even had an ankle chain for a few years, as did my mother (a teacher) and my sister. We certainly had no compunction about whether or not to drink out of cans. We took them on school trips and if packed lunch was needed. We drank out of them then without a second thought.

Eating while outdoors was not really discussed, but I don't think it would have been an issue.

It was deemed very common, I did buy a cake in the local bakery and ate it in the street on my 50th birthday just because I just could.

Also ankle bracelets were deemed worn by prostitutes only and I wonder if there may be some historical basis to this.

Yes I was definitely told it was common.
I do eat when in the street, but I have an aversion to people putting on lipstick in public. I can’t remember being told brushing hair and putting on lipstick was common, but maybe it originates from that?

I have to say I agree about drinking from cans unless they are carefully washed first and I am generally quite sluttish.

1973. My sister, visiting pub in north Wales, asked for a pint of beer. Served to her in 2 half pint glasses as 'we don't serve pints to ladies'. Pointed look from landlord which meant, so she said, that she shouldn't really be there at all and behaving in such an unbecoming manner.

We had an aunt and uncle who we thought of as quite posh. We had fish and chips at theirs and she laid the table and heated plates in the oven while he went to fetch the fish and chips. It seemed a really formal way of eating a take away!
They never had BBQs "because they had a perfectly good kitchen indoors" (I now think it was because he might have been expected to do a bbq where as cooking inside was obviously a woman's job)