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!

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)

Yes, eating or drinking in the street was 'common' - the only exception was for ice cream, or fish and chips at the seaside which could be eaten in public if sitting down on a bench / picnic mat.

There was a rule against eating or drinking in school uniform on the street and I got into trouble for being seen walking home eating a Mars bar. One of their weirder rules, along with an obsession over whether we were wearing the right colour hairbands (brightly coloured scrunchies were considered akin to outright criminality). I had a quick look at their website to see if it's still against the rules, but it seems they have bigger things to worry about now as their behaviour policy is mostly about illegal drugs, tobacco and pornography.

1975. 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.

Yes, eating or drinking in the street was 'common' - the only exception was for ice cream, or fish and chips at the seaside which could be eaten in public if sitting down on a bench / picnic mat.

There was a rule against eating or drinking in school uniform on the street and I got into trouble for being seen walking home eating a Mars bar. One of their weirder rules, along with an obsession over whether we were wearing the right colour hairbands (brightly coloured scrunchies were considered akin to outright criminality). I had a quick look at their website to see if it's still against the rules, but it seems they have bigger things to worry about now as their behaviour policy is mostly about illegal drugs, tobacco and pornography.

My mum was a bit smarter about advising me not to eat or drink while walking around in the street. She said I could cut my lip on a can of drink, it’s better for digesting food and I was far more likely to spill stuff over me (she was right - as I’m extremely clumsy!). Prostitution or being common wasn’t mentioned.

I'm in my 50s - my mum (born in the 1920s) maintained that eating while walking about in the street was not respectable. Picnics were fine because you were sitting down for the purpose of having a meal. I still can't walk and eat - mum's words ringing in my ears, I suppose!

Eating and drinking in the street seen as very common, not linked with prostitutes though!

@Fizbosshoes this is how my parents eat fish and chips even now!

@Fizbosshoes this is how my parents eat fish and chips even now!

O this bloody site revamp! Calm yourselves, people of Wales, and accept my apologies. Above happened c1975, not recently at all. That dropped off original post.

Not by my parents (who were comparatively liberal and worldly wise) but friends parents and others used the words .... "like a common prostitute" fairly often.
This was in the last century though

Eating in public (unless sat down in a restaurant or icecream at the cinema) was the height of bad manners. It still is in Japan. Nobody talked about sex let alone selling it or in front of children!

Eating in public (unless sat down in a restaurant or icecream at the cinema) was the height of bad manners. It still is in Japan. Nobody talked about sex let alone selling it or in front of children!

We were told it made you look greedy - like you couldn’t even wait to get home before stuffing your face. DM was a fat child in the 60s though, and I think was on the receiving end of some bullying about it.

Our headmaster banned black tights on the grounds that “only prostitutes wear them”. This was in the mid 90s, so there were a lot of complete from offended respectable middle class mothers who he had essentially called prostitutes. He doubled down. It was quite the scandal.

I was from a very 'working class' family. Eating/drinking on the street was still considered common, but never heard it compared to prostitution.

I was from a very 'working class' family. Eating/drinking on the street was still considered common, but never heard it compared to prostitution.

I was from a very 'working class' family. Eating/drinking on the street was still considered common, but never heard it compared to prostitution.

According to my mum, eating and drinking in the street was and still is, common.
Red shoes, shoes with ankle straps and ankle chains were what ' ladies of ill repute ' wear.

Yes my Mum said the same about ankle bracelets and white shoes! I think there was a night I went out wearing both and she was horrified!

Yes my Mum said the same about ankle bracelets and white shoes! I think there was a night I went out wearing both and she was horrified!

And mine. I still can’t do it!

My mom would never have said prostitute to me as a 10 year old, I wouldn't have known what one was at that age and she wouldn't have wanted me to! Also, never realised there was a stigma about drinking from a can or eating in the street

My mom would never have said prostitute to me as a 10 year old, I wouldn't have known what one was at that age and she wouldn't have wanted me to! Also, never realised there was a stigma about drinking from a can or eating in the street