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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What made your parents paranoid when you were growing up?

139 replies

BeCraftyFatball · 19/04/2026 11:11

For myself -Danger when leaving the street

OP posts:
TheSandgroper · 21/04/2026 13:58

Dad worked on cars. I was never allowed in a car with a bloke who had not long got his licence.

I remember helping wash cars with kangaroo and emu smeared over them. I suppose he had seen cars with brains smeared over the inside but I would never ask. I’ve never thought of that until now.

Arlanymor · 21/04/2026 16:44

merryhouse · 20/04/2026 21:41

to Rule Britannia? I'm intrigued...

oh, did it start at the "this was the charter" line? that would work.Edit: just realised I've been thinking of Three Little Monkeys not Three in the Bed. No, I give up. How does it go?

How long did you continue singing lead in my pencil after one of you was worldly enough to start smirking?

We didn't treat Piggy as a cautionary tale either. And it was actually the engine who said I don't care. Which we would invariably follow with
Don't care was made to care
Don't care was hung
Don't care was put in a pot
and BOILED till 'e was done

Edited

Oh I didn't know about the pot!

The 'give me lead' was a game of one upmanship really.

Give me lead, keep me writing
Give me jam, keep me singing

All very silly to be fair.

But ahhh!

There were three in the bed
And the little one said:
"Roll over, roll over!"
So they all rolled over
One hit the floor
And his guts fell out...

RULE BRITANNIA!
THREE MONEYS ON A STICK!
ONE FELL OUT AND PARALYSED HIS...
DIDDLY DOO, DON'T MIND ME..!

carefullythere · 21/04/2026 17:03

I grew up in a reasonably large northern city. When I was around 16 I met a boy on holiday and arranged to meet him in London in half term. (We were staying with relatives in Barnet, so was easy to pop in for the day.) My mum pulled me aside before I got the tube and warned me that people from cults prey on out-of-town teenagers, so to keep my wits about me! It was bizarre.

More generally, yes, the worrying about what people think, not being common or cheap etc etc. Mum was also pretty keen we didn't develop the local accent and was always threatening elocution lessons!

LadyMonicaBaddingham · 21/04/2026 17:04

The obvious urban legend that was the temporary tattoos impregnated with LSD 🤔

purpleheartsandroses · 21/04/2026 18:08

Arlanymor · 21/04/2026 16:44

Oh I didn't know about the pot!

The 'give me lead' was a game of one upmanship really.

Give me lead, keep me writing
Give me jam, keep me singing

All very silly to be fair.

But ahhh!

There were three in the bed
And the little one said:
"Roll over, roll over!"
So they all rolled over
One hit the floor
And his guts fell out...

RULE BRITANNIA!
THREE MONEYS ON A STICK!
ONE FELL OUT AND PARALYSED HIS...
DIDDLY DOO, DON'T MIND ME..!

I know a different version:

There were three in the bed,
And the little one said,
Roll over, roll over,
So they all rolled over,
And one fell out,
And bumped his head,
And began to shout

Rule Britannia!
The queen is dressed in her pyjamas,
This bed is only big enough for,
1..2..3..4..etc.

mambojambodothetango · 21/04/2026 19:05

My parents didn't give a toss what people thought. Mum was a bit hyper about food hygiene though.

Fernticket · 22/04/2026 00:03

Arlanymor · 21/04/2026 16:44

Oh I didn't know about the pot!

The 'give me lead' was a game of one upmanship really.

Give me lead, keep me writing
Give me jam, keep me singing

All very silly to be fair.

But ahhh!

There were three in the bed
And the little one said:
"Roll over, roll over!"
So they all rolled over
One hit the floor
And his guts fell out...

RULE BRITANNIA!
THREE MONEYS ON A STICK!
ONE FELL OUT AND PARALYSED HIS...
DIDDLY DOO, DON'T MIND ME..!

Rule Brittania!
Marmalade and Jam.
5 Chinese crackers up your ar*e
Go bang bang bang bang bang!

GSCEMockExam · 22/04/2026 00:40

Grapes. They knew a family who had a child who choked while running around on the playground eating a grape. It was on the news and everything. They went to the funeral. We never had grapes in the house after that.

canuckup · 22/04/2026 03:37

Eating or drinking the street

Going out with wet hair

Tattoos

Wearing a football shirt, unless going to an actual football match

Eating frozen foods

JuliettaCaeser · 22/04/2026 04:27

You know one day your own adult kids will be recanting your own foibles to eye roll over!

Mine were great but there was definitely a theme amongst friends parents in the early 90s to be ridiculously over strict and shouty with teens.

The worst was always assumed. We were a pretty innocent group but my poor friends would get literally screamed at for minor things like being 5 mins late. It was assumed we would get into drugs and perfectly nice age appropriate boyfriends viewed with suspicion. Made me really careful when parenting teens to be nothing like this.

PermanentTemporary · 22/04/2026 05:19

Not too much. It was borne in on me that if I did get pregnant before finishing my education, I could expect my mum to take me off for an abortion (I would have been fully on board with this). I assumed that they would want me to sort out contraception, which I did, so we were both shocked when it turned out they assumed I wouldn’t have sex.

My mum was very nervous about the impact of watching scary stuff on TV, and I think she was right, and I’ve tried to replicate that for ds, with less success. I watched the farm safety film mentioned above (Apaches) at primary school and was terrified beyond belief and she was furious, I think rightly.

modgepodge · 25/04/2026 16:15

My mum had loads:

we weren’t allowed to watch byker grove as a teenager on there slept with someone on holiday and thought she might be pregnant. Presumably this behaviour was catching and I may have got pregnant (while in primary school) by watching this. Actually now that I think about it, perhaps it was a bit weird that a program primary aged kids watched showed one night stands and teen pregnancy and maybe my mum had a point 😂

in a similar vein I was banned from reading Sugar and J17 magazines, because someone told my mum they had given step by step instructions on how to give your boyfriend a blowjob. (Again, reading such things would make me go out at the age of 13 and immediately start giving blow jobs.) I actually don’t believe this was true as I never saw those teenage magazines give anything but sensible advice about teenage sex.

Chicken which had been cooked by someone else. Like, chicken cooked at home was fine, but a shop bought chicken sandwich, or a chicken burger from a takeaway would likely cause immediate food poisoning and therefore wasn’t allowed.

Eating or drinking while walking down the street was considered ‘low brow’. We had to sit on a bench to do such things.

No one could ever have a meal which didn’t have 2 side vegetables (even if the main meal contained large amounts of veg). To skip the veg would cause immediate malnutrition and/or obesity.

bless my lovely mum. I loved her so much but she had some very set very odd ideas.

Flamingojune · 25/04/2026 16:39

Very little

Tuiy · 25/04/2026 16:48

Well it absolutely wasn’t teenage pregnancy seeing as I was an extremely weird antisocial kid up until I was 15. They never said anything but were probably more afraid id be a loner forever.

And then got I pregnant at 15

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