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Housekeeping

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Original poster

Which chores did you have to do as a child, and which of those do you hate to this day?

27 replies

NutterlyUts · 15/04/2007 15:45

I used to have to hoover the whole house and prep the veg for each meal, and even now I would do anything to avoid peeling potatoes and hoovering.

What childhood chores do you STILL avoid now?

OP posts:
burstingbug · 15/04/2007 15:56

I had to wash up or dry & lay the table. Anything else I did I was probably after something!
Think I got off lightly

burstingbug · 15/04/2007 15:57

Still hate washing & drying.

LazyLine · 15/04/2007 15:58

My mum had me doing the ironing in my early teens. I never do it now.

Saturn74 · 15/04/2007 15:58

Stacking hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of logs every time we got a delivery. A whole huge truck-full was tipped on the drive, and I had to carry every one into the garage and stack them neatly along the wall.
We have got an open fire where we live now, but DH deals with it!

NuttyMuffins · 15/04/2007 15:58

Dry up, still hate it now.

SNOWBall4girlz · 15/04/2007 16:01

dusting all my mums little brass ornaments on the fire surround we have hardly any ornaments )
plus the launderette on a sunday big shoopping trolley on wheels full even worse when I had to take my little sister and the flippen yorkshire terrier I understand why but hated it
my kids fought over the hoover last week had to time them 10 m each with the cooker timer lol

LadyOfTheFlowers · 15/04/2007 16:02

washing and drying up.
i jhave to wash up obviously but i dont dry up, i let it all dry on its own. its more hygienic apparently.

Dinosaur · 15/04/2007 16:04

Same as NuttyMuffins.

NineUnlikelyTales · 15/04/2007 16:06

Washing up. I hate it, so I bought a dishwasher

Saturn74 · 15/04/2007 16:07

Now having flashbacks of slugs and woodlice!

gooseegg · 15/04/2007 16:12

Peeling mounds of potatoes after school.

I will only peel them now by cutting them in half, putting them cut side down on the choping board and slicing down the sides with a bread knife.

My mum grimaces at the wastage.

shouldbedoingsomethingelse · 15/04/2007 16:13

I used to have to do the clothes wash on a saturday morning then ironing on sunday's If I didnt do my mums stuff to a high standard I ws made to do it again!
The bit that used to make me so was my brothers (1 older 1 a year younger)
did nothing, absolutely nothing!

Funnily enough I dont hate ironing but my kids get the benefit as I ask them to do very little!;)

Original poster
NutterlyUts · 15/04/2007 16:38

shouldbedoingsomethingelse.. my brother never had to lift a finger either.. Why do parents do that?

OP posts:
DrNortherner · 15/04/2007 16:42

I didn't ahve to do anything other than polish my bedroom. I used to spray polish around teh room to try and get out of it!

princesscc · 15/04/2007 16:44

I had to clean the whole of the upstairs of our house (5 bedrooms, bathroom & toilet) before I was allowed to go out on a Saturday. I used to get up at the crack of dawn to get everything done in time to go to watch Arsenal. I used to have to change the sheets on my grotty brothers bed too! I quite like housework now, but I do make sure I have none to do on a Saturday!!!

hairycaterpillar · 15/04/2007 16:55

My folks used to have a rota during the holidays for me and my brother and sister...included washing/drying dishes, hoovering, cleaning bathroom, dusting...starting to think this is maybe a family tradition I should be embracing!

lackofgravitas · 15/04/2007 16:59

Picking up the windfall apples in the garden, all brown and mouldy with things living in them. I still don't like garden activities that may involve contact with things, but now I wear gloves. And squint. They're not so bad if I can't see them. Mind you, I managed to end up with a frog in the dustbin by squinting too much, that wasn't good.

princesscc · 15/04/2007 17:00

Thing is, I have recently come to know that kids cant get Saturday jobs very easily anymore. (I was working in Woolies, by 14), so you may as well get them to work at home and pay them!

Tommy · 15/04/2007 17:06

I used to have to wash the porch and, it wasn't until I looked at this thread, that I've realised in 6 years of living in this house, I've never washed the porch here...

Obviously one of my Mum's peculiar ideas about housewifery....

brimfull · 15/04/2007 17:37

Empty the dishwasher..yes I know we were lucky we had a dishwasher,dh always says that when we discuss our childhood chores.
Still hate doing it.

kama · 15/04/2007 17:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

JARM · 15/04/2007 18:11

Washing up and Drying up - we now have a dishwasher!

Aufish · 15/04/2007 18:57

My jobs in the house were washing up and drying up and as I got older I had to do the ironing which I absolutely hate now.

MuffinMclay · 15/04/2007 20:38

Ironing, and I still hate it and do it as infrequently as possible.

PanicPants · 15/04/2007 20:40

Drying the dishes and then putting them away - hated it with a passion. Tried to argue that it was healthier to leave them to air dry - but Mum wasn't having any of it!