Things your parents led you to think were 'special' or 'expensive' that you now take for granted?

[VladmirsPoutine]

for the po-faced

Growing up my siblings and I were wary over using too much kitchen roll - we'd get a sheet and fold it in half to tear before using, the faff was a PITA but to this day I still get a bit territorial over my kitchen roll.

We also had 'special' China plates, cups, cutlery, that sort of thing. Only used when we had guests or at Christmas - I didn't carry that into adulthood but whenever I visit my DM I still fondly look at the unit containing all those 'special' cups

My dad died when I was relatively young but prior to this death he used to always take us (siblings&I) to our weekend clubs when we were young, on Saturdays one of my sisters and I attended clubs that finished at similar times and it was always Saturdays that mum worked nights so the 4 us: dad+siblings would always get McDs and think it was basically gourmet dining.

I didn't have a deprived childhood by any definition but I do find those quirks quite funny looking back.

Agreeing with most of the food ones but my parents also had a particular foible that they would take us to stately home type attractions, then suck in their teeth at the entrance fee and decide 'just to look from the outside'. I have many a memory of having a 'car picnic' outside the attractions that you weren't allowed into the gardens without paying for house entry. My sister and I ended up paying for them to go into Vienna's Winter Palace on one of ours last family holidays, because we were so sick of looking at the outside of these amazing buildings without being allowed to go in!

@movingtowardsthelight, the richest/poshest of my acquaintances (she has a title and her home is run by the NT) not only reuses tin foil but actively encourages others to do it. Your parents are in high company.

It is funny how older styles of parenting taught moderation. With food, with treats with days out.

Now it's food like that as standard, days out as expected and parents on here asking if £80 a month pocket money is reaonable for a 12 year old

I remember my mum said when I was 12 we were getting spoiled by having fleeces and things like that. A fleece is hardly a luxury item! Maybe they were more expensive back then.

Another two: installing a shower and Sky TV.

My parents always insisted that a shower would be impossibly expensive to install in our (400 year old) house. Now we know that they just plain didn't like showers, so we never had them (even camping on holiday, my mum would prefer us to strip wash in the sinks in the toilets in front of other people).

They also told us that a sky dish wasn't available on our (admittedly remote) house. They've since admitted that they just didn't want us asking for Sky. Obviously they forgot that they could just say no, and that we couldn't force them to install it!

They were so tight that we wouldn't have dared ask for Sky anyway (my ILs, on the other hand, are so pushy about us getting Sky when we don't want to it's untrue! MIL expressed genuine astonishment that our household bills account has accrued over £2k 'rainy day' funds yet we won't fork out for something we don't want, yet they can't conceive not having).

Morrisons cafe. We didn't have a Morrisons in our town so if we were ever over in the posh nearby town we would go to Morrisons for lunch. I still consider it a bit decadent

Recent discussion with DH revealed his family were the same - his GPs would take him there as a treat!

Not in real life but I had a book as a child where the children eat salad and they have cucumber on it as a special treat. Always makes me smile when I think back on it.

One, very blurry baby pic of me. One!!
Then nothing until about 4...
My mother is the world's actual worst photographer though. Every picture of all of us is out of focus and features the backs of heads, or only parts of faces

Still any quite bring myself to make a sandwich with more than two things. Salad and cheese fine, salad and ham fine. Salad cheese and ham oh nooooo.
Ditto cheese sandwich for lunch or tomatoe soup and bread n butter. But do have a full blown sandwich and soup- just wow!
Silly really as plenty of other things that cost far me are no problem at all.

I always save gift bags, and there are a few that have done several rotations of our family.

Even though we only ever get them from Card Factory, or more expensive places when on sale, it's more than decadent to not reuse them, it's a ridiculous waste of money and resources.

You pay a pound or two, at least for a nice bag, but a box of chocolates, bottle of wine etc in it for a few hours and then just throw it away? I don't think so.

Once every main school holiday we would walk to the nearest town paying the water bill at the reservoir on the way

Is that like when you used to go and pay your electricity bill at the showroom, or is it a euphemism for returning some of the water you have used .

I'm struck by the number of these things that I don't do / allow my DC to do...

We nearly always take picnics (I'm always that people will pay for the cafes in zoos / farm parks) or if we go to soft play or somewhere picnics aren't allowed then we come home for lunch. My picnics are a nice selection of sandwiches, fresh fruit etc so not a sacrifice imo.

McDonald's is also a rare treat... I have some boxes (like you can get from Party Pieces etc) and they have "pretend Maccies" - ie nuggets and chips - most weekends with a small bag of sweets and a carton drink in the box.

I thought everyone reused gift bags? No so much wrapping paper and tin foil though.

It's amazing how much has changed in a few years isn't it? I'm guessing most of the people on this thread are around my age (44) and we're generally talking about the 60/70/80s? So at least 30 years ago, which makes it sound like ages

In my recollection as an adult, so 1990s onwards, it was more normal and less of a luxury to eat out regularly, but it wasn't something we've been able to afford until the last 10 years or so really.

I re use gift bags i thought everybody did or it considered stingy?

I agree PolarBear I don't always think taking a picnic or a packed lunch to work is a sacrifice.

If I'm faced with a choice of paying a lot of money for what is mostly shit food at attractions, I would rather take my own.

Similarly, I take leftovers to work most days and on occasions that I have no leftovers or decide to go out and buy something, it's often disappointing and I wish I hadn't bothered. Or it was nice but very expensive for what it was.

Barbara - definitely not unreasonable to reuse gift bags!

My PILs get really fancy ones, but all the presents inside are wrapped and tissue papered as well. My parents are at the 'reusing wrapping paper' end of the spectrum. My mum got really ratty with me for opening a present for my fiance last Christmas, because she reused my sister's paper from the year before - except my sister had written my name directly on the paper (in proper big gold pen not just biro).

I sit in the middle of the spectrum. Always reuse gift bags. Never reuse paper.

Not so much special or expensive but pain killers.

My mum had this idea that they were "junk" for wimps and you should just be "tough". I was only given paracetamol if I was really really ill. I had terrible period pains as a teenager (still do) which I just suffered through because pain killers were not even a consideration.

In our family it goes....hand over gift....gift is opened.....

"Oh thats lovely thank you!......Do you want the bag back?" Tradition dictates that you say no and then recieve it back in a couple of years but crucially, not from the person you gave it to.

Surely everyone does that? I dont think that I have bought a gift bag for years, we all bought a few eons ago and they work their way around the family :o

My mother does reuse foil if she can, and will save foil you have given her around something and give it back to you.

I never write on the gift tag of a gift bag so the person can reuse it. I often wrap presents instead though

Tin foil - my mum was paranoid about you using too much!

I remember getting a can of coke between me and my sister on a Saturday morning. Huge treat.

Harriet you've made me feel very old. I was pregnant with DS1 when the original Magnums came out, no white chocolate ones.

I never write on the gift tag of a gift bag so the person can reuse it.

I congratulate you on your gift bag etiquette, so many people get this wrong!

The only time its allowed is at Xmas when there is likely to be a mix up and then you tie on a cut out from an old Xmas card that can be easiy discarded. Thems the rules!

That was how I found out about my friend's tin foil re-use: I had baked a cake and brought in round in a tupperware box with a tin foil covering (since the bloody lid had gone missing, as usual). I took the box back and she offered the tin foil too! I was on my way on holiday and the idea that, even if I did re-use tin foil normally (which I had never before heard of), I would want to keep used foil sitting in my car for a week was a bit weird.