Silly things your mother did (lighthearted)

[RaraRachael]

Trying to lighten my current mood and started to think about things my mother did - and insisted that I do - as they were "the done thing" back in the day.

Turning the clothes inside out to put on the washing line in case a bird shat on them
Lining every shelf in your kitchen unit with patterned greaseproof paper
Stuffing the chicken and then sewing it up with a needle and thread

Suffice to say, I stopped these ridiculous traditions when i realised there was no valid purpose to them

The only thing I thought was weird is she told me not to eat cakes until they had cooled down as I would get stomach ache.

I asked if that was also true of sponge puddings! She had the grace to look a bit embarrased!

@Onlymeandthedognow I love this !!! haha

She warned us girls not to have baths when we were having our period because she heard of someone who bled to death doing this .

Also, if she was talking about someone who had passed away, she had a habit of saying, "Lord rest him/her". Occasionally she'd pause and say, "Oh no wait, he/she's actually still alive" .

@Taytocrisps

Also, if she was talking about someone who had passed away, she had a habit of saying, "Lord rest him/her". Occasionally she'd pause and say, "Oh no wait, he/she's actually still alive" .

🤣🤣

DM (who is only 65) never liked any mention of a shop, in a different shop. So taking an Asda carrier bag into Tesco was a no-no! Nowadays she's better about it, what with bags for life, etc, but it really bothered her when I was young. We were also never supposed to speak of other shops, in the shop. So if we were looking for a washing machine in Currys, we couldn't say "we did look in Dixons but they didn't have the right one" because the shop assistant would be offended at our mentioning a rival store! Once we were in Tesco and asked about something, and the staff member said, "we don't have any, have you tried Sainsbury's?" and I thought DM was going to faint.

And I was never allowed to take anything into a shop, in case they thought we'd stolen it. I remember thinking no security guard is going to want to question us about my manky old stuffed rabbit... It was only once I became a parent that I realised it was more that she didn't want to carry it, or deal with the fallout if I lost it. I understand that one a lot better now!

But funkbus how the hell do you then hang a tshirt out to dry if not by the hem? Anywhere you hang it (by shoulders/ middle) you're still going to get peg marks! My mind is on a boggle as I was taught to hang them by the hem , all connected to each other by the middle peg!

@InchesAway

Catholic family: When I was 6/7 yo DM sewed a square of fabric containing an image of St.Christopher (I think) onto my vests - to ‘keep you safe’.

Absolutely wetting myself at this! Also Catholic family (mam was Irish too) . She didn't go this far (!) but she had rosary beads in her handbag at all times and at primary we all had them in school bags too! She would regularly tell us to pray to certain saints (St Jude- hopeless cases? Who's the one for lost things?) and every day I was travelling (14 months when in my early 20s) she prayed to St Christopher. She made me take a St Christopher with me despite knowing I'd been an atheist from the age of 16. It didn't bother me as it meant she worried less. Bless her.

It's interesting that a lot of the posts are about previous generations being natural conservationists, ie washing clingfilm for reuse, saving plastic bags for reuse, using up every scrap of leftover food etc.
Much of this stemmed from necessity. There's no doubt that in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s living standards were much lower than today and people were poorer.

I read a lot of guff these days about baby boomers having had such an easy life. But I do often wonder if the people who say that were actually there at the time, getting by on very little, making do with 2nd hand everything, darning their socks and sewing patches on their clothes to cover the holes!

I use cut up old clothes for dusters (not pants though).

Re washing, DH says I am weirdly oversensitive to the smell of damp, even the hint of the smell of damp. I swear unless clothes have been dried in a tumble dryer or radiator or on a line on a properly windy or hot day, I can smell damp. I have been known to take down a line of washing and rewash it on the grounds that it smells damp because it's not dried fast enough. We argue over the towels regularly, him saying ffs unmarked they are perfectly fine they don't smell of anything and me saying listen you noseblind eejit they reek of mould because they've been hanging damp.

I cannot stand the smell of damp.

Oh and doesn't everyone still have a carrier bag full of carrier bags and The Drawer with all the random things?

@Puffalicious
St Anthony is for lost items.

To lift my leg up when I had period pain

I've just remembered one my mum used to put her tights on and then put her knickers on over the top of them

Putting a kettle of boiling water up the arse of a chicken before roasting it!

Telling me and Dsises that periods made you smell.

Any man alone in a cinema was a pervert, even at adult showings.

'Wimmin' should only ever drink a small glass of alcohol and never pour for themselves.

Me and DSISes should be 'ladylike' and DBro should be a gentleman, we had a nanny, who taught him to stand up when ladies entered and taught us how to make 'polite conversation', no readers, we are not in our 80's.

My 100yr old grandmother could never drink from a bottle or can- presumably it was common or dirty? She always carried a pop-up, plastic cup in her handbag which came in a vivid, neon colour! A precursor to those silicone, collapsable cups we have now.

No sitting on cold surfaces or you get piles

Always have a slip underneath everything and hoisery- no bare legs!

My mum was obsessed with airing washing too....she would go nuts if i took something off the line and put it on without it going into the airing cupboard for about 3 years first

@MuggleStudiesResearchProject haha, mine too with the kidneys- Mum and Granny were forever tugging and growling at my cropped jumpers!

My mum was something of a yoghurt-knitting hippie; clothes were home-made and treats in our house were something else. Instead of chocolate we had carob, instead of sweets we had licorice- not strings of licorice but licorice roots which were basically just a brown stick that you chewed. Funnily enough now that she's a grandmother, she gives my kids sweets at any and every opportunity- where's the justice?!

[quote ninecoronas]@MuggleStudiesResearchProject haha, mine too with the kidneys- Mum and Granny were forever tugging and growling at my cropped jumpers!

My mum was something of a yoghurt-knitting hippie; clothes were home-made and treats in our house were something else. Instead of chocolate we had carob, instead of sweets we had licorice- not strings of licorice but licorice roots which were basically just a brown stick that you chewed. Funnily enough now that she's a grandmother, she gives my kids sweets at any and every opportunity- where's the justice?! [/quote]
Same here! Limited snacks in the teenage years when we were getting "fat" and I now have to remove half the rubbish she passes on to my teenagers!
We had a health food van come down our street, and I remember the carob bars that I was really pleased with as a vague treat. No wandering off to the corner shop for us.

She would be paranoid about folk seeing in through the window so everything had to be neat and in its place. But then she would drop the Venetian blinds down and tilt them in a certain way so no one could see in

And said blinds were never pulled right up, they had to have six slants showing. And she had summer and winter curtains, both of which were hideous.

Sultanas in a curry sounds quite nice in comparison to my Mum added chopped apple and sultanas to spaghetti bolognaise!

Why would you not iron tea towels?
Like some other posters, I was surprised that some people find it odd to recycle old items of clothing/ sheets for cleaning, reuse plastic bags and containers etc
It may have been done for financial reasons at a time when it wasn’t trendy to want to save the planet but the effect is the same