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

Home made chips fried in lard! Yes, we had this every weekday for tea...egg and chips...a ' spread ' of cold meat, salad and the like on Saturday and a roast on Sunday...repeat ad infinitum...

The lard only got changed when it had gone brown and full of bits from the previous fry ups.....the new lard looked like snow in comparison....

Unplug the hairdryer on finishing using it rather than use the switch to turn it off to avoid ‘wearing out’ the switch. Bizarre.

@TinkersRucksack

My mother used to use old underwear as dusters. Clean, obviously...

I do this. My boy's boxers.

@LunaNorth

Ironed tea towels.

And this😊

@50FootWave

Throwing a strand of spaghetti at the wall (during cooking) - if it stuck, it was done.

No idea why she didn't just taste it!

@Heaviestdirtyestsoul and mine also salutes magpies and asks 'how's your wife?'

Ditto. Christ, I am my mother....

To be told not to strain whilst pooing as it makes your veins pop and then you get big red veins looking like grapes..

I thought she meant in your FACE

Always “be careful you don’t push it out too hard or your veins will pop” ... to a child of 8

For years, I’d study my forehead for piles after going to the loo

I also have an aversion to red grapes

My mum is obsessed by hot plates. She can't abide hot food on cold plates.

Also milk not in a milk jug - I dont think I've ever seen her just use the milk straight from the carton.

Her cleaning routines are also extremely complex (although she's given up some things now she's older).

I feel like a right slattern by comparison!

Having bin bags full of cushion covers and lampshades in storage boxes so that she can change her living room every month or so to stop it from getting boring.

@Fuckingcrustybread

I know my mum's curry was made from scratch but don't know the recipe. My sister reckons it came from a She magazine or Woman's Own or similar (which my mum never bought but my Nanna did and passed them on 😉)

@Fuckingcrustybread

Sorry, that infamous curry was last made about 40 years ago. Our circumstances have changed so much, it's impossible to ask her now. Quite a few people on this thread have mentioned that curry and I've thought about it quite a lot. I think that it was a Vespa curry and she added the sultanas and side dishes to make it a bit posher!

Thanks. I’m going to have to start googling to see if I can find a similar recipe. I never cook curries so I’ll struggle to judge from the recipe how it should / will turn out.

There was a time in my childhood when we went on holiday in the depths of rural Wales, staying in a highly ramshackle building with no electricity and no running water. My mum's favourite part of this holiday? Throwing the contents of the potty out of the window, which she did gleefully!

She also kept a quote book, meticulously noting funny things members of the family said: this book is a family treasure.

As children we were not allowed to watch Grange Hill in case it influenced us and we were rude to our teachers!

What the actual..?

@Fuckingcrustybread
She used to make curry with sultanas and serve desiccated coconut and chopped hard boiled eggs on the side. I'm sure that the recipe came from one of those 1970s "exotic" cookbooks.
🤣🤣 My Mum did the same! When we were helping her recently sort out some books I mentioned that, she said oh god it was bloody awful wasn’t it but I thought I was the bees knees doing it, then found the book it actually came from in the pile we were sorting.

@maldivemoment

As children we were not allowed to watch Grange Hill in case it influenced us and we were rude to our teachers!

What the actual..?

I wasn't allowed to watch Grange Hill either.

Or itv in its entirety.

I've thought of one.
My mother cannot get rid of towels or bedding or any kind.

We bought a family static caravan a few years ago. She filled it with bedding from the beginning of time. The cupboard is full of it and overflowing. None of it matches. We gave st Michael striped flat sheets that fit nothing.
The towels are more contentious. They are green retro print items. They are old and scruffy. I used one to line the dog crate in the car. My mother was outraged and I was in the shit over that....

We are never allowed to unburden ourselves from vintage st Michael and BHS. Ever....

My mum's the same with towels and bedding. There are towels in the upstairs "hot cupboard" (e.g where the hot water cylinder lives) that are literally threadbare and must date from the 60s - whenever we were feeling sick a couple of old towels would be whipped out "just in case".

Having said that, I also keep my towels in the "hot cupboard" and I don't think I've ever thrown one out .

@maldivemoment
Lol me too. Im not sure there was reason other than being "not the sort of programme she wanted us to watch!" I remember feeling a bit when we did see it what all the fuss was about!

@nevernotstruggling @sleepyhead

Yes overflowing towels and linen cupboards here , including st michael and BHS (well my parents)...and duvets and pillows! I think there were about 10 duvets at my parents house - there was only 2 of them! (and they rarely had guests!)

I struggle to throw old sheets & towels out too.
My father was obsessed with hot plates and couldn't bear eating outside (or indeed barbeques) as he didn't consider that the food would stay hot enough.
Ditto to the airing clothes, although as an exception, if they it was very hot weather (think 1976) they were allowed to both dry & air on the line (two separate processes, obviously).
When asked if she had her coffee black or white, she always replied "Black with a dash", but the "dash" was never quite enough and she always asked for a bit more. That's because she drank it WHITE.

Oh, how I miss them.

She=my mum

Only eat once a day.

Would only eat once a day.

@Exhausteddog my mum has downsized to a 1 bedroom cottage ffs!!

My MIL gives me sheets, bless her. Notably sheets my SIL had as a child and she's in her 40s now! She cleared out her linen cupboard a couple of years ago and proudly showed me - there were still millions of sheets sets and they only have their bed and a guest room

My mum would buy lots of different flavoured of soup, tinned or packet-mixes.

There were four of us & one tin or packet would serve two.

She'd never put two of the same together, or make two separate pans so we could choose, but would mix two different flavours together.

So we'd have mushroom+vegetable, or oxtail+tomato etc

Cream of chicken + tomato was particularly nasty, I seem to remember

She also thought more was always better when it came to subtle flavourings, so apple pie would have a heaped tablespoonful of cinnamon in the fruit & marmite was spread thickly like butter