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

My dad was the one who insisted that the patterns on the curtains should face the street. He wouldn't eat hot and cold food together on the same plate (for example new potatoes with salad) and plates had to be practically melting if used for hot food.

An odd one.
My mother loved watching Wimbledon, every single year she'd sit down for the two weeks of it and watch it all day long. It was one of the highlights of the summer for her.
As a child she would tell me seriously it was possible to win a match of tennis without hitting the ball because if the other player hit it out or had a net ball or fluffed two serves you could win due to the points you were awarded. I remember repeating this in school and the other child laughing at me as though I was really thick or was making a joke.
To this day I have no idea where she came up with this.

@katseyes7 and @knittedfairies were your relatives from the North East? Just that you said 'mam' which I think of as from the North East. My stepmother was from County Durham. Wondering if the 'pattern to the street' thing is from the North.....

@Pudmyboy Yes, l'm originally from Northumberland.

My mum is only in her mid 60s but honest to god I think years of blindly following her own mums rationale makes her seem so much older! The amount of unnecessary work involved in straightforward tasks...!!!

Irons all underwear (“to check iron is hot enough”)
Clothes get ironed then aired then put away
Never have curtains or blinds closed during the day because of what neighbours might think
Ditto never putting lights on during the day
Many other bits of nonsense

But best (or worst) is that I was never allowed long hair as a child. I was told first that my hair was too thick for it to grow (it’s really not) but more because I’d get colds and sore heads with long hair.
Turns out my mum was told this growing up. Maybe something about not drying in time for bedtime back in the day, I don’t know, but seemingly my gran was convinced my mum would end up unwell any time she grew her hair. Fucks sake 😂

My mum is 75 this year and the main ‘silly’ thing she does (in my view) is instinctively views anything convenient as lazy somehow. Fitted sheets (she went to boarding school where they made their own beds from the age of 8, and she still uses flat sheets with hospital corners), tumble driers, dishwashers, duvets instead of layers of sheets and blankets....all of which I love and use!

Mumberjack
I was brought up with the never close curtains or blinds during the day thing too.
Then I married someone who never had them open if he could possibly help it!

Now I'm divorced and do what the hell I like with them 😂

@Furrybutts

Mumberjack I was brought up with the never close curtains or blinds during the day thing too. Then I married someone who never had them open if he could possibly help it!

Now I'm divorced and do what the hell I like with them 😂

But the question is - what do you do with them? Open or closed in the day?!

Why would people sit with their curtains closed during the day. The only time we did this was when a close relative died and you had to have them closed until after the funeral. This doesn't seem to happen any more.

My MiL used to have hers open all the time - even at night and as a widow who lived alone, I used to think it was a bit dodgy.

I grew up in a house where we never closed the curtains in the bedrooms and my mother had blinds in the sitting room with 'for show' curtains which were never used. Still now I cannot bear to sleep in a room with the curtains closed!

@OneTwoStep

Before we went into school if we had toothpaste or marks on our face she would lick her finger and wipe it off

Hahaha... my mum used to do this to me!!

I hated it!

But now I often catch myself doing it to my daughter! 🙈😂