Things your parents did with you that annoyed you soooo much (light hearted)

[bodenbiscuit]

That you make a conscious effort to do it differently with your own children.

Mine is that my mother was terrible at coordinating my clothes. She made me wear odd socks, clothes that didn't match and black school shoes with party dresses. And her response was always 'who's going to notice?'. This infuriated me because when your clothes don't match, YOU notice and of course other people notice. Disclaimer: my parents were well off - they could easily afford coordinating outfits.

So as a result my own children always have perfectly matching outfits and I go to great lengths to make sure their party shoes match their dresses.

What's yours?

My mum dressed me like I'd been rolled through a charity shop sorting room. She still tries to defend outfits as "fun" when we see pictures now. Me and my sisters look insane. The thing is, we all match, so she must have actually bought these things from real shops. She insists that everything was always from jumble sales and she just 'got lucky' with matching outfits. I beg to differ...

She was also convinced people wanted to kidnap me (they definitely, definitely didn't) and I wasn't allowed out alone at all until I was about 16. Which meant I had absolutely no common sense re. public transport etc. and frequently ballsed it up. Which of course 'proved' that I wasn't ready to be allowed out. My first week at uni was mentally exhausting - I didn't know how to read a bloody bus timetable, had never previously walked anywhere (not an exaggeration), and kept leaving my keys behind because I had never had a house key. Obviously these are all things you learn very quickly, but to be learning them at 18 was mortifying. I felt ridiculous.

M volunteered then forced me to learn the cello when the head teacher asked parents at a ptfa meeting.
She made me do it as she wanted to look good and no I have never looked back and felt that I am glad she made me.

I wasn't allowed a Barbie or dresses, I have bought them for my children, but my boys don't seem very interested.

The phrase "your just showing off because we have visitors" I used to feel mortified when they said that, but my dc do the same.

"Your tired, early night for you!" About any slight issue, what, you don't want brown Clark's shoes? Your just tired! What, you don't like mung bean muffins? Your just tired!

Mine were well-meaning, and have been lovely to my DC but they grew up in the war when sweets were rationed, so I ate sweets endlessly as a child, three sugars in tea and consequently had terrible teeth. (Very expensively fixed as an adult).
So our Dc did not have sweet stuff until DS1 started school, despite DM worriedly telling me the 'needed to develop a sweet tooth to get energy' (DM had all her teeth out at the age of 20)
We never have puddings, the DC do not seem stunted as a result

Not allowed to watch Eastenders if dad was home - meant I hated it when dad was home!

Never allowed the real version of stuff - always had the knock-offs. Everyone else had DM boots with yellow stitching. I had DM shoes (SHOES!!!) with red stitching. I looked like a nob.

Never allowed friends over because dm was funny about people coming over to the house. Now my dh and I are the ones who host everything because I like having people over.

My mother always scraped the cake bowl to nothing before we were allowed to lick it. I leave a generous layer.

Same here!

I was never allowed chewing gum or bubble gum so, of course, they became the things I wanted most in the world! Caught mum sneaking some out of a party bag I'd been given once! She always said it because it was dangerous if you swallowed it (so, on the rare occasion I managed to beg some off a friend, I was always super careful and scared!) but really she just hated to see/hear children chewing and smacking - I do sympathise but it was still annoying!

We were never allowed to buy anything from the gift shop after a day out (we were not poor).
My kids think I'm mad as I drag them around the gift shop looking for something to buy them even if they don't want anything. I'm rational in all other ways but I'll never forget the longing for a little toy or pencil with the name of a musesum / zoo / stately home on it!

Awww, you sound lovely hadron I often treat mine too, especially as my youngest is now 8 and I won't be able to buy her toys for much longer

You can NEVER have too many cuddly toys

My mother never put enough milk on our cereals. She wouldn't let us pour the milk ourselves and would put barely a 'splash' in each bowl.
The cereal was always dry.
I think she was stingy and wanted 1 pint of milk to last a couple of days..
I blame her for my crappy teeth. I think we grew up not having enough calcium.

On the subject of not being allowed to watch stuff - I think my mum was TOO laid back, she let me watch anything even if unsuitable (think the original Bouquet of Barbed Wire when I was about 9 or 10). TV was never rationed, I spent a large part of my childhood watching rubbish like Tiswas.

Sometimes friends would say they weren't allowed to watch such and such and I wondered why my mum didn't have the same rules, didn't she care enough? Goes to show that good discipline and boundaries makes kids feel secure.

Always buying clothes to 'grow into'.

True Dancergirl. Children might moan at the time but deep down they crave rules and boundaries.

My parents were kind and caring, but I used to feel jealous of children who's parents made them do homework!
I so wanted one of them to say have you done your homework yet?
Or ask what did you learn at school today?

Oh god I just remembered hot milk on Weetabix in the winter. It had a skin on it and tasted like sick.

Boden my mother had no sense of style either. She came home from a jumble sale once with a salmon pink acrylic shawl which she made me wear for some function, insisting it was 'very mod.' Any time I protested she would always say, 'Oh anything goes now.'

And she cut my hair. Dad came home and said I looked like 'Joan of Arc'. Given that Joan probably hacked off her own hair with a blunt knife this was not a compliment.

When I took my parents out to dinner mum wore a pair of ill fitting green trousers and a worse fitting green top. She resembled a lesbian army mistress! The thing is she was an attractive woman - she just had no sense of colour or style.

We would argue over who got the top of the milk on our cornflakes which were not allowed to have sugar sprinkled on.

ITV not allowed due to adverts and downmarket broadcasting boden, especially Tiswas. We had to watch Noel Tidybeard and Posh paws.

Home from school-a mug of milk and one malted milk biscuit.

My parents wouldn't let me watch The Borgias on telly because it had lots of sex and an orgy in it!

When I finally got to see this notoriously bad series, it was impossible to make out Adolpho Celi's accent, and the so-called 'orgy' was just a few fully clothed people rolling about on the floor. I've seen more orgiastic behaviour at a sixth form disco bitter

They were so together on everything. Never would they say or do anything that did not present a united front or backed the other one. Rarely argued and used to spend ages chatting to each other.
They are like two peas in a pod and to my teenage self they were a bloody nightmare of happiness, loyalty and togetherness.

Mine were like that aqua a real united front, and they are still together now after 53 years still being all united.

My Dad was all gushing to me about my Mum the other day. I was a bit

We weren't allowed put socks in the washing machine. My sister and I had to handwash our own socks and also our dad's (obviously he couldn't do his own, being a man); mum didn't wear socks.

Initially it was because she didn't want them to get stuck in the machine. So when I was 12 or so we discovered those zippy-up bags for washing, and asked if we could use one of those. She said no, because our school socks were navy and they'd run all over everything. So we asked if we could do just one run of all socks every week, so there'd be nothing in there to run onto. She said no, because socks were too dirty for the washing machine because they'd been on feet all day. So we gave up.

Then she turned 40, discovered jeans, and started wearing socks herself. And her socks went in the washing machine, because her feet weren't as dirty as ours.

The first thing I did when I moved out and bought my own washing machine was throw a pile of socks into it.

my mum didn't let me have anything girly like Sindy or my little pony. I was eventually allowed a tiny tears doll after several years of nagging. I got dressed in my brothers old clothes and practical clothing. She even chopped all my hair off after I got head lice. Party dresses were allowed - of her own choosing. I didn't get pierced ears until my 20s. forced to play the violin from 8 to 16 despite the fact I was totally rubbish at it. Now I have a dd who is a tomboy and would not wear dresses anyway- but she does have pierced ears and has just given up the clarinet.

my parent also argued a lot and we were never hugged or kissed. Now my family are enormously tactile and rarely argue.

They would take us on long car journeys on Sundays to random boring places. Then they would either read the paper or fall asleep in the car while we wandered around bored. Then we would drive for hours to get home.

My grandson is just about to start High School and we were talking about his uniform earlier.
I told him that when I passed the 11 plus, my mum took out a loan with the Provident to get my uniform at the Co-Operative stores, the only place you were allowed to buy it from.
I was at Grammar School until I was 18 and my gym slip still fitted me when I left, (though a bit tight in places).
I also had lots of hand me downs from cousins, which I was SO happy about, I adored my older cousins.
My grandfather bought me a Paddington style duffel coat, which also lasted all through school, but mine was special as it had grey horn toggles not wooden ones.
My grandson was shocked at the thought of struggling to find the money, I don't think his parents would be though.

I was fashion crazy when younger, but now I wear clothes forever and a day and have developed my own unique style.
My mother was perfectly co-ordinated, handbag, hat, gloves, a nice two-piece. When I started work in a boutique she must have been horrified , this was a tiny Welsh village, not Carnaby Street, but I was in the forefront.
My daughter and grand-daughter have inherited this sense of style; we are very different but admire our individual looks. My poor mother would have liked me to a M&S girl, but loved me any way.
My father, well, he was a bloke and a half, very extrovert, too fond of drink, suffered from depression with hindsight. He had a small holding and loved to pick up anything that 'might come in handy'. I used to nearly die of shame.
Now, though, I am exactly the same, in fact, our 'new' washing up bowl was rescued from a skip. I have recycled the old wooden parasol to grow runner beans.
There's no hope for me, and my little grandson shows signs of liking to find things.
And so it goes!

I have rambled on there, I have been thinking about my parents today and out it all poured.
Cathartic for me, sorry.

We were forbidden to watch ITV. It was referred to as The Other Side.

I think it wasn't 'educational' enough.