What's the most embarassing thing your parents used to do when you were a kid that you swore you wouldn't do to your kids?

[paddyclamp]

My mum used to correct my speech ALL the time, like "it's GOING TO, not GONNA" or "RUNNINGGGG not RUNNIN". It used to really piss me off esp as we were northerners but when she did it in front of my mates was doubly annoying.

My kids have freedom of speech!

Dress me and my brother the same

My MIL used to spit on a hanky and use it to clean his face... he tells me off when I do that to dd because he hated it! (It is a bit minging though, I will admit)

clean dh's face. obv.

YES MY MUM USED TO CORRECT ME ALL THE TIME TOO GRRR

My mum told my GCSE art teacher she thought I had a little crush on him...while I was there! I was mortified. I won't be doing that to my children...

Saying "stop showing off" I say this to naughty Y7,s and they HATE it, and immediately behave themselves

Dress me in really untrendy clothes. She was obsessed with me dressing 'like a young lady'.I look back and she chose mini versions of clothes she would wear
Dd wears what her friends wear - apart from obviously tarty stuff she can wear what she likes.

My mum wanted to keep me a "little girl" so was really funny when I wanted to shave my legs for the first time and get a bra. It embarrassed me. I'm really going to make a conscious effort to be more approachable on these subjects. (Other than that my mum was pretty much perect, so I really shouldn't moan!)

Hanky spit thing was horrid. I have had to do it once but I hope never again.

Insisting I wore Clarks T-bar shoes even at high school. Will not be doing that to ds.

my friend's mum once picked us up from school in her underskirt

friend was mortified

looking back now I think she was the coolest thing alive

Auntjetpetunia, are we sisters? My mum "convinced" me (I was 14) that the hair on my leg was "blond" and didn't need waxing...

If we were clothes shopping I would see something I liked but my Mum, handy with a sewing machine, would say "I could make that for a fraction of the price"as if something she could run up would look anything like the trendy shop version .

My mother made me wear sensible brown lace-ups to school because you get more wear out of them. Nobody else wore them and I had a few unkind comments too.

In the end, I started changing them the minute I was out of the front door for my much nicer special occasion shoes.

I hope that I will never put my DSs in something they so actively disliked.

Spit washes are yucky though - especially when the tissue has lipstick on it. Thank goodness for the invention of wipes.

Alot of "have you said thankyou?" when I had just said it - I am 21 and she still says is. THen you either say it again or say "i've already said it" and look like a wally. She swears like a trooper aswell, infront of everyone. Proper swears, I am convinced she has invented some of her own.

Infact, leading on from being embarrassed as a kid, she is darn embarrassing now! When pregnant but not yet engaged, she would refer to DH (then DP) as my husband really loudly, just incase someone thought I was (god forbid ) a single teenage mum. She is ALWAYS going on about my weight loudly, like she is sort of apologising to everyone for it. And says loudly about owning our own house if she is say in a decorating place, just incase people dare think I live in a council house being so young. Really bugs me. AND because DS is going to a montessori she keeps sayingf "you'll have to get that weight off" "you'll have to dress smart" and no doubt she will try and muscle in and either I will have to contradict what she says, or go against my own principles of just being Me. Sorry, have ranted!

*Was engaged, not yet married.

My mum was also a pain over what I wore. "You not walking round town with me if you look like a tramp!". They had no idea that generation!

HA! Lady Waffle, if I had a sister I'd think you were her, your mum sounds alot like mine!

spitting on a hanky and cleaning my face with it - eeuuuhhh manky saliva covered hanky dragged across face in misguided attempt at cleaning. hence i always have baby wipes - no hankie/spit combo

My dad used to make me lie about my age and say I was younger so he would pay less t get in anywhere, I was scard shitless that I was going too bethrown off a bus or out of a restaurant, flipped at him when I hard he ahd done the same to my kids at London Zoo

oh and "dont sit on the stonestep ye will get a chill"- mmmmmmm how so now i sit about everywhere, no chills to date

take the piss out of me to make my friends laugh

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Didn't buy me any clothes at all (bar uniform) from the age of ten - I had to wear old stuff that didn't fit until I was big enough (aged about 14) to fit in her cast offs.

Joy. My friend's mother emptied my friend's sisters wardrobe because she felt so sorry for me! It was ridiculous, we weren't poor.