Thing your parents did / didnt do when you were a kid that they wouldnt admit to now?

[Loriycs]

my sister got wacked with mums slipper,she remembers it, i remember it but strangely mum doesnt!!

[eandh]

swears they never went out as a couple (Dad would pop to local now and again with neighbour and Mum would go out for PTA nights etc) but I remember next doors daughter (was 16/17) babysitting us because she'd bring her make up bag and let me have make up on

Saying that they are great and have the dd's every few months so we can go out and because they prefer to have them at their house they stay over so we get a lay in

[jafina]

My mum swears she smoked "hardly any" cigs when prego with me, Dad remembers it very differently. She also used to lock me in my room for an hour or two per day to have some time to herself.

[charliecat]

My mum would admit to putting the kids in the back of the openback van with a staffordshire terrier and telling us to get under the tarpaulin if we saw the police. No seat belts in those days.
Oh and when I was 4. something I was left on the wrong side of the road to get to school at a busy crossroads.
Spent hours in pubs and in cars outside pubs.

[noonki]

jafina that is terrible

[lljkk]

That's a wonderful mix of attributes, Riven, What did you wear to cycle in? Only you know a lot of Muslim women don't do any sort of sport, not least due to modesty concerns (interesting feature on World Service about it the other night).

On topic: I think we have to be careful not to judge our mums by today's standards. They lived in a different era, different... expectations and perceptions what mattered.

[Loriycs]

riven , you must feel alot of family pressure to care for your parents, who looks after you when your ms is bad?

Lissielou is think what your mum has is GUilT and so she should....

[lljkk]

Oops, sorry Riven, the MS isn't so wonderful I suppose, but it sounds like you're coping admirably with it.

(Will stop hijacking thread now, I promise).

[funnypeculiar]

My parents cheerfully admit to everything - not sure if that's better or worse...

Riven, nice to see you back btw

[Loriycs]

throwing my favourite toys away before i was ready to let them go them go (still miss ya pippadoll!)

[Fluffybubble]

My mum and dad strapped my sister and I (twins) in the double buggy, and bungy-roped us down in the back of my dad's Escort work van in place of car seats...My mum was recently a road-safety officer and is now manic about car seat safety .

[Loriycs]

We didnt even have car seats as kids!

[theexmrsfederer]

My mum used to stand by when my father belittled me as a child/teenager and knocked me down emotionally. Then make excuses the next day.

Or have a half-hearted "discussion" with him how badly he was behaving. Then carry on as normal.

Fucking toxic behaviour.

Sorry if this thread was meant to be lighthearted

[notcitrus]

My parents admit their foibles in a "it was different then way" - although my mum still doesn't see why a baby in a high chair shouldn't be given a collection of drawing pins, paper clips, pins etc to sort out - she claims they'd have to be 'really stupid' to put them in their mouth!

My mum did come up with bizarre explanations for things though, which she now denies - I asked why audiences on game shows got so excited going 'WHOO!' about crappy prizes, and she said it's because lots of naked women run around the set beforehand to get all the men excited. And when my dad went to a train toilet and didn't return for half an hour, she said it was because the Israelis had probably ambushed him and stolen all his clothes. I had nightmares about that for ages!

(in fact, the train stopped at Reading for 20 min and my dad was obediently not flushing while in the station. I have no idea why Israelis might have been on the train...)

[Janus]

I don't know why but we all laugh at what my parents did when we were young ...
My Mum gave up smoking both times when pregnant and 'only got drunk on a Saturday night'!!
My Mum and Dad went to the pub when I was 6 weeks old and left me on the back seat of the car in my carrycot!
My Mum and Dad went to the pub every Saturday night with us and we used to be in the car with a packet of crips and coke until we found a beer garden, although my brother and I think we can remember peering in at them from the garden when it was snowing!!
I'm actually laughing at this now but you would be horrified if you heard it today!

[Loriycs]

Apparantely my DH was left out in all weathers in his pram, even the snow, all on his own, MIL still cant understand why didnt do this with mine!!

[ImnotOK]

My mum was putting up a curtain pole (one of the bendy ones) and I was been a little bugger hitting my sister anyway she rapped me over the hand with it and my knuckle bled .

She swears blind she didn't though.

[Loriycs]

i dont know the ins and outs of south africa's political history so i cant comment personally, but i know alot would agree with your mum.But best leave that to another thread eh, its too heavy for this one!

[margoandjerry]

sent us to the corner shop for fags

went out to watch the Royal fireworks during the silver jubilee leaving all three under 10s at home alone

regular smacks

fed us simply foul food including one concotion we called splodge (pressure cooked chicken "bits" with white sauce and tinned sweetcorn)

send me to my ice skating lesson when I had a broken arm (claims she didn't know it was broken!)

None of it did me any harm whatsoever

[AuntyJ]

Hammer House, The Omen, Tales of the Unexpected. I must have been under 10 as I shared room with my brother & I was so scared that when we went to bed I hoped to go to sleep first so I wouldnt be alone!

[Loriycs]

Ive never thought of him as evil. But i have worked with Africans who do speak of him as a terrorist. As i said I cant comment personally as i dont have the knowledge to.

My dad used to think it was fun to let our grayhopund chase peoples cats,another one erased from memory.

[Litchick]

Oh Lord too many to mention.
-Being sent to the shops at 5 for ciggies
-Being looked after by my Dad when he was pissed as a fart
-Being told to stop moaning about third degree sunburn
-Being sent to France with a man they knew nothing about because he was a teacher and I'd never been abroad.

[Litchick]

Margoandjerry - am still weeping at 'splodge'.
During the miners strike my Dad invented corned beef bolognaise which we lovingly called 'mish'.

[margoandjerry]

Mish sounds up there with splodge

It really was disgusting - had disintegrated bits of chicken bone in it!

The other thing my mother did was send us to school with salad in soap boxes instead of tupperware because tupperware was too expensive. I honestly can still hardly type that without flushing with shame! This story makes my friends sob with laughter. I have now outed myself as anyone who knows us knows we were the family who took our lunch in soap boxes