Things your parents did that you now realise were bonkers

[Pamina]

Saffron I found your thread very amusing. You shouldn't worry too much about what you like and what you don't

I have told you many times is your life and let others live with their own.

To be very honest with you I am glad you are tracing somebody else for you. Has not work with many woman in the past

but I really hope she will be tolerant enough with you. I thought to post something today as I notice you seam a bit worry and I don't know why and for what.

I can't prevent you from doing something you have enjoy for many years and you still do. Yes don't buy the coats just buy the hats.(tu)

[Saffron]

Sorry, Pamina, I don't understand or follow your post at all.

Pamina Wrote:

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> Saffron I found your thread very amusing. You

> shouldn't worry too much about what you like and

> what you don't

I'm not at all worried. The first part of my post was about my mother not giving me a properly fitted hat to wear in freezing weather. As a child I just accepted this. In restrospect, it's totally bonkers b/c letting a child get cold means they are more likely to get sick.

> I have told you many times is your life and let

> others live with their own.

For the record, I do not interfere with other people's lives. And I don't know you, and as far as I know you've never told me anything previously.

> To be very honest with you I am glad you are

> tracing somebody else for you. Has not work with

> many woman in the past

> but I really hope she will be tolerant enough with

> you.

I have no idea what you are talking about.

> I thought to post something today as I notice

> you seam a bit worry and I don't know why and for

> what.

Again, not at all worried. But thanks for your concern.

> I can't prevent you from doing something you have

> enjoy for many years and you still do.

> Yes don't

> buy the coats just buy the hats.(tu)

Again, no idea what you're talking about, sorry.

[The Nappy Lady]

Random post of the day award goes to Pamina.

LOL.

Saffron, I'm seriously relieved you replied as I thought I was going mad for a moment there.

[Smiler]

This thread warrants reviving for festive tales of parental oddity.

My mum put strange things in our Christmas stockings. We would wake up to find them at the end of the bed and were allowed to open them alone, which was the highlight of our Christmas day. I would open stuff and hear rustling coming from my brother's room, and we'd eat all the chocolate together at 5am. Every year there would be the standard stocking stuff: chocolate, little toys etc. And some practical items like socks and lip salve. Lovely.

But also random things like school maths equipment (including a pointy protractor (?) on which I pricked my finger); a glove that I'd lost months previously; cat toys (our cats having died ages before). But the weirdest was a cheese and pickle sandwich wrapped in tin-foil, then several layers of paper. It had been crammed in near the bottom and was all squashed and smelly.

When I complained she said I should be grateful it wasn't tuna-fish or egg!

[Smiler]

Hey Pickle, has the littlest pickle been for a ride on your Dad's truck yet?!

[Pickle]

:)) Not in NZ for Christmas this year, but I imagine littlest Pickle will be initiated into the anti-health & safety world that my Dad lives in as soon as we make it out there for a visit!

Which reminds me (not Xmas related)... first visit out with our eldest child when he was 3 months old, Mr Pickle and I went out for dinner. Mum had to pop out to work for a while leaving Dad in charge of sleeping baby. When we got home we found that the baby had stirred (and we had left instructions to pop a dummy in his mouth, which usually settled him again), and Dad had attended to him. He muttered something about the dummy being really hard to put in - turns out he'd left the big plastic cap on (it was one of the Avent ones) and attempted to shove it in his mouth!

When we were growing up Dad was a shift worker, meaning a lot of the child raising was left to Mum - possibly a good thing!

[Yak]

I am cringing as I type, and I don't know really why I'm sharing this on a public forum, but what the heck. My dad grows one of his thumbnails extra long in December for easy peeling of Christmas oranges and satsumas.

Nutter.

[Smiler]

Yak, that's quite grim, is it all curly and horrible? :))

[Strawbs]

This thread is bloody fantastic!! Thank you so much, I have belly laughed my whole way through!! X

[cuppa tea]

Yak Wrote:

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> I am cringing as I type, and I don't know really

> why I'm sharing this on a public forum, but what

> the heck. My dad grows one of his thumbnails extra

> long in December for easy peeling of Christmas

> oranges and satsumas.

>

> Nutter.

I know someone else's dad who does this with one of his fingernails, but for the very specific reason of being able to pick his nose! Disgusting yes?!!

[Yak]

Thank God it's not just my dad. He didn't grow it very long - about half an inch - so it acted like a fruit parer.

Please can someone else share some Christmas parental embarrassments?!? I'm sure there are plenty out there....

[hanstands]

I was aged ten and not a great sleeper. We were on a long haul flight to India and she gave me some of her prescription sleeping pills to help me sleep. Even with that though I still only managed twenty minutes...

[Fuschia]

My mum uses to let me stay up

Past 8pm to watch 'on the buses' but told me it had finished and packed me off tobed at 815 when the adverts started. It was only in later years I twigged, and reAlised why the plot never seemed to reach a denouement

[hanstands]

I remember lying in the back of my Dad's Renault van vomiting and in agony as I had a tummy bug and was off school. Dad was then a self employed joiner and carpenter and apparently neither he nor Mum could take time off their work to look after sick daughter. So there I was lying in a van full of woodshavings and nails all day puking up in linseed oil-esque buckets.

[anna_r]

My family and in laws (visiting from the US) were going round to my Dad's and stepmother's on Boxing Day this year to have a cold meats/leftovers/salads etc type of lunch. On the morning my dad informed me that he had cooked the turkey crown on Christmas Eve then put it outside in the shed in the spare fridge (which doesn't work) to keep it safe (as they were with my stepmothers family on Christmas Day). I expressed slight concern about meat being unrefrigerated for two days before being served to guests but he insisted it was cold outside and would be fine (um, 12 degrees, the exact danger range for food storage). I said I would bring some of our own (refrigerated) turkey for our 2 and 1 year old to eat as I was a bit worried about them getting food poisoning. He didn't mind and just kept saying I was overreacting, when he was young the turkey was left out on the kitchen counter for ages. I told my inlaws and husband who all went for the ham option instead (although I didn't enquire about its storage). It was made more difficult to understand given that the only reason the turkey didn't fit in the normal fridge was because that was full of wine!

[ClareC]

My parents sing to the Christmas pudding for as long as its alight (can be some time with the brandy my dad adds to it). As a child I thought it was entirely normal and everyone did it.

Apparently my mum thinks it's mad too but it's a family tradition from my dad's side!

The most amusing part is that my partner (and his family) and my sisters partner all happily join in like it's a normal occurrence. We had Christmas with my in laws this year, mil asked if I wanted them to sing to the pudding;)

[jollybaby]

Anna_r we had the exact same food hygiene issue at my mum's. Turkey cooked on Christmas eve then left in the oven until Boxing day. Mr JB coming from tropical Queensland was particularly shocked by this. Fortunately mum had had so much red wine by dinner that I don't think she noticed that he had a veggie dinner! I braved the meat and have lived to tell the tale.

To be truthful after this christmas I've decided that my mother is bonkers. We're not particularly rigid with miss JB's routine but I asked my mum if she could avoid serving Xmas dinner at bath/bedtime. Guess what time dinner arrived 6.30!! We had to nip out between courses. Christmas eve meal was served at 10pm! I think the time has come for us to start hosting Christmas.