Weird stuff our parents or grandparents said or believed (sister, grandmother, girls)
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I firmly believe that most of the beliefs about women not doing certain things during their menses were started by our many-many-great-grandmothers so that they'd have a couple days a month to just sit around. Think about it....
Can't cook because it might poison the food? OK
Can't work in the field because the crop might die? OK
Can't grind corn or parch wheat because it might get contaminated? OK
Can't sleep with your husband? Okaaaayyyy!
Might as well wander over to the Womens' Hut and sit around gossiping with the other ladies. Talk about the husbands for a while. Swap recipes. Braid each other's hair. Sounds like a huge sacrifice to me....
My grandmother thought seatbelts were dangerous. She thought it was safer to be ejected from a vehicle in an accident than to be restrained by a belt.
My mother told me tampons caused Toxic Shock Syndrome and were dangerous, and she didn't allow me to use them. (I suppose this may have been true in rare circumstances.)
Great thread idea Truckwife
My gosh, heard so many weird stuff from my mom growing up! For exemple, she used to tell me not to walk on the cold floor barefoot, because it would give me "extra" pain when I would be in child labor in the future...
Location: Foothills of Maryland Blue Ridge mountains
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chiluvr1228
My grandmother believed using tampons would cause early menopause and that it was dangerous to take a bath/shower more than once a week. She would only wash her hair once a month (thank goodness it was dry) because she was afraid the hair color, which was permanent, not semi-permanent would wash out quicker.
My mother in law is 99. She was raised in a strict German family in Philadelphia surrounded by other strict German neighbors. It was an insular, patriarchal life that wasn't unusual back then. She still clings to some very old beliefs.
To this day she thinks it is unhealthy to bathe more than twice a week. For most of her life she got her hair done weekly and that was it. She has never, ever taken a shower. She refuses and is sponge bathed in the assisted living facility.
She was taught that food prepared outside the home will make you ill. So she's never been able to really relax in a restaurant or enjoys someone else's cooking. She won't eat any Italian, Asian, Mexican, etc. food. I've always felt sorry for her. But on the plus side, I've enjoyed some outstanding German food over the years.
My grandfather used to say "my dogs are barking" when his feet hurt.
My other grandmother, who's first language was Yiddish, in response to hearing something "Should be or if she would only..." had a saying that translated to "If your grandmother had them, she'd be your grandfather"!
Same grandmother, when she found me cutting my own hair with scissors, told me one of my aunts did that as a child, and my grandmother took that child and had her head shaved as punishment. I believed it for years!
Same grandmother's two younger daughters share the same birthday, 2 years apart. She once said that she carried the younger daughter for 2 years, and being a naïve little kid, I believed it!
My mother in law is 99. She was raised in a strict German family in Philadelphia surrounded by other strict German neighbors. It was an insular, patriarchal life that wasn't unusual back then. She still clings to some very old beliefs.
To this day she thinks it is unhealthy to bathe more than twice a week. For most of her life she got her hair done weekly and that was it. She has never, ever taken a shower. She refuses and is sponge bathed in the assisted living facility.
She was taught that food prepared outside the home will make you ill. So she's never been able to really relax in a restaurant or enjoys someone else's cooking. She won't eat any Italian, Asian, Mexican, etc. food. I've always felt sorry for her. But on the plus side, I've enjoyed some outstanding German food over the years.
A man I used to work with, his mother in law lived her whole life in a rural farm area in Germany. When the family was installing indoor plumbing, she flatly refused permission to install a toilet. "S**t in the house, are you crazy"?!?, was her outraged response. They installed the pipes and covered it all up until after she died, then installed a toilet.
My mother in law is 99. She was raised in a strict German family in Philadelphia surrounded by other strict German neighbors. It was an insular, patriarchal life that wasn't unusual back then. She still clings to some very old beliefs.
To this day she thinks it is unhealthy to bathe more than twice a week. For most of her life she got her hair done weekly and that was it. She has never, ever taken a shower. She refuses and is sponge bathed in the assisted living facility.
She was taught that food prepared outside the home will make you ill. So she's never been able to really relax in a restaurant or enjoys someone else's cooking. She won't eat any Italian, Asian, Mexican, etc. food. I've always felt sorry for her. But on the plus side, I've enjoyed some outstanding German food over the years.
A man I used to work with, his mother in law lived her whole life in a rural farm area in Germany. When the family was installing indoor plumbing, she flatly refused permission to install a toilet. "S**t in the house, are you crazy"?!?, was her outraged response. They installed the pipes and covered it all up until after she died, then installed a toilet.
My great-grandfather absolutely refused to use the indoor toilet when it was first installed on the farm. He went a good two years before he started using it, but then only in the worst weather. Otherwise, it was out to the outhouse for him. He always said, "It's an OUThouse.....it's supposed to be outside!"
I just remember I heard my great-grandmother tell one of us many years not to whistle on a Sunday. Bless her heart.
Also, a family friend's dad believed that if his daughter's hair got combed past 6pm, "she wouldn't do good in school" the next day. Whew. (To this day, I feel kind of sorry for the old guy.)
Have your parents or grandparents ever said something that made you want to scratch your head and say "huh?"
Oh, I have some good ones!
"Sing before breakfast, cry before supper" Thing of this in a New England accent - like "Sumtimes dead is betah" (Pet Semetary" - Stephan King's book and novel.
"Don't cut off your nose to spite your face"
"When I was keepin' company with him....
"They surely are livin' high on the hog"
"This place is like the Collyer brothers" - big time hoarders from NYC. Langley and Homer_
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