What were you not allowed to do as a child because it 'wasn't nice'?

I wasn't allowed to wear nail polish or have my ears pierced, my father didn't approve.

Once I was married, I decided to get my ears pierced and then discovered I was pregnant a few days later.

My husband went into work and jokingly warned all his staff not to get their ears pierced, as the would fall pregnant, if they did.?

We were not allowed to show off. My brother is the world's worst show off now and mum was very proud of him.

I wasnt allowed to join Brownies as 'some village children' might be there.

I wasn't allowed to go out with a fireman!

All the above sound so familiar. Hat to church, no pierced ears etc. My brother wasn't allowed to attend a family wedding because he looked like Rasputin.

I remember going to France with the school at 16/17 and not being allowed to wear our hair out of bunches because we would look like prostitutes. Didn't stop us of course. All the teachers where too old to even know about such things, it seemed to us.

Beechnut

Same about the hair, longed for plaits, but had one of those haircuts you only ever saw on fifties children, with a ribbon to one side.

Not allowed to:
Play with the children from the council estate.

Go without vest and roll-on.

Do anything to help around the house without a pinny.

Tell anybody that we had fish and chips occasionally,
furtively sneaked out of the chippy in a shopping bag.

Wear pointed or high shoes for fear of bunions.

Refuse to wear old-fashioned paisley dress Mum made me for best.

Speak to the 'older' married neighbour who caused a scandal by being pregnant!

Tell anyone that my father was only a bank chief clerk and not a manager.

My mother was a terrible snob! To this day I have not worn a vest, roll-on or pinny!

I wasn’t allowed to have my ears pierced until I was about 16. My mother did not approve of one of my classmates but she allowed me to go to my friends for tea. She had a few brothers and sisters - I was an only child. ‘Tea’ consisted of a sliced loaf being passed round while we sat on the settee, looking at the tv, then margarine, then a pot of jam which we spread to make up our jam butty! At my house we always sat at the table to eat food. I can always remember thinking at the time, “Oh my goodness! If only my parents could see me now!” Just a bit of a culture shock at the time.

Not nice to say what? it must be I beg your pardon but not pardon me as that was common.
I think DM got her info from Nancy Mitford's book.
Not nice to speak before you were spoken to.
Later it was anything remotely fashionable. Men wearing winkle pickers were to be avoided.

We were not allowed to eat in the street, use 'bad' language even 'damm' and we were not allowed to play outside in the street only the garden on a Sunday.

The only thing I remember not be able to do was wear anything other than Clark’s shoes until I was about 14!

My parents didn’t actively ‘forbid’ anything, but strong disapproval had the same effect, on me at least.

Watch commercial television.

Read comics.

Wear shoes with ankle straps or peep toes. They would have said those were ‘common’ if they had ever used the word.

Using bad grammar, I remember getting a huge telling off for saying "them things" by both my parents instead of "those things" for example. Quite glad they pulled me up on that when I was young, it really makes me wince when I hear obviously bad grammar now.

My father was quite strict with our tv time when we were young and what we watched, so when he wasn't around loved to tune into "Crossroads" and "The Fugitive" my mother was more relaxed. He did allow us to watch "Thank your Lucky Stars" as a special treat at the week-ends, but would prefer us to watch more worthy wildlife/educational type programmes.

I think I had a lot of freedom as I grew up as far as my parents were concerned. except for Sundays, going to mass was non negotiable a complete must.

My convent school imposed loads of directives about what was "not naice" such as not wearing hat (boater in the summer) and white gloves in the street, not wearing patent shoes, knickers reflected in them apparently, unless you weren't wearing any , tampons were forbidden sanitary towels only, makeup (even very subtle) = common, eating in the street = very common, talking to boys = debauched, the list was endless!

Language: we were not allowed to say ‘pardon’, either, Gramaretto. ‘What did you say?’ was acceptable, rather than’What?’, but the preferred word was ‘Sorry?’

‘Toilet’ was also not allowed - had to be ‘lavatory’. There was a general disapproval of genteelisms.

I never heard any swearing beyond damn, blast and bloody.

My sister had a massive battle with my father to get her ears pierced.

He went quite ballistic about it.

I never wanted mine done so no war with me.

Weird thing is neither of my adult daughters have had them done either.

I wasn't allowed to eat in the street either. Not that I wanted to

Nor was I allowed to play in the road. But I didn't want to do that so nothing traumatic really

Oh, my Grandma didn't want me to sing O Bla Di O Bla Da either. Said it sounded like I was swearing

I still sang it though

Not allowed to have long hair. I remember DM cutting my hair herself, and smacking me every time I cried.
Not allowed to play out on a Sunday, or do anything other than read or go to church.
Not allowed to go without a vest or cardigan. If we had a school choir concert and it was no cardigans just blouses, I had to wear mine underneath my blouse.
No elbows on the table.
No jelly or cake unless we ate our bread and butter first at Sunday teatime.
Not allowed to choose my own clothes till I got a holiday job at 15 and could spend my own money.
Not allowed to go out in the evening, as girls who did that were 'common' and not nice.
Not allowed to disagree with DM - if we did, it was called 'answering back,'

Ooh and another thing, not really anything to do with the question, but the children who lived next door but one had a bath every day and often didn't have their Sunday dinner until mid-afternoon, and DM used to call them weird and 'proper Bohemians'. She did not approve of them. Thought they were up themselves as their DF was a teacher and they had a car.(Almost the only one on the estate).

I was born in '61, which perhaps is why my own childhood was much less controlled.

Apart from being told not to show off (I was a self-conscious child with little confidence and grew into a very introverted teenager, so 'showing off' was hardly my thing anyway - a bit more of it might have been good for me!), the only things I remember being not to do were those that impacted on other people, such as making noise outside after dark, or putting feet on seats. Those things seemed perfectly reasonable to me, so I readily complied, and still get annoyed nowadays when people these things.

Rules about clothing weren't needed, because I had no interest in clothes and was happy to wear whatever my mum put out for me that day, which always seemed suitable for whatever I was doing.
That said, she was - and still is - much more interested I fashion than me, so my clothes were always up-to-date too.

Wow, my list will be long, I must give it some thought.

But yes not allowed to " show off" ( horrible really)

not allowed to play out on Sundays

not allowed to eat whilst out and one that amuses me...

not allowed to mention a shop if you were browsing in another shop. We asked to be shown the boring checked skirt or whatever it was, mum would take a good look and we would move on to the next department store.

I should add that I didn’t hear damn, blast or bloody from my parents. They never swore at all. I came across the words when reading.

I didn’t know the f-word or equivalents until I read Lady Chatterley at the age of 18 or so. Because it was completely unfamiliar it didn’t shock me. Why should it? Who decides?

I loved Jake Thackeray too Luckygirl but I was grown up by then so I could listen to him without being told off.
Lots of restrictions around Sundays I remember. No playing games, no shopping, chapel three times always wearing gloves. Young people allowed to go for a walk in the afternoon but had to be home in time for tea.
There were a lot of restrictions but conversely we had a lot of freedom in other ways as Dora said.

I wasn’t allowed to have pierced ears, and in my mother’s opinion the following things are common and therefore I wasn’t allowed to, wear flip flops, eat while walking in the street, raise my voice to have conversation with someone else on the other side of the house, eat coleslaw (my mother referred to it as ‘white trash’ salad, the list goes on....

I can only think of 3 things that I was told not to do.
Don't tell Mrs Hobbs ( the Salvation Army lady that looked after us) that we went to Saturday morning and afternoon pictures, or, that we went to the working men's club Saturday night.
Don't play with the boys when my periods started.

As we got older, 13/14? Told not to play with Janis. In fairness to my mum, Janis did have 2 children before she left school ? But I ignored my mum because Janis was so much fun ?

Roughly 'all of the above' really (as Mum had OCD and a personality disorder). She demanded all of the attention so we were never to interrupt.

The worst thing was not being allowed to 'get down' from the dinner table without permission. Oh, the hours spent there, waiting while she held court, listening to the mind-numbingly boring little details of her day, the tales of how she'd got the better of a shop assistant, got a discount, put someone right about their attitude or opinions - it was all about winning (putting others down to gain status - in her twisted mind).

I'd sit there yawning away with my siblings, watching my poor Dad trying to appear interested and paying attention until, at last, we were released from the agony!

We were not allowed to play with the 'wrong' kids from the other (not posh) side of the tracks or ever be anything like her (she was very vain, attention seeking) - in fact, we were to be but quiet little shadows. Of course, when out of sight, we took no notice!

I wasn't allowed to get my ears pierced either but went ahead anyway when I was about 14 (always a rebel!) My teacher called me a tart and a gypsy - imagine that now!

I was always told it was rude to point

No eating in the street (or smoking when I was older)

No swearing. I wasn't even allowed to say bonkers!

Couldn't call for friends to play on a Sunday

Not allowed knee length white socks...they were “common”?
Not showing off went along with not being praised or cuddled which has left me well known for putting myself down...and I tell my C and GC how wonderful they are and cuddle them constantly

We would get a right rollicking from our Dad if we made a noise walking about upstairs. And also for not wearing slippers in the house, as "Mummy has to wash and iron those socks". He gave me a belting once but I can't remember what for. It was a given that we spoke nicely, didn't swear, and didn't say "different to".