General Chat

Do you remember as a child to stop 'showing off'? Or was it just my family?

Or not to be 'greedy'. I thought that one was an interesting concept, considering that I didn't overeat as a child but now I do.

I think these sentiments were left in the 70's?? I've never thought about being greedy, more about using food as a way of coping with emotional stress or sugar addiction.

Yes, you'd just be pleased with yourself at mastering riding your 2 wheeler with no hands or saying your 5 times table/reciting a poem and be practising to prove it to yourself and they'd say 'stop showing off'' as you say. Even jumping up and down a step while out with your parents could be 'showing off''.

You'd be told to take a cake, then told off for taking the biggest and that you were 'greedy'. You couldn't help that your favourite cake happened to be the biggest!! If you gobbled all your dinner down quickly you were 'greedy', yet if you left a morsel you were told that 'starving children in Africa would be glad of it'.

It could be hard to be doing the right thing as a child.

oh the memories of "showing off" :-D :-D :-D

Many a time to stop showing off and
trying my luck by saying I was full up
by leaving food on my plate but could manage
a slice of cake....it never worked..had to clear
my plate before I got cake.

Oh and always got a ticking off for chewing my hair :-(

I used to love to hop on one leg down my Grannies garden path, hop down the steps, and then back again. I remember one time as I hopped down the steps I fell over and grazed my knees, as I went into the kitchen my Auntie said "That'll teach you to show off".


:-D :-D

Yes, it definitely used to be when doing the hopping up and down steps type thing, or the odd handstand that brought it to mind.

Nowadays, parents are keener for their children to be seen as self-confident maybe. :-)

Perhaps after the war and rations it was difficult for parents to let go of the concept of more than the merest scrape of marge or whiff of jam on a slice of bread?

I think that I'm trying to work out when in these times when stores are bulging with goodies, where the so-called 'treats' of previous decades are so readily available, and at cheaper prices than staple foods, the idea of being 'greedy' for overeating on these foods seems to have been lost?? Or even that so-called 'sin' of greed isn't something that one often hears spoken nowadays.

If we like it we have it. If we don't, it's more to do with not gaining weight or watching our cholesterol levels than thinking it would be 'greedy' to have a second helping?

I can remember being told off for "showing off" and being greedy in the 40s and 50s!

The other phrase that was used sometimes was "stop bragging" ............. usually referring to saying something like I passed all my exams, or I got goos marks in my exams.


The '70s and '80s were different over here ....................

kids were encouraged to "show off' :-(

For example, kids under the age of about 10 taken to lunch/dinner with friends, eg Christmas or Thanksgiving ............ parents would say something like "Oh, Jennifer just happened to bring her violin with her, she'd love to play for you. Here you are Jennifer."

Daddy would put a chair in the centre of the room, Jennifer would play the violin ...... usually with excruciating noises

That really did happen to us at a Thanksgiving dinner, but with the girl playing a cello :-D

We knew another couple, second marriage and second family for the husband who was one of OH's senior colleagues. They would turn up to the departmental Christmas party with 3 kids in tow, then from when the eldest was about 5 .......... the 2 girls had to "entertain" the attendees with their Irish dancing. It went on sometimes for well over 30 minutes :-(

we used to call them "performing seal" :-D

It seemed to stop when the kids got to about 10 or 12 ............. maybe they exerted their independence and refused :-)


most definitely "showing off" in our parents eyes


I hasten to add that we never made our daughter be a "performing seal"

Gawd, yes handstands were a big no-no with my mum if I had a dress on and was flashing my knickers! 'It's not decent', she'd say!!

"whatever will the neighbours think?"



never go out with dirty or torn underwear on, you might get knocked down by a bus and "then where would you be?"

I got my hand smacked when I replied "my underwear would probably be even more dirty and torn" :-D

I grew up constantly hearing "what will the neighbours think" :-( :-P :-P

It made me very aware that some people will gossip about anyone and anything, and there's nothing you can do about it............ you know what the truth is, not the nosey neighbours.

If our neighbours thought about anything, it would have been how weird my father was :-D

"Look at the dirt behind your ears"!

"One more smart-aleck remark & you'll get a box around your ears".

lol Dermot

I remember my mother saying "look at the colour of your neck!" then she grabbed a flannel and started scrubbing. I was screaming, she was scrubbing so hard. After a few minutes she said ......... "Oh, it's not coming off, you must be tanned". :-(

Eat it nicely.

I think "showing off" carries on into adulthood for a lot of people.

I learnt at a very early age to keep my mouth shut when my mum was plaiting my long hair. One wrong word from me and my hair nearly came out of my head.

Can,t remember being told off for showing off but do remember the retort "show off" at times when I thought I was being very clever .

AS A WW2 kid we had to eat what was on the plate even into the 1950,s cos the starving children in Africa would be glad of it. Got a clip around the ear when I got a bit brave and said send it to them then !!!

Yes remember too being a greedy guts cos I took the most inviting cake .well I had lots of siblings and they would have done the same so guess we were all greedy guts

I also remember when eating being told not to speak
with my mouth full of food as it was rude.

"Take the spoon out of the cup before sipping your tea - and don't slurp like the dog."

'Don't speak with your mouth full' and 'take your elbows off the table'.

Oh :-D I can remember having a meal with friends, four of us adults and two children each when our male friend shouted (at his son) 'Take you elbows off the table' I jumped and quickly removed mine :-D

And yes, 'what will the neighbours say' was favourite in our house. Also when saying if I had got special praise for an essay or something Mum would call me a 'big head'. (She was not good with praise.)

Dirt behind ears 'you could grow potatoes there'.

Yes Ann, potatoes were referred to in our house too or if you had made a half hearted attempt to wash your neck, it was ' I can see the tidemark. You need to wash again'