Embarrassing things our parents did when we were growing up

[Anonymous]

White New Balances. Enough said

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom is a terrible singer. It's very strange how she "sings." She is wayyyyy off key, off rhythm, and her volume rises at illogical places.

I used to feel SO embarrassed when she'd sing during Catholic mass. Even now if she starts singing along to a random song I cringe.

She is also really "off" when it comes to some things. For example, a cousin said her daughter was taking hip hop dance classes. My mom repeatedly, over and over, mimicked this weird dance that was mostly pointing her fingers, while asking "hip hop, I've seen that on tv, like this?" And the cousin was just bewildered, while I kept saying "Mom, no, that's not it... No mom... Stop... She doesn't know what you're doing...."

This cracks me up. I can picture her dancing!

[Anonymous]

Embarrassing things my parents did when I was a teen:

Drop me off in front of the movie theater, not around the corner.
Walk next to me in public places.
Talk to my friends.
Come in the bar to get me when I didn’t come outside at midnight (grew up in Europe).

[Anonymous]

My mom had a musical horn installed on our Ford Explorer - the kind that plays a whole song at semi truck volume when you honk - and played it every time she pulled up to get us from school.

I’m a parent now. Embarrassing your kids is so awesome. Good job, mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom used to wear an umbrella hat to soccer games in the 80s.


https://www.walmart.com/ip/4-Pack-Rainbow-Umbrella-Hat-Cap-Hands-Free-with-Head-Strap-for-Sun-Rain/845548740

Do you see this now as a sweet memory? My dad wrore that hat with a straw and hung 2 soda cans on it. It was hot and my games were long. He also probably did it just because he knew it would embarrass me. Now I think back so fondly. He died of skin cancer a few years back, all those years sitting in the sun watching me play. Whenever the guilt starts to creep in, I look at his stupid hat and smile. My dad loved me.

Aaaww. That's sweet. I can see how that would have been embarassing back then. And really nostalgic and sweet now.

When I was 12 we moved from a big city to a small crappy southern town. My dad used to come to my games wearing a suit, straight from the office. Totally blue collar town, nobody's parents wore suits to work. Everyone always stared. I found it embarrasing that he didn't change. Now I'm just glad that I never told him that.

PP w/ dad in a suit triggered this memory:

I was 8 and we moved mid year 1977 to a rural *factory/company* town in the Midwest. My dad was a gray haired military officer who out of uniform dressed like a nerd: heavy black plastic glasses, polyester dress pants, loafers, dress shirt under a dark sweater.

My dad had to go to the local high school maybe to register my sister and I stayed in the car with another sibling. My dad parked our car in the side corner parking lot during school. Boys were hanging out of an open window and saw him get out of the car and they kind of cat called and jeered. I don't think my dad noticed or heard but I saw the whole thing. The boys continued to laugh about him and point for a few minutes. My sibling and I sat in stunned silence.
I remember feeling overwhelming embarrassment. Then my dad attended some school function and the kids thought he was my grandfather...

[Anonymous]

My dad got a hideous Hawaiian shirt to wear on special occasions. It had hula girls and triceratops trying to eat them up. My little brothers thought it was the greatest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our family vacations consisted of riding our bikes and hiking around revolutionary and civil war battlefields - usually in 90 degree heat. The Aberdeen proving ground ordinance museum was a favorite day trip. Then my sibling and I had to sit on (what felt like) every single cannon to get our picture taken, and passers-by were enlisted to take family pics. Approximately 50% of our family photos feature a cannon. I found this all excruciating when I was a teenager.

Haha our family vacations were like this too for a couple years, except minus the cannon obsession. I think we have a couple of those but mostly it's the kids perched on a rock at Little Round Top or whatever. I think we hit every site within a 10 hour driving radius of Philadelphia. And this was back in the day when you could get a recorded guide on tape so they'd pop the tape in the player and blast the commentary with the windows down. Now my kids don't even know what tapes are, and barely recognize a CD ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our family vacations consisted of riding our bikes and hiking around revolutionary and civil war battlefields - usually in 90 degree heat. The Aberdeen proving ground ordinance museum was a favorite day trip. Then my sibling and I had to sit on (what felt like) every single cannon to get our picture taken, and passers-by were enlisted to take family pics. Approximately 50% of our family photos feature a cannon. I found this all excruciating when I was a teenager.

This!

[Anonymous]

My parents were the obsessive money savers that DCUM raves about. Consequently I was always dressed in old clothes from Goodwill. Not hip when I grew up.

[Anonymous]

From above: some of it was elderly Chanel which grew into kind of a cool look eventually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Embarrassing things my parents did when I was a teen:

Drop me off in front of the movie theater, not around the corner.
Walk next to me in public places.
Talk to my friends.
Come in the bar to get me when I didn’t come outside at midnight (grew up in Europe).

My parents did this one time when we were on vacation in Ireland. I was 18, so had never been to a bar like that before (just to walk in, sit down and order a beer). I was with a friend, small village, local older guys were chatting us up. Then my parents walked in and my mom loudly gasped and said "people will think you're loose!"

Mortifying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dad got a hideous Hawaiian shirt to wear on special occasions. It had hula girls and triceratops trying to eat them up. My little brothers thought it was the greatest.

That sounds amazing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dad got a hideous Hawaiian shirt to wear on special occasions. It had hula girls and triceratops trying to eat them up. My little brothers thought it was the greatest.

That sounds amazing

It really was. I wish he still had it. But triceratops is a vegetarian and the obvious incorrectness of it embarrassed me when I was 7.

[Anonymous]

My parents embarrass me more now. They’ve seemed to have lost their filters. They like to talk about people in public loudly and they think others can’t hear them. It’s seriously embarrassing and we’ve talked to them so many times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mom gave me and my siblings rhyming names and dressed us in matching outfits for every holiday.

We're you triplets?
Sam, Pam, Cam?
Rex, Tex, Bex?
Jane, Layne, Cain?
I would imagine past say the age of 7 you would have rebelled and not worn matching outfits