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.

Anonymous wrote:When we went on vacations, my parents didn't want to spend money on alcohol in restaurants, so they'd split a can of beer from a cooler while in the car in front of the restaurant.

Clearly, not horribly embarrassing, but when you're 12 or 13 and seeing people in the parking lot looking in the car windows, waiting for them to finish that beer seemed like it took forever.

My dad would (tbh prob still does) drink a single beer on the way to the restaurant whenever we went out to eat for the same reason. He’s had one beer a day, just before dinner, for 40 years. Rationally I know one beer doesn’t make you drunk but my siblings and I were so horrified when we got old enough to realize what he was doing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother would sing along with whatever music was playing in any of the stores we visited. Now, that would be bad enough, but she didn't just sing the song as the singer had. She would harmonize. And it wasn't quiet. Everyone around us heard and stared.

I'm the dad version of your mom. And while I'm the best singer in the family, I'm not good, just really enthusiastic. At Church my kids keep elbowing me to sing softer...

My FIL was the same. He would sing so loud and embarrass my husband and his siblings. Then he started cracking jokes about how the choir “asked him to sing a ‘solo’ … so low they couldn’t hear him.” He was always telling corny jokes like that. I miss him.

Anonymous wrote:Not parents, but one day DW and I were in Costco in the area near the pharmacy. I was at one end of the aisle and she was towards the other end. I held a Costco-sized box of Depends above my head and asked her, in a slightly raised voice, if these were the right Depends she needed.

A black guy in the aisle couldn't help but snicker.

Plot twist: She doesn't use Depends.

Who cares that the guy was black? That’s such a weird detail to include in your story.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not parents, but one day DW and I were in Costco in the area near the pharmacy. I was at one end of the aisle and she was towards the other end. I held a Costco-sized box of Depends above my head and asked her, in a slightly raised voice, if these were the right Depends she needed.

A black guy in the aisle couldn't help but snicker.

Plot twist: She doesn't use Depends.

Plot twist: The fact that the guy in the aisle is black is completely irrelevant. You're one of those people. Lovely.

+1

My DH wears Depends sometimes because of a neurological chronic illness. No shame in that.

My mom (who is a doctor and Sunday school teacher, very much not a stoner) singing loudly along w Bob Dylan during middle school carpool “everybody must get stoned!”

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...."

Hahaha

Anonymous wrote:My mom had a joke about my being the youngest in the family that she would repeatedly tell to teachers, other parents, etc. when I was about 13, I finally told her I found the joke really embarrassing belittling, etc.. So then she would always follow the joke with “She hates it when I tell that! She thinks it’s embarrassing!” She’s generally a good mom so I try to forget that.

What’s the joke?

My mom had a joke about my being the youngest in the family that she would repeatedly tell to teachers, other parents, etc. when I was about 13, I finally told her I found the joke really embarrassing belittling, etc.. So then she would always follow the joke with “She hates it when I tell that! She thinks it’s embarrassing!” She’s generally a good mom so I try to forget that.

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...."

Most of the usual, humming or singing, actually just walking next to me and breathing used to bother me.

But the big ones, was when she was commenting to my best friend's mother about women having plastic surgery and how it is all about vanity and completely unnecessary. Little did she know, because I never said anything, that my best friend's mom had just had her eyes done 2 months prior. I wished the ground could have swallowed me whole

My mom was pretty introverted and socially awkward so while social interactions were rare, they were almost universally embarrassing. If one mom (say at Girl Scouts during pick up) would mention their daughter was going to do something my mom disapproved of, my mom would say "no daughter of mine would ever xyzzy" in a totally sanctimonious way. I hated it. I could never figure out why she couldn't just stay quiet or if were an invitation just say no thank you.

Anonymous wrote:It seems like all this embarrassment has to do with money and status.

What are you doing to break this cycle?

Most of these seem to be about parents singing/dancing in public or wearing funny things. Nothing to do with "money and status."

I wanted my 1st bra. She took me to Woolworths and held the cup of the bra to my chest to see if it would fit. I was so embarrassed.

It seems like all this embarrassment has to do with money and status.

What are you doing to break this cycle?