What was your most hated chore as a child?

I had to do some chores but they were suitable for children (apart from the dreaded silver cleaning) and it wasn't until I was older that I realised how hard my Mum worked to keep the house spick and span, us all fed well and clothed in clean clothes, Dad keeping the garden in order providing us with homegrown veg (and he could cook), cleaning our shoes etc. As well as both working.

I didn’t enjoy having to take a bucket to a local field to collect horse poo for the garden!

mokryna

Hated sweeping the stairs, I am asthmatic but in those days it wasn’t recognized. My brother being a boy didn’t do anything.

One of the reasons I didn’t do many household chores was, my mother said, because she couldn’t persuade my brother to do any, and she wasn’t having me doing things just because I was a girl.

When my dad used to light the open fire (where you would put the shovel up and a piece of paper) and he would then say "keep your eye on it whilst I go toilet" only to my HORROR!! I would see the little brown mark appearing! next min the paper would be alight, I would be petrified!

There was no stopping it! once it started and he would come down and crack me across the head many a time.

There was no stopping it! once it started and he would come down and crack me across the head many a time.
bikergran I feel so upset for you.

I am sure I lived in a show home because it was always immaculate with nothing out of place. My mother worked and had one day off a month. She did almost everything in the house because she could do it quicker and better than me. It was my dad's job to look after the 1/4 of an acre we had and he loathed gardening. I used to help with mowing the 3 lawns.

I do not know if what she would say if she saw my house now- probably faint.

Drying the dishes each night. It was always me who dropped them.

Lugging the heavy paraffin container back from the shops only to be told to go to the shops again for something else.

I didn’t have any chores but I liked helping my Nan preparing things for cooking, and shopping with her and cleaning her copper bits but they weren’t chores

I didn’t really have chores apart from running the odd errand, though when I was about 14 my mum paid me to cook the evening meal as she didn’t get back from work till 6.

I used to have to wash the dishes with a horrible slimy dishcloth my mother had soaked in Domestos the Night before .Uggh

On Saturdays I was often left in charge of the house and four of my younger siblings while my mum went to work. I had a ten shilling note to buy food for the weekend (always a roast on Sunday) and instructions to have the house clean for when my mum got back.

Until I was 13 and she was 15 I shared the responsibility with my older sister, but then she got a Saturday job and it was down to me to shop, cook and clean with sisters of 2, 4 and 6 years old to look after and my 11 year old brother to ‘help’. I hated those Saturdays.

I was one of 6, we none of us had chores but I did love to turn the mangle for my mother. We moved abroad when I was 11 so we had someone to do most of the chores for us. Then when I got married it was back to earth with a bump!

It was my job to dry the dishes. My sister washed. My brother did nothing.
I felt resentful when I was meeting a friend to go to the cinema and because I had to dry the dishes I missed the bus, was late and missed the film. When I asked if my brother could do them for once I was told no as he was a boy.

My mother had inherited her own mother's collection of brasses - plates, jugs etc. About once a month these "had" to be cleaned to keep them shiny. We had to use this stuff in a tin, I think it was called Brasso, felt like gritty cotton wool. We had to rub the polish all over the brasses, then buff it all up with a duster. Needless to say, we had no gloves to wear to protect out hands! I absolutely hated that job, and once my mother died, all the brass stuff went straight to the charity shop!

Lived with granny as a child and never had any chores as such. Only things I can remember being asked to do were write a note for the window saying "Fresh cut flowers 1/6 a bunch." Also watching the cat with baby chicks in the grate keeping warm in winter while she cooked tea. She bred chickens and grew dahlias to sell. Cat never touched them and just slept

Never had to do any chores but I used to like doing certain things-washing the hearth and cleaning the ‘silver’ with Duraglit(?). I hate housework now apart from ironing.

Kate1949 So did I !! - wonder if it was the same gas works ! why we used an old pram I'll never remember.!

I didn’t have a worst job. But my favourite job was doing the ironing on Sunday morning for our family of 7.
If I had been naughty I was NOT allowed to do it. I was always well behaved at the weekend so I could do it.

I was one of six kids one boy.five girls varying ages from 1.- 20 By time I came along. So my mum had a very long time bringing up young ones. We didn't have any chores. Whatever we did like washing dads car e tc.usually involved us getting a sixpence each me and my older sister we popped shops occasionally or the chippy on weds . We were lucky really . I don't know how mum coped with us all and she worked evenings as well . Life wasn't easy I remember the cooker went wrong and wasn't able replace. And the washing machine twin tub. She just struggled on . I wish I could have helped out financially. She died when I was 26. Sadly.

Cleaning the porridge pot! And for my aunt, washing her nylons. They were never clean enough no matter how much “elbow grease” I used?. I love my aunt still but I’d tell her to wash her own stockings now!

My mum never gave me chores or made me do anything, though I did actually like to help with some things. Made me feel grown up to be doing what I thought of as grown up jobs.

Looking back, all of them; my brother didn't have to do any because he was a boy

I loved doing all sorts of little things to help out and didn't hate doing any of them. I absolutly loved cleaning the brasses. Guess I just liked being helpful. Hope that doesn't make weird!

I too hated having to clean out the ashes from the living room fireplace then dusting and then having to clean the carpet with dustpan and brush.