What was your most hated chore as a child?

I was very lucky - I’d no chores to do apart from going to the corner shop and local Coop fairly regularly. It was a trial though - I had to speak up about my mam saying she doesn’t want bruised apples/fatty bacon/broken biscuits…. If anything didn’t pass muster I’d to go straight back with it. So embarrassing but probably character building!

I did used to collect sea coal from the beach with my dad and make it into paper parcels for the coal fire, but I chose to do that as I loved being with him. And when we lived in a Workingmen’s Club I had various jobs for which I was paid handsomely - stocking shelves behind the bar, heating and dishing up the pie and peas orders from our adjoining house etc. Probably not ideal for a junior school child in there on her own, but I loved the responsibility and the pocket money!

Mashing my baby sister's food with a fork when she was being weaned. It took ages to get it to a fine pulp and my hands and wrists ached for ages afterwards. No liquidisers in our house back in the 60's!!!!

There were 2 chores I hated more than all the others.

Getting the rugs out onto the washing line and beating them with the carpet beater.

Coming back from the corner shop with those shopping bags with string handles - especially in winter with no gloves.

I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't have to do anything.

I've only read a few and I'm saving it for later. Great thread thanks *littleflo.

I can remember we three children had to wash up after Sunday afternoon tea. I used to wash and my brother and sister, both younger, would dry and put away.
Over time my brother and I twigged that our sister had started to always "need the toilet," and would then come sauntering in just as we'd finished. Good avoidance tactic...
So one Sunday we decided to wait, then when she reappeared we said, "Oh, as you're here now we'll get started."
Her face was a picture, and she actually said, "I thought you'd be finished by now" !!

Georgesgran
Same as you an 'only' and at the age of twelve given the job of weekend fruit and veg shopping at our local farmers'market.

I am one of three but we weren't expected to do a great deal of house work. We often set the table for tea and after a meal we washed up. Mum would say " one wash , one dry and one put away" Kate 1949 we burnt coke too, it was kept in the cellar , occasionally I would be asked to bring some up for the fire - I was never very happy going down the stone steps for coke !

I’ve split up my answers so as not to engage in a misery fest.

Daily bed-making meant stripping the wet sheet off the bed (sometimes all four of us slept in one small double bed - boys’ heads at the bottom, girls’ at the top) and put the sheets in to soak. My sister wet the bed every night until she was thirteen and my youngest brother also wet the bed very often. When the mattress had been turned (by us children) we had to make the beds. On Saturdays my stepfather used to turn his bedding down to expose the sheet (after we’d made the bed) and there was always a wrinkle in the bottom sheet - it had a feather mattress - then he’d literally pull the whole mattress off the bed and tell us to re-make it. We used to think he had X-ray eyes because he always found a wrinkle, even when we were certain there wasn’t one. Like I said, he was cruel.

My Granny loved brass. She had loads of it and my heart would sink when I visited her to see the kitchen table covered with newspaper and all her brass ornaments laid out on it. The worst thing to clean was a bell shaped like a lady in a crinoline. There were so many folds in her skirt and I was never quick enough to rub Brasso over it, rubbing it into the folds with an old toothbrush and then polishing it before the Brasso dried.

4 of us and me the eldest, we had to sort the kitchen each night, i hated washing dishes as i don't like the feel of hot soapy water, after dishes i had to sweep and wash the floor. only other job was to light the fire when i got in from school, but i loved that as i love the smell of firelighters (they don't smell the same now). some so called chores i was happy to do, like turn the wringer when mum washed the clothes in the sink...lol.

As an only child I had to do all the chores on my own. I remember having to ‘wash the pots’ (I found out from my Southern husband that this is a Northern phrase). As I’m small I had to drag a stool to reach the taps, so must have only been about six. Weeding, going to the shops, filling the coal scuttle, filling the coke boiler, taking out the ashes and setting the fire then lighting it with a gas poker!! Laying the table, clearing the table. My mum worked nights as a nurse, so when I came home from school she would be in bed so I had to make myself a drink and something to eat.

All water under the bridge Auntiflo, what doesn't break you makes you stronger!

Oh Chewbacca, your poor fingers, and having to pay for a replacement, cruel.
I suppose I had some chores, but I don't really remember now.

What a brilliant thread OP - I’ve really enjoyed reading these, it’s been a great trip down memory lane. Thank you !

Whiting my tennis shoes,

I hated having to fill the coal scuttle from the coal shed which was a walk away from the house. It was particularly bad after dark as the feral cats that lived in the woods near our house could get in.
When I opened the door they would leap out with shriek and scare the living daylights out of me. They were black so not easy to spot in amongst the coal.

My sister and I had to go round almost the entire house each Saturday morning to do the wretched dusting and polishing. One of us had the applying duster (lavender polish in a flat round tin) and the other had to buff. Also, we had to use that horrible pink stuff on mirrors - Windolene. The 'buffer' had the rough end of the wedge as it were, while the applier had the easier bit. We swapped over a couple of times as the buffer got fed up.

Elder brother didn't do this as he was at work, younger bro' didn't as he was a little too young, also implied that it was because 'he was a boy.' He'd be sent out on an errand sometimes and he got to keep the change (never refused, Mum said - was that the reason why?)

Did it give me a sense of responsibility towards household tasks? No, it didn't. To this day I loathe dusting and ignore it until it absolutely must be dealt with.

Worst chore! Not having a home telephone, I had to go to the village phone box to ring Grandma to see if she was visiting that week. Always, once in that box, needed the loo. Then had to gallop home. ?

My sister & I never did any chores. My mother used to say she wanted us out from under her feet. I never made my kids do any either. I think childhood is the only time in your life that you don't have any responsibilities and you should be allowed to enjoy it.

Oh forgot as well as occasional trips to the corner shop, I did pod peas, I was often given that task, but I know I enjoyed it, and being summer I sat in the garden whilst I was doing it. I think I remember scavenging about for a blackberry or two whilst I was out there later in the year any I managed to collect went into a pie with apples. .......and I did a bit of sheet folding with my mum too. Not a lot in the great scheme of things.

Ooh, too many to count!
Washing the bathroom floor on my hands and knees with a bucket and cloth.
Peeling potatoes - 1 used to get shouted at as I peeled them too thickly.
We had carpet in the front room, not fitted, but with a border of lino - my job was to dust the lino, on hands and knees again, no mop.
Going to queue at the local factory shop (it was a bacon factory) for animal innards for the cat.
Helping mother fold the sheets, as I invariably dropped my end and got shouted at again.

Did not visit any of these horrors on my own DC!

Don't know what happened there! I really like lighting the coal fire in the morning.

Brushing down the stairs my hated job so dusty I like

I don't remember being given any specific jobs, I was occasionally asked to go to the corner shop, I seem to remember bringing back a brick of ice cream on a hot day, which the shop wrapped in newspaper and it was somewhat partially melted by the time I got it home, still delicious though!