Do you still follow old routines your parents did years ago ??

The one that really sticks in my mind was Monday wash day. Come what may the laundry was always done on that day. How I hated all the washing drying round the fire on the clothes horse and up above on the pulley.
We always had cold meat left over from Sunday's roast on Monday as well.

I don’t follow my (undomesticated) mother’s routines, although she used to suggest I needed one, bless her.

She mopped the postage size kitchen floor every day, knitted or sewed in the evening and baked at the weekend, but I can’t remember any other routine.

I try to remember my grandmother’s saying “Do the thing you don’t want to do first of all”.

Definitely washing on Monday until the washing machine came whereas I do it as required.
Mum had a very rigid weekly routine for meals, even seven different breakfasts! DH liked a meals routine too, though some days were flexible. Always a roast on Sunday. Fish on Tuesday and Friday.
Each day was full of Mum’s routines and little rituals which I don’t follow.
When I worked I did household chores on a Saturday and still do, eg change the bed, hoover upstairs, unless I am out for the day, when I do chores on Friday.

My mother did house work in the morning only.Afternoons were for visits, sewing, knitting etc. I still find it difficult to sit down in the morning. I should be dusting, polishing , ironing etc.

I suspect my mother had routines - although she worked outside the home as well as in it - but I’ve no idea what they were, and I wouldn’t copy them anyway.

I was brought up in the tropics and we had servants, soi have no idea what routine they had.
I’ve changed mine depending on circumstances. Now I rearrange dust when I feel like it, do the laundry when I have a free day, etc.
DH liked fish on Friday so I gave it to him, not because we were RC, just because his mum used to do it.

I suppose if you always have the same meal on the same day it helps you to work out what day it is! 😁

Always fish on a Friday here too, in my childhood I think it was because that was the day the wet fish man called. Now it’s because my husband is Catholic.

The only set meal we had when I was a child was fish on a Friday. My Mum stuck with her Irish Catholic upbringing and Friday was a no meat day. My maternal grandfather only had bread and water on Fridays.

I was thinking just yesterday “what would Mum say if she saw me doing this? My ironing board fell over about 18 months ago and the legs came off. I use it so rarely I disposed of the legs and just use the top of it on the bed when I need it. I’m determined not to replace it 😆

I don’t remember my Mum having any particular routine.
I don’t other than clubs and groups I belong to. Housework tasks get done when required .
The thought of having the same meal on same day each week is totally alien to me.

I was never a herd animal as a child and I certainly didn’t turn into one as an adult irrespective of how my parents did things.

I don’t remember many fixed routines except my Dad used to make a cooked breakfast if he was home on Sundays, he used to travel abroad. Mum had sporadic p/t work doing market research.
No real routines here, washing is done when the basket is full, I plan meals a few days ahead, but like tonight, we’re going out after an invite came, nothing is fixed. I spend hardly any time at the shops as my Mum and Dad did, everything is delivered. Housework gets done as required, only our ensuite and cloakroom toilet are done every day.
So, to answer paris123, no, I (we) don’t.

I don’t think I do - my mum is quite unconventional, so we never had a fixed menu apart from often having a roast dinner in the evening on Sundays. She would often experiment with Elizabeth David recipes, some of which we liked, some we didn’t. We very often had stewed fruit for dessert though, which I don’t.
She always did a massive twin tub wash on a Sunday morning, looking back maybe she was rebelling against religion as she’s a non believer. That was our clue to make ourselves scarce as she was always hot and cross. My mum wasn’t interested in housework at all, I can’t remember her having a routine - she did it, so the house was clean, but never set jobs on set days, again she was probably rebelling against her own mum, who did do set jobs on set days.
I’m of the little and often school of housework, I loosely follow Flylady methods to keep me on track now I’m retired, but definitely no set menus or days of the week jobs - I’d rather be outside, so I do all the dull stuff in the mornings so I can garden after lunch (my mum never gardened either, it doesn’t interest her).

Mum had routines but we don’t and haven’t ever stuck to a daily routine for anything, apart from getting the children to school and back.
Mum also use to change all the curtains from Summer to Winter, with double glazing we don’t need to, but our daughter lives in a cold unheated cottage and changes her curtains with the seasons.

Nope, I run a very flexible 'as needed' home, as did my Mother who worked. The only fixed thing was tea on a Sunday evening with a freshly baked sponge.

We pray, sit down to meals, give thoughts on the day - much as I did growing up with my family. Mum thought it was important for everyone - even the shy quiet ones, to have equal time talking (difficult for some of my siblings to be quiet and wait turns). I quite agree as does my near silent husband.

Oh paris123, don't apologise for the spelling errors, it was truly heartwarming to read your response to the comments and all the lovely memories that you recall .
Actually, I can relate to many of your recollections, it must be a generation thing.

Skydancer

My AC and GC are puzzled as to why we have potatoes with virtually every meal. It's how we were brought up.

I was once married to someone who hadn't had a meal if they hadn't had meat, potatoes, veg and gravy! His face when I cooked a chilli con carne with rice was an absolute picture!

No. None of them.

All interesting memories, thank you, im enjoying reading them. I also now remember the meals we ate that l still seem to usually still follow. ie sheppard pie on Mondays, stew on Tues, Toad in Hole on Wednesday, Thursday rest of stew made into suet pud, Friday is still fish chips mushy pea for him, salad for me,. Saturday we had and sometimes still do have, is boiled eggs and toast in winter and hm quiche in summer. Sundays l rarely cook a roast, its usually a hotpot, but l still do a old fashions high tea.
l remember when mom shopped for the weekend joint from our local butchers she always came home with a bag full of diff cakes etc week ,ie either custard tarts, or jam doughnuts ect. We never , ever had cake in the week but a few biscuits with a cuppa at bedtime. On Saturday when shopping she always bought her weekly magazine ie womens own, which she read with cuppa after the shopping. There was always a afternoon film on a Saturday (usually a comedy or cowboy film) which we kids watched if we couldnt go out to play in our large back garden.. l seem to have always been playing in that lovely large garden with the old apple tree at the top. l think l rarely stayed inside if the weather was ok. Sundays afternnon film was usually a serious black and white film . Our Sunday roast dinner was always at 2pm on the dot. After his Sunday morning gardening, dad went to the lovely old pub for a pint and would bring back for us kids a pack of sweets each. Saturdays we had our few pence pocket money for a comic and triangle paper bag of 2oz sweets and spent ages trying to decide what we wanted to buy from the jars of sweets in the shop lol. We had a local butcher, fish chip shop, newsagents, tiny supermarket and the chemist which l absolutely loved to go in as it smelled so scented with all the bathsalts, soaps etx on display. The pub was a large manor type building with a rose garden grounds to sit in, So lovely as its was only a 5 min walk from our house . It had an old fashion bowling green attached to the pub and we kids loved to sit in grounds looking though the rose fence watching all the old biddies bowling in their all whites..Mom would rest after the morning housework, Monday her hardest day with all the sheets on the line and do some knitting. or read her mag. Tea was always at 6pm, bedtime at 8pm where we could read our comics or Christmas Annuals or library books etc till about 9pm. Everything was so near to us, ie the schools, buses, shops and 3 lovely parks which had boating lakes and a ice cream cafe on a bank, The centre islands of the lakes were filled with Purple Rhododendrone One of the parks had a small nature area that was called a 'dingle' l wrote poem about it on a poetry forum and our american neighbours were fasinated as new heard of the term dingle.
l seem to still follow all these routines and meal plans without even thinking about it, after all these years.
ps please do forgive my spelling, my eyes are still bad and i' im too tired to look up the corrects...
im looking forward to reading more of eveyones memories.

My mum had more of a routine than me with all the jobs being done weekly but not sure about particular days.
My routine is to do work when it needs doing so that can be any day.

I don’t remember my mother having particular routines, and now I’m retired and have plenty of time, neither do I.

My mum taught me her routines, as I had to do my bit during school holidays as a teenager (unlike my big brother, which still bugs me!) and my mum was at work.
The only bits I can still remember were washing on a Monday (even Mum dropped that 'routine' when she eventually got an automatic washing machine in the late 'eighties), and cleaning on a Thursday, presumably so the house would be spotless if anyone dropped in over the weekend.

As mentioned up thread, it was a very rare main meal indeed that didn't include potatoes in some form - one of those exceptions being dried peas cooked with ham hock and served with hot pork pie and dumplings - very traditional in West Yorkshire back then. In fact when I started my first job, working in a mill office, there was a 'routine' of going to the nearby pub every Monday lunchtime for pie and peas.
My mum's meals haven't changed very much but OH and I eat very differently nowadays and potatoes are definitely not on the menu every day.

After leaving home at 18, I didn't have any such routines. My way of life was completely different from most people's, and I simply did things when they needed doing. It worked for me then and still does to a large extent, except that now that OH is around all the time it is a lot harder to get things done as I have to work around him!

I am not aware of my mother having any routines. We were an army family always on the move and sometimes having live in domestic help.

Even if she had I doubt I would have followed them, I hav lways been someone who works out everything for themselves for my convenience with disrgaard for what others do.

We eat our tea early,5pm. That's from childhood. I got used to it. A lot is ingrained and you don't realise until you mix with others!

No. I don’t remember mum having any routines and never have either. I get everything done as and when I feel like it or it needs doing.

I have a dear friend who does the same routine every week without fail. Each to their own but I prefer to be flexible.