special days cause so much trouble

Oh! I've got a thing called an Oink. It does microwave bacon a treat!

I like your post J. Very down to earth.

Bags I know. It was meant to be.

What I would like to know please is, what happened to all the boys in service? Were they afforded the same time off to visit their mother's.
Looking through the Census records of the grandest house around here there are quite a few young boys working on the estate. Did they skip through the meadows gathering wild flowers as they went? Did they meet one of the girls en route, did they ever get home or did love find a way??
Can someone tell me please.
Oh! and how do you do crispy bacon in the microwave please?

She never saw her father again either.

My grandmother was keeping house at 12 for a crippled (yes, that was the word she used) father, a 17 yr-old brother and two small pesky boys after her mother died giving birth to child number 6 - a sister had died a bit earlier of diphtheria. When, a year or so later, her father went into the infirmary of the workhouse, she and the boys were taken in too, where she never saw the boys again. The older one b******d off when he saw the officials come to the house to fetch them.

She was understandably possessive and needy with her own children, who all grew up not to want their own families to go through the emotional blackmail they had. They wanted us to love them freely, not because there would be tears or recriminations about a supposed lapse of due acknowledgment.

Not the one about your gran.

Patronising bullshit, jings.

My gran went into service when she was 14.

Well Bags you are just not looking hard enough sweetie. X

I agree, river. Those kids who had mothers must have missed them sorely at times.

Who "asserted" anything about anyone's knowledge of the history of Mothering Sunday, jings? I don't see any assertions of that kind. I see chat by several peope about the history of Mothering Sunday.

What I've learned from this thread is that some people are as touchy as hell. What I haven't learned is why the hell they are so touchy about general remarks in a conversation.

It must have been wretched to be in service and at such a young age

My gran went into service here in Manchester when she was 13. She came from Oswestry, where her 10 sisters and brothers lived until they, too, went into service. My great-aunt was working nearby to her, so they both travelled home on Mothering Sunday, taking a fruit cake and a few flowers. By the time they got there, they only had an hour or so before it was time to set off back to Manchester. Comparing that experience with how things are now, it's no wonder she didn't see reason to make a fuss as she got older - by then, she saw us all most weeks and could speak to us by phone when she wanted to. I can still envisage her bemused 'hmmmph!' as she accepted flowers and chocolates on mothers day

I've learned that most of us are as thick as two short planks.
I have also leaned that some mothers get treated to lunch on mothers day. Others get flowers and other little tokens.
Some of us get sweet F A

Me, I learned how to make crispy bacon in the microwave

Hands up anyone who has learned something knew here?

Elegran, so you subscribe to the notion that most of us are as thick as two short planks. Great!

I got some nice flowers and a good lunch...my DD acknowledges me the rest of the year too, I don't really need the special day. But she likes it.

However. This lunch was shared with her (as a mum) and her partner's mum and sister (also a mum). Result was - a lot of emotional talk about the sister's problems which I couldn't join in as I don't know the others involved.
Also a very edgy partner as he wasn't at all sure how we would take his mum. (She seemed ok to me!) Bickering while lunch was cooking. Other visitors were late.

Sister disappeared after lunch and was found by her brother at the friend's where they left the car. She then, after the first course, propped up her tablet on the table and chatted with other people.
How rude can you get???

Resentment of her coloured my sleep and I only got about 5 hours, so am knackered today.

Because sometimes it does appear that a lot of people think that a certain tradition has always been exactly as it is held now, and don't know that it was once a) different and b) had a reason for being as it was.

When Mothering Sunday was a day for a very young servant to be released to visit her mother, it was probably her first day off for months, so she could not have gone home any sooner, perhaps since she was taken on at the previous quarter day (Christmas) and she and her mother probably couldn't write, so there would have been no letters between them, and no handy telephone.

Daughters now can (and should!) see their mothers more often, and write, phone or text.

Because we're all stupid?

'would anyone' (should have read)

Why wouldassume the rest of us have no idea of the history of Mothering Sunday? Incredible to assert that!

Never mind. The Fiona Cairns cupcakes were delicious.

#rememberthebestbits

Yes, my grandmother was 12 when she left school and went into service.

I think the servant girls were often very young adolescents forced by poverty to work long hours and live away from home before they were really ready to be away from their parents and siblings. A bit of history puts things in perspective.