“Put the wood in the hole” or “Were you born in barn?”
The countless times I’ve heard the phrase ‘were you born in barn’ caused a fair degree of teenage eye rolling whenever my Dad would trot this line out at me and my brother. It had little effect on my teenage brain as my Dad went round stoically closing doors throughout the house, but now I do it to my children. There is method in the madness….
According to the energy saving trust radiators, electric panel heaters and convection heaters all work by creating a convection current in a room. As hot air rises, it circles around to the other side of the room, cools and sinks and travels back along the floor to the heater to be reheated again.
Closing doors makes sure this current remains within the designated space, and stops cold air entering.
“Put a jumper on!”
This one really used to make my toes curl age 11. I lived in a single glazed house, half of it without heating and a really rubbish back boiler. Any response to ‘Mum, I’m cold’ was always met with ‘Put a jumper on’ even if you were wearing 2 already. More applicable to teenagers in todays world than grown ups I feel, having a son who wanders round in February in shorts and T Shirts and proclaims he’s freezing. It’s still worth a mention.
“Do you really need that?”
This one was from late teenage shopping angst when Topshop arrived on my local high street and all girls need pop socks! I NEEDED those pop socks, but my Dad did not believe me. The inevitable question arrived as soon as I picked them up. “Do you really need that?”. My Dad was clearly clueless, how could he not know that the school disco was Friday and EVERYONE had them. They say wisdom comes with age and now I’m having the same conversation with my kids. There is a distinguishable difference between WANT and NEED.
Do you remember going through the Argos catalogue once you’d got your birthday spends trying to work out what you could afford, devastated that the Slushie machine you wanted was too expensive. You never needed it and it probably spent most of its life in the back of a cupboard but you’d save to get it. Thankfully in the modern world there are Budget apps that allow you to save for what you want and budget for what you need and its probably more fun than the calculator and pencil we had to make done with.
“It's like Blackpool illuminations in here”
A classic! Everyone’s Dad said this at some point in the 80s and then Peter Kay took up the mantle in the 00s. Oddly enough the energy savings trust says your Dad was probably right. Turning a light off when you leave a room even for a few minutes does make a difference. This also extends to taking items off standby. Even a phone charger plugged in and not connected to a phone is still using energy. Yes, unfortunately we should all be turning them off.
“Who does he think he is….Nigel Mansell?”
For those who don’t know who Nigel Mansell is pop onto Wikipedia. For those that grew up in the 80s he was probably on your TV a lot while your Dad sat down to watch Formula 1 and you lost the will to live! I vividly remember my Mum being disgusted by a man overtaking her on the A500 and scoffing in disgust “Who does he think he is…Nigel Mansell?”. He was probably pushing a steady 60mph but my Mum frustratingly sat at 50mph, because she said it saved fuel. Well guess what….Mum was right. Driving like your Nan may not be such a bad idea nowadays as the energy savings trust state that fuel efficient driving is between 55mph and 65mph. Going at speeds above this can increase fuel consumption by up to 40% and is also probably illegal depending on where you are! I’ll certainly be Driving Like Miss Daisy for a while until the prices at the pumps lower again!
