Things your mother said!

Reading some of these I see my life passing before my eyes, so many resonate with me.. However a few new ones:- Wait till your father gets home (always to me) one from my granny, if as children we played around with the empty egg shells after eating boiled eggs "If you do that you'll grow feathers on your toes" I used to say that to my little children and years later my daughter said she always believed it! and lastly If someone broke wind my mother always said "Who's let willy out (of) the fort" My little brother always thought it was "Who's let willy out the FORK!" Happy days

One expression she used was "Sing before breakfast, cry before tea". She was usually right about that. As she got older, another expression was "I'll talk to you when your get to my age".

Always have some "knicker money" Always did.

My mother used some of these expressions, but she always knew if they were clichés and said them in quotation marks, so to speak.

If my brother and I were quarrelling, she would say “It’s six of one and half a dozen of the other”.

If I was looking very pale she would say I was a “white-faced mawk”. I got the general drift, but I didn’t really know what a mawk was. Neither did she, I’m sure, though we knew it was a northern dialect word. I’ve just googled it, and it comes from an Old Norse word meaning maggot!

I have so enjoyed reading everyone’s comments, most of them were so familiar, and I could hear my mother using the same expressions. Very funny thank you all.

So many lovely memories reading this thread.

My Mum used to say "your head will never save your legs."

Took me years to figure out she was talking about when I'd forgotten something and had to go back from where I'd come from to get it :-)

M’y nanny used to say I’m as old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth. When I asked how old she was.

allsorts thats a German saying. Whats not in your head means more work for the legs,

Was man nicht im Kopf hat, hat man in den Beinen

Ahh I can relate to so many of these!
My Nana would say “never let a man touch your knee” you would get pregnant.
And my Mum saying when I had my first period that it was ok as the Queen had them! (No idea what that was all about)

My mother’s gems were “if you don’t stop that whining I’ll give you something to cry about”. “Just sit down, be quiet and forget what a nuisance you are”. “Well, she’s no better than she ought to be”. And the killer? “You’re wearing far too much make-up, you look like an out of work actress!”

Oh yes nettyandmasey that was another one of my mums sayings. lol

My mum used to say I would end up in a mental hospital if I didn't stop sucking my thumb!!

My mother, as I said, was Irish. Some of her sayings were hard to fathom. She told me I looked like a 'streel' or a 'sketch' . I have no idea what those words meant, other than they weren't flattering!

As a teenager I was told " don't bring trouble to this house " I had no idea what was meant by this.

“If you swallow an apple pip a tree will grow in your appendix and you’ll die!” No wonder Iwas an anxious child! ?

Whenever we crossed the road my mother would say 'Over!'
I would always wait for this signal before crossing, I found myself doing it with my own children and also with my mother when she lived with me in her late 80's!
She had some wonderful sayings'
Don't marry a man with double barrelled eyes'
Oe one whose eyebrows met in the middle or one with no earlobes!!!
Don't sit on hot pipes or you'll get piles!
Don't go out with wet hair or you'll catch a cold.
Eat your crusts and you'll have curly hair (desirable)
Eat your greens up
Don't cross your eyes or you'll get stuck like it!
Don't marry a man who used a purse because they were always mean.

Breaking wind was 'letting a little boy out of school'

"It could be valuable one day". It never was !!!

At bedtime - up the dancers, don't mither me, when bothering mum when she was busy, I'll bang your head together ( 2 brothers and me) when arguing, she never did thankfully and many of the above. I'm not aware of saying these to my AC or dgc but there are some worth reviving

I knew this would be a popular thread when I read the title! So many memories of the things my Mum and Gran used to say. Here's a few more....

When Gran saw a woman of very large proportions (or just a big bum) she'd say "Eh up head, me arse is coming!"

Whenever my great aunt brought us one of her homemade cakes with barely any fruit in it, my Gran would say "She must have thrown the fruit in from the top of a mountain", she and gr.aunt were Welsh.

If I was rushing around trying to do something in a hurry (especially when my kids were small), my Mum would say "If you're not careful you'll meet yourself coming back."

And when I got my first pair of spectacles in my early twenties Mum looked at me disapprovingly (as if it was my fault I was short sighted!) and said "Men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses". She wore glasses from a young age and never married. But I already knew she was wrong

thought thought he was eating flannel sandwiches but then he woke up and the blankets were gone. thought thought he left the light on so he turned it on to see. etc lol. you look like you've been pulled through a gorse bush backwards. it's a wigwam for a gooses bridle. clean knickers in case of bus running me down. what's for tea? = wait n see. I did say a few of these to mine too.

Lazy people take the most trouble - in other words if you are slapdash and try to rush a task, you will have to go back and do it all over again. I still mutter this to myself when tempted to take the easy option!

One my mum would say if She was sat down and had jobs waiting was
'Well, this won't get the baby a new hat' meaning she really should get on.

When our meal was too hot to eat, and we complained, mum would say “You’d be hot if you’d just come out of the oven.”

My DH says his mother used to say you shouldn't sit on anything cold or you would get 'the pip'. He never dared asked what the pip was!
I remember 'It's raining in Paris' when my petticoat was showing and 'Do you think I came down with the last shower' when we tried to 'pull the wool over her eyes.'