When you a child, what things did your mother tell you that you've never been able to forget?

Look at the red shoes I have... some old fashioned mothers would roll over!

So many of the things mentioned here were also told to us by Mum. Sitting on cold steps, umbrellas, etc. I think many were based on knowledge at the time, or superstition. But I always had a pair of red sandals in summer, even as a child. Still love red shoes!

My first (very little) pair of heels were red and nowadays I have a pair of red booties and red loafers.

(When I was doing risky things in the playground, etc.) "If you break your leg, don't come running to me?"

Mum always said to let people come to you if they wanted to engage you in conversation. I followed this advice and was consequently thought of as stand-offish. It eventually dawned on me that if everyone followed this advice, then no-one would actually get around to speaking with anyone!!

Or the famous question - " Do you want a smack ?"
Answer - "oh yes please "

Bad luck to put new shoes on the table, same with putting a brolly up indoors.
Don't swallow chewing gum as it'll wind itself round your innards!(but I wasn't allowed chewing gum! ).
Always smile (I was a surly child ?)
Make do & mend (to think I used to darn the 'potatoes' in my children's socks )
"Marmight, Marmight strong & able take your elbows off the table, this is not a horse's stable, this is Mummy's dining table" (my children had it recited to them and now my grandchildren)

Earwigs crawl in your ear and make their way into your brain. I'm still very nervous of earwigs.

Pierced ears are "common". I got mine pierced in my 30's.

Handsome is as handsome does (passed down from her mum)

When poverty walks in the door, love flies out the window.

And several other cheery little pieces of advice like that.

As to the "don't go out with wet hair", I went swimming with my friends on a cold winter's day and walked home, with wet hair, whereupon I got the most awful migraine. So perhaps there is some sense in it.

Me too CanadianGran

canadiangran please, please, where did you get those shoes? May I have them when you have grown out of them?

All of the above. Eat up, there are starving children in Africa - true I know - but I could not stomach tripe?
Always keep your knees together. “Save yourself”. - inexplicable to an 11 year old who didn’t know the names of her “bits”. Couldn’t relate that to my bank book with the odd schilling deposited on a Saturday morning. “No one will want you if ......” I stayed out after midnight, got in a car with a boy, wore eyeliner, painted my nails etc.

—schilling— shilling

I remember all these, except my mother would have died rather than talk about periods or personal things in any way, shape or form.

But I was either curious, argumentative or both and asked 'how can chewing gum get tangled round your intestines, it's inside a tube all the way down?'

And 'If you get knocked down, your underwear is going to get dirty and bloody anyway, and wouldn't people be too busy trying to help you to look at your knickers?'
Notwithstanding my questions, I had clean underwear every day and, of course, still do but not because my mother said so!

My parents were casually racist and anti-semitic and I just could not believe people in other cultures were inferior to us. We were nowt special.

When I was an adult my mother used to say, 'There was never any telling (advising) you, when you were little, you allus wanted to go your own way.'

But to me, it was just that I wanted to know how and why
I simply could not accept nonsense just because my parents said so.

What an infuriating kid I must have been

Racist parents BradfordLass - now there's a whole nother thread! My father was against anybody not white or English, but having been in the rag trade since the war, he had had a lot of dealings with Jewish people and had respect for them.

However, back to Mums' words of wisdom: I remember Jane Garvey on Woman's Hour saying that the only advice she would give her daughter would be to always wash her bras by hand.

I've never done that.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Feelingmyage

As a very picky eater, I was frequently reminded of starving children in Africa, I remember once saying, well you can send them my dinner, I don’t want it, and getting a good slap!

Once something has been said, it can never be unsaid, no matter how much you apologise. My father said never lend anyone more money than you would be prepared to give them. Both pieces of advice have stood me on good stead over the years.

I remember the clean underwear one! I said that my underwear would no longer be clean after I'd been run over - perfectly logical - but that was dismissed!

As for toenails, she said varnish would only draw attention to how ugly they were, whereas I thought it might disguise their ugliness.

One thing she said that I'll always remember:

'Life is alright as long as you don't expect to enjoy yourself'

(Thanks, Mum)

Hetty

For some reason your mum is reminding me of Blanche Hunt in Coronation Street, please don’t be offended, I loved her

This thread is such a lot of fun. I love the cartoon and red shoes too. Like Bradfordgirl's mum, nothing personal most especially sex education was ever discussed in our house. My Welsh granny generously shared most of her superstitions with us. One my mother particularly adhered to was no white flowers in the house or worse white and red mix. She still won't allow it.

The one that sticks with me is actually good advice - never walk/run with something in your mouth, with particular emphasis on things like lollipops, as she pointed out that if you fell over, the stick would hit the ground and push the lollipop down your throat and choke you. To this day I get really worried when seeing children walking about with lollipops in their mouths, and even more so if they're not even holding on to the stick!

My father didn't like purple, nor blue and green together, and I still find them a bit of a problem when choosing colours (although he would never have tried to force his opinions on to us!)

Wheniwasyourage

I’m neurotic about the lollipop thing

Reading those above brought back so many memories.
My Mum was rather doom laden, one in particular which stands out in my mind is
"If you don't dry your armpits properly you'll get tuberculosis".. (TB was the big scare in those days).
I still always dry under my arms very thoroughly.

Oh yes, and 'Don't go out until your hair is dry. You'll catch a chill and die!' (regardless of the weather).

When I was little and I did something wrong my mum always said ‘may god forgive you because I never will!’ - we had a dificult relationship.

This thread shows just how hard wired we are to what we learn as young children, even when we become rational adults, we often still adhere to these beliefs, or feel a sense of guilt when we don't.