Cliches/Expressions used by your parents

Forums:
Email this Topic • Print this Page

when they were trying to teach you a lesson.

Here's one my mother always used:

"You can get more with honey then you can with vinegar."

She was referring to my temper.

Ha.

Or:

"Your face is going to freeze like that."

I made a lot of faces at some of the things that came out of her mouth.

Anyone else have parental cliche gems to share?

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 3 • Views: 13,842 • Replies: 61

No top replies

Your ass sucks buttermilk.

It's pretty much the equivalent of "Bullshit."

My parents both used to say this, but nobody I've ever mentioned it to knows what the hell I'm talking about.

They also used to say, "Go piss up a rope."

1 Reply

Colder than a witches titty.

(I don't know, so don't ask me)

0 Replies

I was raised by my grandparents, who were born in the 1890s, so a lot of their stock phrases are long out of use:

The ghonst walks--means payday . . . hey, don't ask me.

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride--people don't, i think, use this one much any longer.

I'm so hungry my stomach thinks my throat has been cut . . .

There's lots more, they just don't necessarily spring to mind right away . . .

0 Replies

My dad always used to say "If you don't have anything nice to say to your mother then don't say anything at all." Most of us still don't talk to her... I guess that was because her fav saying was "I'll give you something to cry about!"

0 Replies

I remember more stock phrases, not necessarily to teach me a lesson.

When ever I came back from an event in my teen years or young adulthood, my mother asked "were there many people there?" Clearly an effort to get me to open up, it sometimes rankled (slaps self upside the head now).

But as I think more, I'll come back with some examples of the title question.
(My parents were born 1901-1906)

0 Replies

Every time one of us left the house, mom would say, "Write if you get work!" She picked it up as a child in the Depression... the men would go looking for work, leaving wives and children at home. A penny postcard was too dear to use for simple keeping in touch -- but news about a job! Oh, boy!

So I said it to my daughter as she grew up. A few weeks ago she left me a note: "Gone to spend a few days with Chrissie. I will write if I get work."

Smile

Others: Okie-dokey, Bob's your uncle (I even know who Bob was!), don't waste food -- think of the Starving Armenians! (I guess in some households they were Chinese), one side or a leg off, mind your p's and q's... on and on...

0 Replies

¨It takes two to tango.¨ (When kids blame each other for 'starting it").

Whenever I asked (i.e. complained) why my brother got something I didn't have, my mother would say very plainly "because we love him more". They said the same thing to him... so this was just a way to stop whining.

0 Replies

"Judas Priest"...!!!!

If only they'da known.... :wink:

RH

0 Replies

My mom used to say, "That's not yelling! You want to hear yelling!?!"

0 Replies

Parental idioms from the bridge table:

Not through the iron duke.

You play the cards you're dealt with.

Lucky in cards, unlucky in love.

Always return your partner's opening lead.

Some of them have wider applications.

0 Replies

Not "idioms" but "axioms".

0 Replies

From my mother.

Eat your vegetables. People in Europe are starving. This ended when I told her to send them my veggies. I didn't want 'em.

Already mentioned but worth repeating: I'll give you somthing to cry about. And she always did.

You're too smart for you own good.

0 Replies

My father's sage advice for life...

"Skip your first marriage and your last surgery."

0 Replies

Roberta, my favorite coffee mug says "Drink your coffee. Children in China are sleeping.".

0 Replies

Raboida's remark reminded me that there was another period specific remark which my grandparents used. They didn't tell us about people starving in Europe, they told us about the starving Armenians. Once, when my brother had the ill grace to suggest that they box up his plate and send it off to the Armenians--he got whacked in the head with a ladle. There were no such witticisms from him thereafter.

0 Replies

For us, the starving children were in Biafra,... wherever the hell that is.

Don't run with scissors.

You'll get ink poisoning.

0 Replies

Setanta wrote:

The ghonst walks--means payday . . . hey, don't ask me.

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride--people don't, i think, use this one much any longer.

I'm so hungry my stomach thinks my throat has been cut . . .

There's lots more, they just don't necessarily spring to mind right away . . .

I've found postcards from your grandparents era in antique stores and some of them are truly dark with the express purpose of being entertaining. So, the last expression, especially seems to ring true.

fishin wrote:

My dad always used to say "If you don't have anything nice to say to your mother then don't say anything at all." Most of us still don't talk to her... I guess that was because her fav saying was "I'll give you something to cry about!"

Have you ever found out what your father thinks of your mother?

ossobuco wrote:

When ever I came back from an event in my teen years or young adulthood, my mother asked "were there many people there?" Clearly an effort to get me to open up, it sometimes rankled (slaps self upside the head now).

Ha. If my mother asked me that now, I would get rankled. In this case it would be an opportunity to hear gossip. Blech.

Wy wrote:

Every time one of us left the house, mom would say, "Write if you get work!" She picked it up as a child in the Depression... the men would go looking for work, leaving wives and children at home. A penny postcard was too dear to use for simple keeping in touch -- but news about a job! Oh, boy!

So I said it to my daughter as she grew up. A few weeks ago she left me a note: "Gone to spend a few days with Chrissie. I will write if I get work."

Good story, Wy.

I say okie-doky and p's and q's because they're funny expressions and they're old fashioned, which usually surprises people. I wrote "okie-doky" in response to a work email the other day-- I still haven't gotten what I requested from the person, maybe they were a little mortified? Ah, who cares...

ebrown_p wrote:

¨It takes two to tango.¨ (When kids blame each other for 'starting it").

Whenever I asked (i.e. complained) why my brother got something I didn't have, my mother would say very plainly "because we love him more". They said the same thing to him... so this was just a way to stop whining.

It takes two to tango-- as a truth, it's annoying, because it's true. but as a construction of a clever sentence, it's pretty great.

I like that..."because we love him more."

Rockhead wrote:

"Judas Priest"...!!!!

If only they'da known.... :wink:

RH

I could Google Judas Priest to find out who she/he is or was, but I'm wondering, if you could tell me instead.

littlek wrote:

My mom used to say, "That's not yelling! You want to hear yelling!?!"

In retrospect, it's funny, but at the time...

Noddy24 wrote:

Parental axioms from the bridge table:

Not through the iron duke.

Is this a bridge expression? The others I've heard, but not this one. (I changed idiom to axiom)

Roberta wrote:

From my mother.

Eat your vegetables. People in Europe are starving. This ended when I told her to send them my veggies. I didn't want 'em.

Already mentioned but worth repeating: I'll give you somthing to cry about. And she always did.

You're too smart for you own good.

I've never understood how parents can get rankled over their children being smart. Also, I got some of those stock expressions--people in europe are starving, etc. I think it has to do with children knowing when their parents are on auto-pilot.

0 Replies

Funny about the remarks about starving children. When I was in my forties, I went to group meetings for controlling weight, that was run by a behavioral psychologist. In one of the discussions, we were asked about the "messages" that we got from our parents with regards to food.

The group, which was a pretty large one, ranged in age from the twenties to the sixties. In EACH & EVERY case the members reported to be admonished by their parents to eat all her food because the children in __________ were starving. The only difference in the message were the ages of the members. We ate for the kids in Europe, in Vietnam in Biafra, etc. according to how old we were.

0 Replies

Gala--

"Not through the Iron Duke" means that the queen is capped by the king and the finesse doesn't work.

The expression can also mean, "over my dead body".

0 Replies

Forums
» Cliches/Expressions used by your parents

Read Discussion
Reply to All

Cliches/Expressions used by your parents

Quick Links

My Account

able2know