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

Waste not, want not - over and over and over and over again. Good advice I guess, but I am totally neurotic about food waste. I drain the last dreg from every meal, which gets roasted, then stewed, then turned into curry, then soup.....ad nauseam.

My mother told me never to trust a man who wore suede shoes.
Men with a beard have something to hide (both husbands had beards).
Ankle chains are only worn by prostitutes so men know how to recognise them.
Public loos give you VD
and so much more complete rubbish.

My mum told me that if I sit on the seat of a public toilet I would get a nasty disease, I had to squat above it!

Wearing white shoes would show how common I was.
Wearing shorts and/or a strappy T shirt ditto. I do wonder how I did not end up as the local prostitute. Compared with others I was dressed like a nun.

I would rot in hell if I did not go to church-she was a staunch RC, I have never been inside a church since I was 17 for religious reasons.

anno
Chewbacca I had similar sartorial advice from my mother.
Ankle straps and patent leather shoes were not to be even thought about, and girls whose mothers allowed them were viewed with suspicion.
Anything black was off-limits too.
When I was 30, I made a conscious decision to rid myself of these hang-ups she'd passed on to me and started wearing black, especially in Mum's presence
I have several pairs of shoes with ankle straps and my latest indulgence is a pair of multi-coloured sandals from Camper which tie round the ankle and which would have horrified her
Another one was 'saving clothes for best'. What this meant in practice was that the clothes you'd probably spent the most money on, got worn the least, resulting in a very high cost-per-wear.
It's taken me a long time to get over that one, but I now follow the immortal advice from Up the Junction - 'It's no use waiting till yer an old bag'

If you scowl like that when the wind changes, that is how you will always look! and I believed her?

It was ‘common’ to smoke outside.

You shouldn’t wear stockings or tights with a ladder in and to stop the ladder with nail varnish was ‘common’.

Ditto about white shoes Gabriella making feet like boats!

Flowers in a vase should always be of an odd number.

My Mum said sitting on the loo reading a book would give you piles. I had no idea what piles were then.

Annodomini

That’s hilarious!

My mum told me to beware of a boy/man when his arm started trembling.

I never did get the chance to test that prize piece of advice!

Or lilac

Never bring mimosa indoor. It's bad luck.

Ankle chains and white court shoes were tarty and white shoes also made your feet look like boats.

Ha ha Sara65 I love that one and so do I!

When I used to complain that something wasn’t fair, she’d reply ‘life’s not fair - get used to it’. And I still don’t think that’s fair!

My mum used to say "If you dress like a tart, you'll be treated like a tart".

She was superstitious about the colour green - long family story behind the reason - so we never bought or wore green things. I feel really uncomfortable about green and never buy anything that colour even for other people. However, I've never stopped DH or DS buying green things for themselves as I don't want to pass that restriction on.

I was told only tarts paint their toe nails, I ALWAYS paint my toe nails!

The only thing I can remember is to wear clean underwear in case I got run over and ended up in hospital. Pretty sensible really.

My Mother refused to allow me to wear black clothing because it was 'too old'.
To this day I rarely wear black and have never bought black outfits for my children or grandchildren.