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

Never put an umbrella up in the house.
Don’t put new shoes on the table ?

My Nan used to say "God pays debts without money" meaning (I guess?) karma.

@oldgimmer1 thank you re: chilblains! Thank god for the central heating we enjoy now!

Mamissimo on my school bus the boys sat upstairs, the girls downstairs, now I know why.

I recognise so many sayings here. I think my favourite from my mother was ' Remember the chocolates are never as good as the box'...
and ' You'll miss me when I'm gone' - oh how right she was.

My mother’s superstitions resulted in long list of things which couldn’t be brought into the house, I gave up showing her anything I’d found outdoors.

So many things were ‘common’ - leaning out of windows, sitting on the front step, eating in the street, ankle chains, toenail varnish, leaning against a wall, an endless litany of things I mustn’t do or wear. I fought against her prejudices but may have retained one or two .

Oh and one of my Dad’s oft repeated sayings was “one volunteer is worth ten pressed men” which conjured up images of a row well ironed city gents in my mind.

Whenever I asked my Granddad anything his reply was 'When Nelson gets his eye back'
The best bit is I use that saying myself.

When I was about ten I asked my mum if I was pretty. She answered, "You are when you smile". I went around for months years grinning like a demented Chesire cat. In fact, it's only quite recently I decided to sod it.

So many ‘motherisms’ here
Never trust a man with a centre parting and co-respondent shoes
Never trust a young farmer
If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all
Nice girls don’t go upstairs on buses
Red hat no drawers
If a jobs worth doing it’s worth doing properly
Do as you would be done by
If the wind changes you’ll be stuck with that face

Did our mothers never say anything positive that we can remember? ?

My mum could be quite a positive person sometimes. I came home from the hairdressers once feeling really upset about how it had been cut and she said "Well at least it's clean." Another time I showed her a new coat that I had bought and she said "I like the buttons!"
Bless my darling mum

@lightamber: the chilblains one has some basis in fact, I think. It's something to do with the contrast between cold and heat.

I haven't heard of chilblains for years which may be due to the fact that we can regulate our indoor temperature better now and don't sit in front of fires to warm our feet up.

Always take your coat off when you get in else you won't feel the benefit.

If you chew gum it'll knot around your heart and you'll die.

Don't sit on doorsteps as it's common.

Don't sit too close to the tv you'll get square eyes.

Don't sit too close to the fire you'll get chilblains. Never understood that one!

Eat your dinner, the starving children in Ethiopia would go mad for that much food. My reply of ”send it to them” got me an early night for cheek.

Dandelions make you wet the bed (some truth in this- apparently extract is a diuretic.

Foxgloves are poisonous - they grew wild and I was scared stiff of falling into some..

If you don't wash your ears, potatoes will grow in them.

If you don't wash your front step, untold horrors will occur....

You could be quite pretty if you tried....I tried so hard to be pretty and still do .

Only gypsies had pierced ears , and it was NOT acceptable to dye ones hair ! ???

That sounds horrible, M0nica!! The poor boy. I can just see you, Sara65 and me all rushing around playgrounds taking lollipops and pencils away from unsuspecting children

Never to do washing on new years day as you would wash all your luck away. Never sit on public toilet seats they are all dirty, she was right about that one. Never wear red and green together its bad luck. Never bring bluebells in the house it bad luck. superstitious my mum even to this day.

Another thing my mother told me was that if I ate my crusts of the bread my hair would be curly like the boy who lived nearby. I'm still waiting.

Wheniwasyourage The little boy across road from us when I was young fell over with a pencil in his mouth lollipop style. It was pushed back into his throat and through the flesh and internal gubbins and nearly severed an artery.

Since that day if I have a pencil or similar in my mouth it is carried dog-with-stick style and |I made sure my children did similar and my DGC whe appropriate.

too much butter makes you sick , too much sugar gives you heat spots... and
Chewing gum chewing gum lead me to my grave
My mother told me not to chew it but I disobeyed.

I loved Blanche Hunt as well Sarah65 she had some brilliant put downs.

When I was doing my nurse training we were told never to put red and white flowers together in the same vase as it meant death.

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.

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.

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

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.

Wheniwasyourage

I’m neurotic about the lollipop thing

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!)