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Phrases your mother used

(233 Posts)
nanna8 Wed 10-Feb-21 06:47:12

My Mum used to say a lot of things but a couple I remember particularly are
‘You’re a long time dead’ i.e. enjoy yourself whilst you can and
‘If you can’t say anything good about someone, don’t say anything at all’
Pretty cluey some of the older ones .

Charleygirl5 Fri 12-Feb-21 13:31:18

I am not as green as I am cabbage looking
I have eyes in the back of my head
Are you asking for a smack?
You will be laughing on the other side of your face
She has ideas well above her station
She looks as though she has been pulled through a hedge backwards
Money does not grow on trees
I was forced to eat everything put in front of me and was told there are children starving in Africa. My reply was well post it to them.
sex education- we found you under a bush.
You will sit there and finish that (food) until the cows come home.
It will take you a month of Sundays to complete that simple task.

alibee Fri 12-Feb-21 13:15:38

If we used to say something wasn't fair my Mum would say "Well life's not fair" we actually had a chuckle about that the other day on a family zoom . I say it now as a joke !

Mollygo Fri 12-Feb-21 10:36:45

Describing people doing something stupid, she’d say, “They’d follow a dustcart and think it was a wedding!”

Llamedos13 Fri 12-Feb-21 03:40:14

Sloegin, Feet like Lurgan Spades was another one,used to describe a man with very big feet!

Sloegin Fri 12-Feb-21 02:35:31

Oh, and to describe someone with a large posterior, ' a backside on her like Curley Wilson's gig'.

Sloegin Fri 12-Feb-21 02:26:18

As a child if I asked what we were going to have for dinner she said, ' a slice of a cat and a rosy rat'. No wonder I've been vegetarian most of my adult life! She also used to say' regret is the cancer of living'. Lots of others I've never heard generally used but may have been common to the area I grew up in ( Fermanagh). She always described a troublemaker as someone who could ' raise mutiny in hell'.

nanna8 Fri 12-Feb-21 00:29:26

My mum and grandma both used to say
I’m off to’t sports
When they were feeling ill and thought they might die. I had a fantasy that this was some ages old pagan thing but they were both Methodists.

Grandmafrench Fri 12-Feb-21 00:16:44

They were all together like the devil found sixpence.
Your hair! Looks like a besom in a fit.
Artful as a cartload of monkeys, that lot.
Don't just stand there - do something.
What time d'you call this?
Just go to sleep. If I have to come up there, you'll be sorry.
Don't speak to strangers.
He'd be late for his own funeral, that one!
Least said, soonest mended.
Are you really thinking of going out dressed like that?

Marthjolly1 Thu 11-Feb-21 23:28:34

Wait til your father comes home then you'll get what for.
I'll bang your heads together if you two dont pack it in.
You'll get the back of my hand in a minute.
She was actually a very gentle soul and I never felt threatened.
And if I was pulling a face she'd say - you'll stay like that if the wind changes.

skunkhair63 Thu 11-Feb-21 23:20:02

If one of us 5 were crying, Mum would soothe us by saying “Be quiet or I’ll give you something to cry about!” Usually worked as well! wink

Luckylegs Thu 11-Feb-21 22:58:20

I’ve remembered a few more:

You don’t miss a slice off a cut loaf. I think that was meant as however you want to take it.

Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!

Don’t go to bed with wet hair, she was obsessed with things being aired and dry.

Because I cry very easily, my dad always said that my eyes were too near my bladder!

icanhandthemback Thu 11-Feb-21 22:36:51

If someone was very skinny - she' like a matchstick with the wood scraped off.
Who's she, the cat's mother? if we didn't give a title or name.
But me no buts, you're not a goat.
Beware your sins will find you out - if she thought we weren't being truthful.
Oh what a web we weave - when we got caught out.
That'll butter me no parsnips - regularly but no idea what she meant.

DillytheGardener Thu 11-Feb-21 22:19:15

What a lovely thread, my mother and granny used many of these phrases. My mother used to say “you can put a mule in a horses harness but it’s still a mule”, usually about people she felt were putting on airs and graces who she felt were vulgar. (I have to point out my mother wore clothes that wouldn’t have been out of place on Ab Fab, so it was a bit of the pot calling the kettle black. )

frankie74 Thu 11-Feb-21 22:16:02

If there's nowhere to sit, then sit on your thumb

frankie74 Thu 11-Feb-21 22:14:18

I'm going to see a man about a dog

gulligranny Thu 11-Feb-21 22:09:34

Asked what was for dinner, my lovely Mum would say "Bread and pullet - the more you pull it, the more you get". And if we were meant to be doing something and had got distracted or were dawdling, she'd clap her hands and say "Well, this won't get granny in the bath!".

V3ra Thu 11-Feb-21 22:01:53

Tibbs in my childminding setting we have a saying,
"We don't say I can't, we say I'll try."
Maybe that's mine for the future!

Judy43 Thu 11-Feb-21 21:33:40

Juliette 27. My mum used to say that and we would ask. Why where are you going ?!

haddersmum Thu 11-Feb-21 21:29:54

My dad used to say “steady past your granny’s because you should never shove your granny when she’s shaving’.

tattygran14 Thu 11-Feb-21 20:35:15

And, 'as smart as a half scraped carrot' when dressed ready to go out.

tattygran14 Thu 11-Feb-21 20:33:52

My Nana, referring to untidy hair..You look like a monkey peering through a ball of oakum...no idea what oakum is

Legs55 Thu 11-Feb-21 19:35:20

If he/she fell in a muck heap they'll came out smelling of roses

To my DD when she was little & doing things she shouldn't " I've got eyes in the back of my head"

Most of the other ones my Parents used at various times, I found myself using many of them as does DD to her boysgrin

I am a Yorkshire lass, think many of these sayings are nationwide but in danger of being lost

Glasgo Thu 11-Feb-21 19:32:24

Do you think ma heid buttons up the back.
You’ll be laughing on the other side of yer face in a minute.
Eat our crusts to give you curly hair.

Kenver60 Thu 11-Feb-21 19:26:16

MIL had many sayings (It’s a long lane that hasn’t got a turn)..if somebody had been unkind to her.
(Giddy old whelk) Dressed up tarty.
(Many a slip twix cup and Lip).. unsure of that one .
(Looks like you’ve been through a bush faggott backwards) looking scruffy ..
(Let the cart hang) sit down.

GagaJo Thu 11-Feb-21 18:49:49

Whispers tell lies.

No idea where the hell she got it from. Never heard it anywhere else.