Phrases your mother used

Our Norfolk Gran was the one full of sayings. Some of her favourites:
The pot calling the kettle black;
Least said soonest mended;
She was putting on her parts [airs and graces];
Thas a rum un [its odd];
Load of old squit [nonsense].

From my grandmother 'Lazy people take the most trouble' meaning it would be much less work to do it properly in the first place than have to continually patch it up later!

When we asked what was for our next meal .
Ifit! If it goes round you get some, if it doesn’t you don’t .

When we were acting up and fighting, Mum would sometimes come downstairs and say, "I don't care who STARTED IT, and I don't care whose FAULT IT IS, and I don't care who FINISHED IT!" If she asked you to fetch something and you were taking your time getting back, she'd call, "Are you bringing it or are you manufacturing it?"

We'll be here until Dick docks

As cute as a bag of monkeys

I'm in my apple cart

I'd call the Queen my aunt if ...

I'll be looking for this breath one of these days

Fur hat and no knickers
about someone putting on airs and graces with no wealth or prestige to back it up

"Shes had all her doings taken away" said in very hushed tones when talking about someone having had a hysterectomy. Always made me prick up my ears when she whispered

Whispers tell lies.

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

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.

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.

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 boys

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!".

I'm going to see a man about a dog

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

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. )

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.

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!

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!

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.

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?