Did your parents have any phrases, sayings or wise words?

'What's for tea, Nana?' I used to ask. 'Run round the table' came the reply or 'Bread and Pull It / Pullet' [could never work out which one she meant!]

When talking about someone's traits, mum used to say 'it runs in the family like wooden legs'.

'Don't cast a clout before May is out' was another of her favourites and so I was probably stuck in woolly jumpers on the hottest of April days. Fortunately I can't remember.

I just got one from my DS. "I'm a box of fluffies" meaning I am fine, on top form. Apparently it is common in NZ and alludes to a box of fluffy ducks. Nice image I think.

My Granny used to sing:

Old Mother Hubbaby,
Come to bed and cuddle me.
Cock your leg all over me,
And call me Sugar Baby.

I don't know why she sang it, but I really liked it.

My mum used to say 'If - a little word with a big meaning.
There's plenty worse off than you and I would say well I'd like to see them!
Time heals all wounds.

Not one my mum said but one I read:

Never resent growing old, so many are denied the priviledge.

My Mum used to say to my sister and I when we were children " if you don't stop that grizzling, I'll give you something to cry about! ". That soon shut us up. My sister and I were constantly arguing and bickering as children and must have driven my mother mad.

My Gran, you know, the one born in1872 always claimed she was unable to do something as she 'had a bone in her leg' ( see an earlier posting ).
In response to 'What's for pudding?' my Dad used to say W and S....Mum made lovely puddings so W and S usually meant something delicious anyway!

Oh!! This has bought back so many memories ...I can almost hear my parents saying so many of these.
"Off to bubby shuffles land!"...meant I'd got to go to bed to sleep

If we hankered after some unaffordable luxury we heard "You can't have butter and jam and bread"

In those days you usually had bread and butter, or bread and jam, but seldom all three.

"up the little wooden hill" (to bed)

What was it they'd say if your petticoat was showing? Somebody's dead. Was it Joey?

It was "Charlie's dead"!

I am very lucky, I still have my Mum and Dad (both 87 this year and married for 67 years!) and they still say all the following!!

You will always reap what you sow.

If you don't ask you will not get!

There's always some poor "b!gger" worse off than you!

As long as you tried hard, that's all that matters.

"If you really feel sorry for yourself then I could send you on holiday to Africa (or wherever Mum thinks people are having a hard time of it) and then you can see what it is like to be really hard done by!"

The early bird catches the worm (you know what - I can never be late for anything and it always worked for me!)

So I feel blessed knowing that everything they said above, really helped me get on with my life and I have passed them onto my children and now their children.

As well as "Charlie's dead" they used to say "Your father loves you best" I think (hope) it meant that mother couldn't be bothered to keep you looking nice, not that father had evil designs on your petticoat.

No jangly ...petticoat showing ...was ...'you've got fairies at the bottom of the garden'!

My mum used to say "put can't behind the door and try" and "two wrongs don't make a right". How true!

Oh so many! Soap is cheap and water free.

You had petticoats! Aw.. But as my mother used to say, 'if you've never had it, you can't miss it'.

My granfather, about anyone who was not too particular about personal hygiene;'' He/she has never been washed since the midwife last bathed him/her''.
My uncle, about someone who thought they were better than others; ''He/she goes to the toilet''.
The same uncle, when on his first leave home from the navy was tucking into one of his favourite sweets, tinned fruit with loads of Carnation milk.My great gran asked him''Do you get Carnation milk at sea?'', he replied ''No just the Captain''.Ever since the my family would call Carnation milk ''Captain's milk''.

I think it was my Grandmother who used to say 'when you're as old as me you won't know so much'. What I do know now is exactly what she meant!

Among the many things my Mum always said, was
"You can never go BACK". She was right. And anyone with an over-inflated opinion of themselves, thought they were "the ant's eyebrows". She was still saying, "I wish you'd wear a vest", when I was in my early 50's! I could go on....

So many of these were familiar.My Father who was born in 1884 and 65 when I was born used to say I have a bone in my leg and i never understood what it meant.He also said I am going to see a man about a dog when he was off for a drink before Sunday lunch.
I had totally forgotten Charlie's dead which we said at school (did we really wear petticoats?)

My Mum used to say "If wishes were horses beggars would ride". I still think of this whenever I want something I can't afford.

Good one Bunch.

My mother always said you must cut your coat according to your cloth-wish our politicians' mumshad said that to them