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

"There will be tears before bedtime" usually said as a dire warning that we would be in big trouble if we had any fun!

When something wasn't quite right and she couldn't be bothered to fix it my Mum used to say:
"A blind man would be glad to see it".

Of course when it was someone else that had to do the work she's say
"Don't spoil the ship for a ha'penny worth of tar".

Oh yes - I can hear my Mum saying "a blind man would be glad to see it". That brings back memories

Sometimes it was "a blind man running for his life would be glad to see it!" for a bit if variety.

helshea - just noticed your posting. My Dad would often say 'I'm going to see a man about a dog'. It was years before I realised he had gone to the loo!

My uncle would say "just going to point Percy at the porcelain"

My dh refers to going to "beany bose", as in bed, I have never ever heard anyone esle say this! Beddy byes, yes, he insists that it was what his parents used to say.

My friend's husband comes from the Angus area of Scotland - on his way to the lavatory, he says "I'm jist awa' tae poor the tatties!" Meaning "I'm just going to peel the potatoes".......um, I don't really know why he has to say that though..

My Dad had a lot of peculiar phrases. After the question "where are you going" he would say "there and back again to see how far it is". How long? questions would be answered "How long does it take a blue arsed fly to swim across a barrel of treacle?"

And if I wanted a story, but he was too tired to make one up, he'd say: "Ill tell thee a tale, about a snail, that jumped in't fire and burned its tail: Shall I begin it? That's all there is in it."

There were lots more, but I can't bring them to mind.

I used to pester my father to take me on holiday or out for the day and ask where could we go, he would say " Penshaw willick sands " Penshaw was inland from us and had a hill with a notable folly on the summit, no seafood and certainly no sand. My father was a skilled engineer and built model steam trains in his garden shed, I loved nothing better than standing at the open door and watch him work at his lathe with the inevitable question " what are you making dad " ? the answer was always " a gugar for a wigwam " for years I would ask adults " what's a gugar " ? I earned myself the nickname of " pesty " and I kept it until my father died. I was never upset by the use of the nickname for I truly believed I was my father's favourite daughter

My mother used to say when I asked her where she was going...
``I´m going out of my mind for the want of sense``
Well as I child I didn`t know what she was talking about.
My friends grandma always said when we showed her the rings we got out of the machines
``oh that is lovely, shines like a cat`s mickey in the dark`` LOL
I always wanted to know what the cat`s mickey was.

On breaking wind: 'Better an empty house than a bad tenant'.

I had an aunt who would say the same thing or a variation on a theme ... wherever you may be
let the wind blow free
whether church or chapel
let it rattle
As children we thought this was very risque and ever so naughty.

My MIL used to say to my daughters 'I'm watching you with two eyes'. She also used to say that she had a bone in her leg!

'Twas a dark and stormy night
And the captain said to the mate:
"Tell us a story!"
So the mate said:

'Twas a dark and stormy night......

Sure we must have met in a previous existence, Baggy!
Here is our version:

Twas a dark and stormy night,
And the rain came down in torrents.
Said the husbands to the wives,
Said the wives to the children,
Tell us a story...... so the story began:
Twas a dark and stormy night.....

If I were making a fuss about my appearance ( a missing button or similar) my Gran ( you know, the one born in 1872!!!) would say:
' Who's going to get off a galloping horse to look at that?'

Baggy - my Dad used to tell me this "story" and I passed it on to my children too!

When my sister and I got a bit silly or carried away my dad used to say "a joke's a joke but you've gone too far" ............... Grrrrrrr

ha ha ha oldgreymare and baggy

our version is

It was a dark and stormy night
And there were robbers and thieves about
And the captain said to the others
Tell us a tale
And this is how it began (etc etc)

Oh how reading these posts brought back so many memories. I can clearly remember my grandma saying about someone "doing a job and making a job". I have been thinking of that phrase so much over the past month. We have just moved house and DH decided one morning while I was at work to unpack one of the boxes full of kitchen bits and bobs. He took each item out and put straight into a cupboard. Bless him - I hadn't the heart to say that I had allocated specific cupboards for specific items so when he was out I had to take everything our and reallocate all the items into the correct cupboards! He definitely DID a job as we had an empty box - but he also MADE a job because I had to empty the cupboard before I could do the job properly! Hey ho! At least he tried!

What alot of feelings I have after reading these posts.
Laughed aloud at oldgrey's grandmother's galloping horse.
MIL used to say,if asked what she was doing "making a shim sham to put a meddlers nose in"
Thanks all for the much needed "uplift"

I have loved these posts. My gran used to say "I'm not so green as I'm cabbage looking" . She used to take her apron off and check her hair in the mirror before she answered the phone by which time the phone had stopped ringing. My sisters and I used to sit on the stairs watching all this and cry with laughter, we never thought to answer the phone.

Oh*Sewsilver*, I said just that to my son last night on the phone! It was one of my Dad's favourite sayings.

That's so good to hear it's still being used Annobel.

My dad was a great storyteller and a teaser to boot. He have us all spellbound with some tall tale and at the end when we asked: Did that really happen? Is it true?, he'd say: Of course it is! It's as true as I'm riding this bike.

He'd usually be sitting at the dining table when he said that.