The other day it occurred to me that I may be slowly turning into my parents.
As a teenager, I swore this would never happen, but as I grow into adulthood I feel this may be inevitable.
For example, I noticed recently that I am starting to use many of the sayings that my parents always said. This has been in the making for many years now, but with each year, I feel like I am losing the battle a little more. I can only imagine when we have kids some day, how many more things I will be saying.
One day way back in 2000, when Eric I are were in our first year of dating, I remember saying to him, ‘Catch ya later, I’m off like a herd of turtles.’
And then he looked at me, puzzled.
‘Like a herd of turtles?’
‘Ummm…yea. It’s just a saying..meaning, ‘I’m off, but not quickly’, I made slow, awkward turtle movements, followed by more puzzled looks. ‘I can’t believe you’ve never heard of that saying before!’, I laughed at him like he was the weird one, but secretly, I knew I was.
‘Nope, never heard of it…’ His eyes darted for the nearest exit.
Here we are 11 years later and I’m pretty sure it was my quirky, strange sayings that convinced him he couldn’t live without me. I know I said it was these cookies, but it was probably a bit of both. Eric loves to tease me about my dorky sayings (and this is coming from a Computer Science major who got 90’s in his courses!), but luckily, I have my share of teasing material too. Even though he doesn’t play World of Warcraft anymore, I will never let him live it down.
As the years go by, I find myself saying more and more things that my parents always said. I even chuckle to myself as I say them, as if I totally forget how I used to roll my eyes at my parents when they said them.
My dad’s sayings:
1. If you keep throwing dirt you’re gonna lose ground.
[I can’t say this and not laugh.]
2. I turned around and there he was…gone!
[My dad met someone in Newfoundland who said this, and he loved it so much he said it all the time.]
3. If a jobs worth doing, it’s worth doing right.
[My dad said this about EVERYTHING.]
4. Nobody goes there any more, it’s too crowded.
[No words.]
5. I used to walk for 2 hours in 6 feet of snow to get to school.
[Lies, lies!]
6. If you eat your veggies, it will put hair on your toes.
[Ummm…and he wondered why I fed them to our dog?]
My Mom’s sayings
1. There’s no peace for the wicked.
[Does my mom think I’m wicked? Does she think she’s wicked?]
2. Some day, your face is going to freeze that way!
[Traumatizing to any child, especially when you live in a cold climate.]
3. A little birdy told me.
[My mom often said this when she busted me for misbehaving and I demanded to know how she found out.]
4. I’m going to give you until the count of three. ONE, ONE and a QUARTER, ONE and a HALF, ONE and THREE QUARTERS, TWO, TWO and a QUARTER, TWO and a HALF, TWO and THREE QUARTERS, TWO and FOUR FIFTHS….ANGELA……
[bahaha. Classic. Oddly, I find myself saying this to Sketchie.]
5. Because I said so.
[Quite possibly the most infuriating thing a parent can say to a child.]
6. Money doesn’t grow on trees.
[Ok, I guess she totally wins this one.]
7. Don’t make me come in there
[My parents usually said this when my sister and I were fighting.]
8. Life isn’t fair.
[Usually said to me when I was grounded.]
9. Don’t go out with wet hair, you’ll catch pneumonia.
[I think I said this to Eric the other day. It was not a proud moment.]
10. When you’re the Mother, then you can be the boss.
[Sorta true, I guess…hahaha.]
11. I will turn this car right around.
[The frequently said threat when my sister and I fought in the backseat of the car, but I don’t think they ever did once turn around...]
12. If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?
[When you are a teenager, the common answer to this is YES (purely out of spite). This does not make the parent any happier.]
13. Hi HUNGRY, I’m Mom. OR Hi BORED, I’m Mom.
[The reply when I would complain that I was hungry/bored. Quite possibly the second most infuriating saying.]
The other day on Twitter, I asked you what sayings your parents always said and if there were any that you now say yourself. The responses that I received were hilarious, so I thought the topic would make a fun Daily Glow post. :)
What things did your parents say to you? Do you find yourself using any of them?
{ 171 comments… read them below or add one }
My mom and grandma always said (when I was having a problem) “It will all come out in the wash”, meaning that someday, things will work out. I love that saying and my coworkers think I’m crazy, but mentioning it gets me through rough days at work.
Hahaha My Parents always said these comments to me too!
My parents definitely used to tell me not to go outside with wet hair or I’d catch pneumonia…now I find myself telling others that lol. I’m part Romanian and my Romanian grandmother took care of my sister and I when we were little, while our parents were at work. After a meal, my sister and I would say in Romanian, “Thank you for the meal” and my grandmother would say, “You’ll grow up nice and pretty”…it rhymes in Romanian but I find myself using it with non-Romanian folk and then get a blank stare back :)
These are hilarious!
My mom would always say this (and still does sometimes too).
Me: Mom, can you take me to Rachel’s house?
Mom: Sure, I CAN, there are lots of things I CAN do.
Me: Mom, WILL you take me to Rachel’s house?
Mom: Sure!
That isn’t the best example, but my mom is the grammar police and although I am happy to know when to use what words, it irritated me to no end!!!
Oh my gosh my parents said the same thing! :)
My grandparents (my parents just inherited their wisdom) had two big ones:
- An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. (i.e., think ahead!)
- When choosing between two seemingly equal options, always choose the one that’s better for your personal life.
hilarious! My mom said so many of the same things as your mom. My dad always says “don’t answer a question with a question.” ah, the memories :)
Aahahaha my parents definitely used some of the same sayings! “Hi thirsty, I’m dad. Pleased to meet you!” so annoying when you’re four and want more juice!
They also liked to pull out these gems:
“hunger is the best sauce.”
“Get it?” – “Got it.” – “Good.”
“Sit-up, shut-up, and eat up!” (said in a nice way!)
“If you sing at the table you’ll get an ugly husband.” (K that might be the weirdest one haha).
Soo much wisdom, eh?
haha definately got a laugh at this post. I think it must be an mom/age thing cause my mom used to say ALL those same things to me all the time growing up! and my dad used to say a variation of number 5 and 6. For 5(the walking one) he said that plus it was always up hill both ways…and for 6 it was put hair on your chest(ewww!!! as a girl, who wants that?!?) lol.
hehe i love these sayings! my dad also used to say “if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right” ALL the time! he’d also always say “first time”, as in, do what you’re told the first time so i don’t have to tell you again. i’ve always told myself i won’t repeat my parents’ sayings as an adult but i catch myself occasionally!
A lot of times when my sister and I were misbehaving my mom would say “you just wait until you have kids”! Now that we both have kids and my mom is around when they’re misbehaving she looks at us and says “now you know what you were like”! with a big smile on her face..very frustrating! lol It’s kinda funny though because I now say the same thing to my daughter..I’m totally turning into my parents! And I can’t seem to stop it ! lol :D
My dad used to say to me and my sister “if you’re going to fight, take it outside.” In the dead of winter that was usually enough to make us behave.
:) I love this topic!
Love this post! I too feel that I’m slowly turning into my parents and it is soooo frightening! Ack!
My dad says a lot of corny stuff, but one phrase I can recall offhand is when he welcomes someone into his home he says, “Pull up a chair and sit on the floor.” I have no clue what it means or why he says it, but it always gets a chuckle. My dad also insists on pronouncing the “L” in salmon. Arg!
That’s funny. My dad would say “warsh” instead of “wash”. Why he added an “r” in there, I’ll never understand. He would also say “Was you going?” I’d always silently correct him, and now I have to catch myself whenever I say “were you going” to make sure I’m saying it correctly – ha!
There’s a line in a nonsense poem I remember from primary school which went along the lines of: ‘bring your own seats and we’ll sit on the floor’. It just reminded me of that :-)
My dad always used to say, “The world needs ditch diggers too,” everytime I said I couldn’t do something that he knew I was capable of – this made me cry once because for a moment I thought maybe I’d be better off as a ditch digger after I failed an economics exam.
My mom always said, “It’s a lovely day for ducks,” whenever it was raining. It’s all about perspective! :)
my hubby is on a world of warcraft hiatus… haha, lots of teasing when down over that!
i hear ya on parent’s sayings… and actions. my mom will say or do something and I’ll tell my husband, “is she getting crazier?” and he won’t answer because he thinks i do things just like her! haha
This was so funny to read – especially since my parents said a LOT of them. Even my husband says #13 to me after just about anything that I say with “I’m”. Like I’m tired, scared, hungry… etc. He always says “HI! I’m Kevin”. It DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!! :)
One other thing that my Dad always said was “Does a cat have a climbing gear?” OR “Does a bear poop in the woods?”. He would say that instead of saying “YES”. So, If I asked if I could go to a friends house and he responded with “Does a bear poop in the woods?” then I knew he meant I could go. I thought it was hilarious when I was young… but now I just roll my eyes.
LOL! Instead of saying “yes” to a request, sometimes my dad would ask “Is the Pope Catholic?”
My dad loves #4. That’s one of his favorite quotes.
I don’t think I say anything that my parents used to, but I definitely have the same mannerisms as my mom. It’s scary really.
whenever i said i’m hungry or tired as a kid my dad would go “hi hungry, i’m dad!” too. drove me insane.
You know I actually saw that Hi Bored, I’m xxx in a Garfield cartoon years ago and LOL’ed so hard!
this was such a fun post to read haha. gonna think about the silly things my parents used to say to ‘parent’ me ;)
So funny!!! I think we all turn into our parents at some point! I remember my always saying, “it’s good if you like it” whenever I would turn up my nose at something served for dinner. I am not sure I get that even today….but I say it all the time now when my husband says gross to something I am eating (usually something like a Green Monster).
Then whenever I would complain to my Dad about an ailment (something like, Dad my stomach hurts) he would say well does your face hurt? I would always say no?? And without fail he would say well it’s killing me. :)
My dad’s most infamous was “Its water under the bridge” and I have definitely used that one a few times.
I really love “I turned around and there he was…gone” First time hearing it but its a good one!!
hahaha these are hilarious. My parents said/say a lot of the same ones. One weird thing my mom always said was “Shoot a monkey!” In place of another “sh–” word… I find myself saying it out of habit sometimes & it always confuses people.
My dad always did the hi hungry I’m dad thing, but it just made me bust into giggles. I think it’s hilarious Eric used to play WOW but doesn’t now. There is hope! My boyfriend plays it and I’m ashamed to say I know more about it now then I wish too.
ohh..I love these…I just used the “It’s a lovely day for ducks” on someone…heehee
Two of my Dad’s sayings…which i find myself using frequently….If you gotta be dumb, you gotta be tough….meaning…make good choices. The other is “….and IF a bullfrog had wings he wouldn’t bump his a**…..after me making some explanation of well..IF’s. IT totally cracks me up!
My parents used “because I said so” a lot. It used to drive me CRAZY! Another one was “You will understand when you have kids of your own” totally made no sense to me as a kid. Kid’s of my own? Ya right.
I think I’ve picked up on my Mom’s mannerisms more than anything. The older I get, the more I’m beginning to act like her. Little things, like finishing sentences with a little song [I know it sounds weird, but it's adorable when she does it - usually when she's tired], or shaking her head back when she’s overwhelmed, or sighing when she gets frustrated [this used to drive me NUTS as a kid].
Now, when I do all of these things Kevin, my boyfriend, instantly asks “how’s your mom?”. Then, I reply with “I did it again, didn’t I?” and he nods. haha I guess there are worse things to pick up. I’m just so happy I didn’t I get my dad’s wit, that was left to my sister and boy does she get in trouble for the ‘jokes’ she makes!
Hah…my parents have sayings, but they weren’t nearly as tame as these!
I can’t remember any sayings my parents would say, but if dad was ever mad at me, he would attempt to say my name, but first would have to go through all of my sister’s names before he finally remembered mine. Now, when I get mad at one of my dogs, I say all the other dog’s names first before finally coming to the one I meant to say. I wonder what the future holds – ha!
My Dad always told me to never trust anyone who “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”. Mom said always speak when you walk into a room, “You didn’t wake up with these people” and “a girl can run faster with her dress up than a man can with his pants down” (I know, LMAO too). Both told me in their own ways “Family first, its all we have”
Also my mom always said this about some guy I liked that she didn’t really “If you like it, I love it” and she also never “paid me no rabbit assed mind”
They other thing… when I was ask ‘why’, my dad would say, “Because Y is a crooked letter that you can’t straighten.”
It drove me crazy to get that as a response from him, and it is my utter delight to torment my children in the same way now they are old enough.
My Grandpa totally used to say “Eat your (insert whatever we didn’t want to eat here), it’ll put hair on your chest!”…Thanks Gramps, but no thanks!
My Dad used to use the counting method also!! “I’m going to count to 3 and if you aren’t in your room/in bed…!! One….Two….” Not too long ago we were talking about this and I asked what he would’ve done if he ever got to THREE…?? He said that he was glad he never got there cause he really didn’t know what he was going to do!
Great post, so fun!
Lol, or eat your crusts, it’ll turn your hair curly!
Lol, my parents used to tell me the face freezing thing too… If I made a funny face and then the wind started blowing the opposite direction, my face would stay like that. And of course I believed it.
My co-worker always says “let’s see, said the blind man”….
We come from the UK, so my parents have tons of little sayings, or the way of saying it that is totally different. Jammy little dodger, little blighter, or the typical “eeeeeerrrree” (like “here- the h, spoken in a high pitched British accent), spoken in place of “what the **** are you doing?” And now I often hear myself doing that…arg!
Your dad’s sayings sound like Lancashire sayings (my family are from Lancashire in NW UK), which never ever make sense at all. For example.
“He’s neither middling nor muckling”.
WTF!!!
My dad ALWAYS says like a thundering herd of turtles! He also says ‘make like babies’ which is semi weird but I love my dad so its fine:)
My mom also does the turn the car around thing, but my favorite is “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”. I use that one all the time when i’m babysitting and the kids are fighting! Works like a charm:)
my dad would say “beggars can’t be choosers!” Which is totally true but so so annoying
Oh my gosh, I know I’m turning into my parents on a daily basis!
For me, there were:
“No news is good news” (I use this ALL the time now) – Mom
“When you work, you won’t have to do the dishes” (This was a total lie, I remember working my first 8 hour shift and then being asked to clear the table on a Saturday when I was the only one working that day. I was a bit miffed…) – Mom
“You’re slower than molasses in January” – This was Dad’s
Dad also used to sing a phrase of something that, for the life of me, I can’t remember now. Something about a coconut tree…
Dad would also use phrases that we used to think he just made up or was being rude, things like “copacetic” and “penistrobis” so when my brothers and I would hear them in science class or as old slang we’d laugh. Now we use these in regular sentences too!
I know there’s a lot more but I’d have to sit down and think about them all! I know Dad is filled with some classics!
They would always say the last one when I said I was hungry/bored/tired, and if I was hungry or tired, it would make me SO mad! Randomly, my boyfriend said “Gosh darn tootin’ ” months ago, and I had never heard that saying. I think I laughed for hours!
My mom says “I don’t know, Margot” a lot. Pretty sure it’s a line from Christmas Vacation. Can’t think of ones my dad says…
My parents always say “let’s blow this pop-stand” as in “let’s get out of here.” Funny to read your list!
omg mine to! did it make you visualize this little pop stand being exploded!?!?!? Lol what the heck is a pop stand anywais??
Wow! my dad used to say that too! I always thought he was the only one! And yeah, that’s pretty much what it made me think of. LOL!
My mom would say, “let’s blow this Popsicle stand” instead of “pop stand.” Either way, it doesn’t make a lot of sense!
i say popsicle stand too!
my parents say a lot of that stuff, too!!!!!
some other sayings:
can’t never could. (when I say I can’t do something =P)
whiney-hineys never make it. (my uncle came up with this one!)
These all come from my mom:
-If there’s a will, there’s a way
-A place for everything and everything in it’s place
-Consider the source
-”It’s like my mom always said…….” (Apparently, they came from her mom too)
:-)