I remember being a slightly, shall we say mischievous, teenager and my mother would reprimand me verbally. The conversations would always end the same with me providing a witty retort to everything she said often along the lines of; ‘don’t care’ and ‘so’. Until eventually she would throw up her hands in sheer frustration and cry;
‘Just wait till you have kids.’
And on that cliffhanger she would turn on her heel and walk out of the room.
Well I have kids and now know that weighted sentence is the ultimate last word. Even though my children are not close to the dreaded teenage years I whole heartedly know how my mother must have felt with every smart arsed response I gave her. And now to my teenaged self horror I find myself quoting my mother; knocking out some of her infamous one liners in an attempt to rule my kids.
I coax twin girl at meal times to eat her crusts and at night she dreams of waking up to shirley temple curls and faces crushing disappointment daily as her hair remains ironed straight all because I have told her a whopping great porkie! Why the bloody hell are crusts so important anyway? Is that where Hovis secretly inject the hidden vegetable glue?
Twin boy foils my stupid sayings easily; when I ask him to eat his greens saying there are starving children in Africa. He merely disappears from the table and returns with an envelope and pen ready to post his broccoli and peas to sunnier climates.
Like my mother when I am fed up of hearing ‘mummmmmmmmmy’ I merely announce I am changing my name. Again no effect on my children they merely start calling me Jane; or if twin boy is on top form my name can be changed on my behalf to ‘poo poo head’ or ‘wee wee pants.’
The classic one liner I have not used yet is ‘ oh just go and play with traffic’. My kids have a habit of taking me literally which could evoke a rather disastrous situation.
I did rather stupidly tell twin boy off last week when he was swinging from his bunk bed with the clever line of;
“Don’t come running to me when you break your legs.”
Needless to say he didn’t. However I had my revenge as the poor lad now thinks he is growing an orange tree in his belly as he defied my advice to not eat the pips.
And be honest does anyone know anyone who has had the misfortune to die from sucking their hair? My mother drummed it into me that should I persist in this rather yucky habit I would cultivate a hair ball the size of a hamster in my throat which would eventually lead to my untimely demise. I in turn repeat the same words to twin girl but feel that like the crust thing this could be a bit of a whopper.
Last summer I assured my children that should they break their necks whilst playing carelessly in the garden there was no way I would take them to legoland the next day.
And when their play fighting eventually leads to an injury of some nature I actually turn into my mother, my hair darkens slightly and my accent turns more broad yorkshire as I look upon the injured child and say ‘has your leg fallen off?’, ‘no? Then its fine, stop fighting with each other?.’ I barely recognise the women who used to rush a toddler with scraped knee to the sink and tenderly wipe the tears away.
But my two favourite saying of my mothers, both which are used frequently are;
1. ‘Wait till I get you home!’
Completely pointless; my short term memory is so appalling after the birth of bb that we all know I will forget what upset me so much in the first place. I may as well just shout ’empty threat, empty threat’ as it would have the same impact.
2. ‘Because I said so and mummy know best.’. To end any argument.
Again I use it so often and the twins just laugh as me and often reply; ‘ok how do you make a rocket?’
Clearly they have inherited my ability to have the last word!
Any more clangers you or your mum say please leave them below so I know I am not alone in my stupid one liners.
Oh I so used to believe the whole tree in your tummy one….
‘If you’re pulling that face when the wind changes, you’ll get stuck like that.’ – Why? What’s the wind got to do with anything?
i wish it had stuck on my 22 year old face – less wrinkles!
Great post and one I totally relate to. There must be a long list of one liners I use. I corrected my mother recently for saying ‘because’ when my 3 year old said ‘why?’, as I said she shpuld explain further. So Today I said exactly the same thing when my 3 year old said ‘why’ to me. however she didn’t give up and instead kept saying ‘why’ until I gave her a satisfactory answer.
lol, bless
Haha, I enjoyed this. So true – and I think I still believe you can die from hairballs!
Until I turned into a teenage bitch my mum could easily silence me with “I’ll make you eat liver!” Guess I could have refused but I didn’t think to at the time. Damnit…
Still, as I say, teenage horror. I really hope little one isn’t as bad as I was *crosses fingers* though she seems to have inherited my feistiness so it’s no doubt a vain hope! x
funny!!!
Oh my, I love the mailing the Broccoli bit! 🙂 the only ones I can think of is ” if u don’t eat your carrots, you won’t be able to see in the dark” and if you swallow gum, it will stick your insides together!
I ate a lot of carrots and could read my books in bed?
I remember most of the above. Along with ‘if *insert name* put their hand in a fire/jumped off a cliff would you?’ Whenever I asked for something reasonable like to stay out all night like the named friend! Not forgetting my Dads ever funny ‘let me help you pack’ when I threatened to run away!
My dad just to leave my bag by the door!
Ah yes, the great mummy sayings. My mum, when I asked her what I could draw, looking for inspiration, used to say “your breath”. And when asked what’s for tea – “Ham, lamb or jam”. I’m sure there’s lots more. But I have been (obviously) selective in my memory and to remember never to say them to my children. Except I will. Lol Xx
your time will come mary
Actually, just to be a big bore, our doctor was very concerned about daughter’s hair chewing. she used to eat hair, and yes it can pass through but it can also get stuck in stomach and cause lots of damage. so yes, hair sucking is really bad, not as bad as deliberately eating hair but still bad. Chewing nails though is fine.
Not the best link but you get the idea
http://thebeautybrains.com/2007/11/27/danger-eating-hair-can-kill-you/
blooming heck – please note readers I take no responsibility for the drivel I write!
oh lawd. my daughter chews hair! arse
thanks for update
I always say to my daughter (2) “who’s the boss?” and she generally replies with “me” or worse still “Daddy” to which I reply “he wishes”!
hehehehe – good lady
I tell my boy he’ll get bogeyitis – or a visit from the bogey man – to stop him picking his nose (yuck!)
He just ignores me.
typical response i find!
The phrase I remember my mother using most often when we used to whinge or complain or otherwise attempt to get our way, was in fact only one word: ‘Tough!’. With that, she would resume whatever it was she was doing that we objected to…we knew that was it, no discussion, nothing. There was no coming back from ‘tough’. Pretty powerful stuff.
I haven’t yet invoked the power of this single word with my daughter, but I suspect I will when she is older…(am I still scared of its power?!)
The phrase I most often use, which I think you’ve heard me say before on here, is, said with some finality: ‘I don’t have to discuss this with you.’
The key is that it is self-fulfilling….!!!
Incidentally, Billy Connolly is very funny on the subject of parents’ stupid one-liners…
E x
look at you linking on the blog – i like it!
funny stuff
Here we go…just a small excerpt…do find the rest if you can, it’s so funny, and very apt for this discussion! E x
lol