Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. ~Pearl S. Buck
I’m still thinking about Moms. And why not? Don’t you thing a mom deserves a week of special thoughts and memories. Someone on my Facebook page last week said she thought we should change Mother’s Day to Mother’s Remembrance Day. She meant that we ought to take time to remember and share stories. Maybe ask our mothers, if we still can, about their lives before they had kids or how they coped when they had kids. I like that idea. Before Mom sank into dementia, I took her to many doctors’ appointments where I would ask her questions about when she was a kid while we spent time in various doctor waiting rooms. Those were sweet times of memories because Mom loved talking about her younger days. And turned out to be be good times for me too since many of those memories made their way into the background of my book Angel Sister set in 1936. Her stories helped make my story better. The picture is of Mom, my sister, and me.
An old blog post I wrote in 2016 that was all about things mothers say popped up on my website and took me down memory lane as I thought about momisms. A momism is something a mother might say to her kids. Generally when we remember those momisms after we grow up they make us smile, but back when, those sayings probably ruffled our feathers a little.
My mother the same as most mothers had some momisms. She was always telling me “You’re going to trip on that lip.” I did a little pouting when I was a kid or so they said! She’d tell us our giggle boxes had gotten turned over when we couldn’t stop laughing. Sometimes she’d tell us to snap to it and we generally did. Later on, after we got older and had kids of our own, she’d tell us to not fret the small stuff. To enjoy the kids and not worry about the mess or the bare places in the yard. We were raising kids, not grass. I could always depend on Mom having common sense advice. One of her favorites was “It’ll all come out in the wash.”
My kids can remember a few Momisms they had to listen to as well. A favorite saying of mine was “If you don’t like it, don’t eat it.” I didn’t have the time or patience to hear complaints about whatever I had cooked for supper. None of my kids ever starved, so I guess they managed to eat what I cooked most of the time. Then when they reached driving age, I couldn’t let them go out the door without telling them to “be careful” as if that would keep my protective hand over them wherever they went. Young drivers have no idea about how a mother worries when her child gets behind the wheel of a car. But one I probably wore out with them was “Patience is a great virtue.” I’m sure my kids probably hated hearing that one because it generally meant they were going to have to wait for something.
A few years ago when I asked friends on Facebook to share their Momisms, I got some good ones. I especially liked this one. “You can get glad in the same clothes you got mad in.” Made me want to go back in time to say that to my kids. 🙂
“If you don’t stop crying, I’ll give you something to cry about.” (Surely a favorite of mothers and fathers everywhere.)
“Can’t never could do anything.” (Mom said that and so did I. Maybe all mothers do!)
“Don’t worry it’ll be better before you get married.” (Talking about a minor cut or bruise.)
“Put some elbow grease in it.” (A teacher told a funny story about telling one of her students that and then the student searching the cabinets looking for a jar of that elbow grease.)
“Children should be seen, not heard.” (Not sure parents these days say that anymore. LOL)
So what Momisms did you hear when you were a kid?
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My mom told me nearly every day, “Don’t ever say can’t. Can’t died in the poorhouse.”
My son was giving his Mother’s Day sermon and recited common Momisms. He’d start them and let the congregation finish them. He looked right at me when he quoted me saying, “what part of no don’t you understand?” Obviously, he went through a rebellious period. But he grew up well.
Author
Cute story about your son’s sermon, Mina. Obviously he finally understood all the parts of no. 🙂
I hadn’t heard the Can’t died in the poorhouse. That’s a good one.
My mom always said.” Can’t never could do nothing” and my step-mom would say” Don’t be ugly” which meant don’t act bad toward one another.
As a mom I would say”Can’t go over it, can’t go under it, gotta go through it” whenever my kids dreaded something like a test or a dental appointment. I said that so much that my sisters had that put on a shirt as a fundraiser when I was diagnosed with cancer.
Author
I said that “don’t be ugly” to my kids and have carried it over at times to my grandkids. It can cover a lot of ground, Lisa. A good momism.
That “can’t go over it, can’t go under it, gotta go through it” was all you could do when you got that cancer diagnosis. Made a good t-shirt saying for you.
I told my own children and my little ones at school “Don’t just stand there like a lost ball in high weeds—get busy!” Or, my mother used to say “She’s standing there like a goose looking for thunder!” (There must have been a lot of “standing” going on when I was little!😂
Author
I’ve heard that lost ball in high weeds on, Margie. I think I may be feeling like that with my work in progress. But I’ve never heard the goose looking for thunder one. That’s interesting.
One of my mother’s Momisms was “Don’t put in writing anything you don’t want to see printed in the newspaper.”
Author
Good advice, Suzanne. We might amend it today to say best think three times before you hit send or enter on some of those social media posts.