Things my mum said.

I have started to really notice that the older I get, the more I catch myself turning into my mother.

Every now and again I will say something to E that I realise MY mum said to me. It's a weird experience and one that cracks me up as I realise just how much influence my mother's words had on me, and ergo what influence I'm likely exuding over my son and his future actions.

Crap.

It made me wonder if any of my friends were experiencing the same thing and I decided to ask them for things they remember that their mums said. The results are pretty damned funny. And I strongly suspect a few of our mums must have colluded or else gone to the same school of motherhood back in the day.

My mum

My mum's fashion advice to my sister and I was to always let your boobs be bigger than your waist. Luckily she also gifted us with her genetically oversized mammary glands so even at my largest, it hasn't been a problem adhering to this mantra. Even when hugely pregnant my stomach barely exceeded the 'ladies'. In fact it's been said that my boobs enter the room about 5 minutes before I do. So there you go mum, advice taken.

Cathy

I spent a lot of time with Cathy's family growing up and can tell you that they're a cast of characters due at least one or more blog posts all of their own (in fact, there's already a few about - see here and here). Cathy's mum is awesome and regularly came out with some absolute pearlers. I've listed them below but won't steal Cathy's thunder in case she wants to write about them herself (hint hint).

Keep yourself nice - said every time you walked out the door
You look like the wreck of the Hespress
You are not a sausage - referring to how she described our school as the sausage factory

Brilliant stuff.

Sharee

Don't put it down, put it away

(mind you my stepmother has been saying that for 25 years and it hasn't yet sunk in).

Indi

Look in the mirror and then take something off. Less is more
Start trends, don't follow them
Can you stop dating dirty old rockers who our our age

Larissa

Do you think I came down in the last shower?

Julie

Stop walking around with a face like ditch water!
Stop being so melodramatic!

and my favourite...

Mum, have you seen my [insert item] here? 'Yes Julie it's swinging off my bottom lip shouting Tarzan'

Marie

If you sit on cold concrete you will get piles
No, that's not a laxette, that's chocolate for being a good girl this week
If the wind changes, your face will stay that way
One day you will have a daughter and see for yourself how hard it is to raise a child like you

Marie's mum also gets the award for most creative for this one:

In response to yelling at her brother 'why don't you frigging be nice' (thinking 'frigging' was a nice word for the bad F word) her mother informed her that 'frigging' was something that prostitutes do!

Priceless!

And then of course there's the old pearls of wisdom (over)used by every mum, everywhere:

Back in my day...[insert overly dramatic event here such as walking barefoot to school through the wind/rain/snow/cyclone etc etc]

Because I said so!

and...Wait until your father gets home!

The father one was especially effective for me, which was kind of weird seeing as my mum was the disciplinarian and dad was always kinda laid back and cool, but it struck fear into my heart every. single. time.

What did your mum tell you? Do you catch yourself saying the same things to your kids or are you guilty of an entirely new set of word crimes? I'd love to hear from you, feel free to comment or do your own blog post and link back to the comments.

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xx