Comments on: If the wind changes, you’ll be left like that: Share your Mammy’s pearls of wisdom

By: salsera

salsera — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 14:30:44 +0000

My mother has loads of ways of calling someone jumped up. ‘She thinks she’s a cut above buttermilk/she’s only tuppence ha’penny looking down on tuppence/she’s only a jumped up wan from over a shop.’

We were told in no uncertain terms that the bogeyman didn’t exist.

‘Don’t sleep with wet hair, you’ll get Bell’s palsy’. I hate sleeping/going out with wet hair. It makes me freezing cold.

When tending a cut ‘You’ll be better before you’re married’.

My Dad has much funnier expressions, though.

Me: What’s that, Daddy?
Him: It’s a wheedle deedle for shooting crickets.
Me: Ah, what is it really?
Him: It’s a wing wong for winding up the sun.

You learned not to ask what he was doing eventually..

By: Eva

Eva — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 22:30:43 +0000

My Italian mother told me a lot of crap while I was growing up, but one pearl has stayed with me: “Watch how a man treats his mother. He’ll treat you the exact same way.”

It’s true, innit?

By: Laineyb

Laineyb — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 21:19:10 +0000

Hahaha these are so funny Im weak! Mine was “theres always an arse or an elbow on you!”. That was used when I was moaning about something & it makes no sense. Another one my mam always said was “Better out than in your eye!”. Dont ask me what she meant. and whenever one of us grandkids used to say we were bored & what could we do to our Grandad he would say: “put your thumb in your bum & sit on your elbow!”. Haha

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:47:49 +0000

No matter what illness you had ‘TCP and Sudocrem and go to bed’ Even if your leg was hanging off you it was always the same response!

By: JennyR

JennyR — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:19:44 +0000

OMG, IceGirl, I thought it was only my Mum that said that!! Nellie’s room??? Who the hell is that then???

By: Sugar

Sugar — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 16:09:34 +0000

Haha oh yeah, got the whole ‘you’ll catch pnemonia from going to bed with wet hair’ thing, the ‘don’t sit on the wall, you’ll get piles’, ‘don’t suck on your hair or it’ll turn to rats tails’, ‘get that hair out of your eyes or you’ll go blind’,'shoes on the table is a sign of an argument’, ‘if you drop a glove let someone else pick it up, it’s bad luck to you and a blessing to them to do a good deed’- was an ocd thing in later life and ‘never put your feelings on paper’,- which is actually what I do all the time!

and a gem from my dad ‘you’ll get square eyes if you stare at that gogglebox for too long’ (gogglebox=tv)

By: cailín

cailín — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:59:52 +0000

one of my fave things mum says is ‘always meet on neutral ground’ if you were to meet a man for a date…..

By: cailín

cailín — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:58:22 +0000

wet hair has not yet killed me, but my mum is convinced it will, or at least bring on some facial palsy(I’m serious!) She also said sticking out your tongue made Our lady cry, tops too short will give you a kidney infection, hot baths will ruin your veins (maybe that one is a bit true!) all green salad leaves contribute to migraine, not having a sheet in bed may lead to hypothermia and wet shoes will also cause severe colds.

By: IceQueen

IceQueen — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:07:36 +0000

SLH, I got the whole Gresham thing too but it was from my Nana. It must have been super-posh back in the day.

By: IceQueen

IceQueen — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:04:25 +0000

I forgot one – if I couldnt find something and asked Mam where was it, it was always “up in Nellie’s room behind the wallpaper”.

I still to this day have no idea who this Nellie person is or why her wallpaper hid all my stuff.