Now be truthful, how many of you have run with scissors, just because your mom told you not to. The idea was to prove her wrong. You did not poke your eye out. Well maybe some of you, that do not have really good coordination may have stabbed yourself a number of times, but how many kids do you know that poked their eye out? Now be truthful. How many?
Where did mothers learn these sayings anyway? Is it just part of being a mom? Is this something that becomes part of the mom personality when your first child is born? My mom had them all.
My favourite one was, "If so and so jumped off a bridge would you have to do it too?". That one encompassed everything from wearing really ugly clothes, to bad hair dos, to drinking at some party, to driving with no licence. The list goes on and on.
My mother used it on numerous occasions, especially when we wanted to do something she thought was
not appropriate, or when we wanted to go to the parties that were held at Red Sands Beach.
I would stand there with my hands on my hips, crying, everyone is going**sniffle sniffle**.
She would stand her ground in the kitchen with her hands on her hips and yell, "IF EVERYONE JUMPED OFF THE BRIDGE WOULD YOU HAVE TO DO IT TOO?" (It always seemed to be an appropriate saying, as we had a bridge over the lake where I lived). That was her way of saying, there is not a chance in hell you are going to some drunken party, where I'm going to get a call in the middle of the night to come and get your sorry ass from the cop shop. Today, I think of all the things that I did that could have ended just that way, and laugh. Oh my god the degradation and humiliation that she could have put me through, had she just let me go to that party. The I told you so's that she would have had.
Everyone remember the "Your face will stick like that if you keep it up". My sisters and I (pre little brother days) would spend time making faces at each other, usually from the corners that our faces were stuffed into as a punishment for doing something we were not suppose to. That was one of the punishments we were forced to endure as children. It was better than the one where you had to hug the one you were fighting with. You could not make faces at someone when you were that close.
We had a house that had a hallway with 3 corners. Just big enough for 3 little girls in trouble. You had to stick your face in the corner and think about what you had done wrong. YA RIGHT. We would wait for Mom or Dad to leave the area and the faces would start. Sticking out tongues, pulling your eyelids or any other thing you could think of to make ugly faces at each other. Then out of the blue, there would be a voice holler "YOUR FACE WILL STICK LIKE THAT IF YOU KEEP IT UP". Funny I look in the mirror every day and don't see the remnants of any of those faces. Or maybe that was the start of these little lines that everyone seems to notice now. Hummm maybe Mom and Dad were right after all.
OH NO, did I really say that?
One other little diddy that comes to mind right now was this, "Just wait till your Father gets home". How many of you heard that one? In our house, it was not the punishment we were worried about, it was telling Dad what you had done. Mom would tell us, "Just wait till your dad gets home". We were never really sure what that meant. Most times Dad just came home, cleaned up and sat down to dinner. Now for me, my biggest fear was that my Dad would think less of me. He was, is and always will be my hero. I think to this day, Mom used that one just to throw a little fear into us so we would behave.
The things we were told to get us to behave. To act like humans, not animals. Now I find I'm a mother, grandmother and great grandmother with an ever growing repertoire of sayings that used to belong to my mother. I have over the years added to hers, but the old die hards are still many of my favourites.
Please use them with care. They do and always will, pack a heavy punch when delivered by a forceful Mother. The lady we all love.
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