Words and phrases that remind you of your parents?

[Plinketyplonks]

My late dad was a great one for being organised and filing things and labelling them correctly. He always had a box file labelled ‘sundries’, I rarely come across that word now but if I do it instantly makes me think of my lovely dad.

He also used ‘for Pete’s sake,’ ‘a pad’ (meaning a flat) and ‘digs’ (meaning university accommodation). Don’t often hear these now but they always remind me of him.

My mum always uses the phrase ‘took off like a Polaris missile’ when describing something taking off vertically (like a cat when you accidentally step on its tail). Polaris missiles were around in the 60s so I suppose that’s her reference. I never hear anyone say that

I have heard it. It is a very old proverb "Fine words butter no parsnips".

I find that people around my age (50s/60s) tend to still use a lot of the old phrases our parents used (my husband does a lot), but our children don’t. They are much more likely to pick up on things they’ve heard on American based TV or social media.

I say so many of the things on this thread and my dc have adopted a few. My dd forgets that a lot of this stuff isn't commonly used any more, recently her friends were aghast when she described someone as 'all talk and no trousers.' 😂

‘It’s six o’clock and not a child in the house washed!’ said when it was getting late and nothing being done. Parents are Irish and makes me think of big families with lots to do. Also ‘going to see a man about a dog’ which I think meant going to the Pub but could just be a ‘mind your own business’ type response!

Ah I love that. My DM used say ‘well this won’t get the bairn a new frock’ when nothing was being done. My DF was a fan of ‘going to see a man about a dog’ (pub). My maternal grandparents were Irish and my paternal grandparents were Scottish I think this is where lots of their sayings came from.

My Dad also used to say "I'm going to see a man about a dog" or "I'm going to the office" for the pub or the toilet.

remembered another one:

well, that's another job jobbed

not sure it means anything as such

I think it was kind of a roundabout way of indicating that we might be living between two worlds - one literary, dramatic, gramatically-pedantic and the other less so🙃

(LMC with both pretensions and WC relatives)

I absolutely love these types of threads. So much good stuff! Thanks to all 😍.

My mam had some great phrases when we were young.

• To a child dirty from a long day of play: You're as black as the ace of spades.
• Somebody who thought highly of themselves (notions): getting too big for their boots, or having a great welcome for themselves.
• When pressing food and tea upon guests: Sure you must be wall-falling with the hunger, or I'd say you'd eat the leg of the lamb of god at this stage.
• In response to a query about one's general well-being: Ah sure I'm still casting a shadow anyway.
• "A leana", Irish for "child", used as term of endearment; sometimes "a leana mo chroí" - child of my heart
• If she got a fright - You nearly put the heart crossways in me.

My mum would say 'Your eyes are too big for your belly' if we didn't finish food that we'd piled on our plate.

My mum would also say 'That's gone west' if we dropped and broke something.

We also said Home James and don't spare the horses!
My MIL used to say things were "going home" in a lugubrious way... "That kettle's going home" when something started to malfunction. The kettle was on its way to the happy hunting grounds....

My mum used to say “and the band played believe it if you like” when she didn’t believe my fibs as a child.

Wasn’t it hapworth ( half a penny) ?

I’ve never understood “ butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth”

Should be a book somewhere, and there is, by Ronald Massey, just Googled!

I assume i am not the only child who got a black line on my tongue when I told a lie? that only my mum could see

That's interesting. In my family it was 'Up in Annie's room, behind the clock'.

“to see a man about a dog”.
Always thought that was cockney rhyming slang for bog- toilet

That’s how my dad used it (he was Scottish), if we asked him where he was going and he said that we took it to mean he was off to the loo!

He also used ‘I want, doesn’t get.’ He was very fair. If we had one piece of cake or jam tart left to share between my sibling and I he used ‘one cuts, the other chooses’, so one cut it in half as equally as possible because they knew their sibling would be choosing the best piece first. I use that with mine now!

From him I learnt, ‘you don’t ask, you don’t get’, and the ‘squeaky wheel gets the oil’. I use the first one with my daughter to encourage her to ask people for things for example a pool noodle from the cupboard at the pool (you have to ask the lifeguard to get one).

Here are some (1950s - 1960s ) expressions my parents used.

You have snobby ideas above your class
Whats the good of educating a girl. Your only going to get married and have babies.
Your too choosy. If you want a man youl have to knit yourself one.
You were vaccinated with a gramophone needle. (too chatty)
You leave everything at your finger ends (untidy)

'All round Will's mother's' meaning going an necessarily long route.

My Mum said this to us and now says it to the grandkids, I've said that to my youngest before.

Also "Have you got seven bellies?" to my brother who was always hungry after school and to my kids who on a good day are always eating!

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride!
He piped his eye ( false tears)

"Have you got hollow legs?"