Thank you for the invitation to revisit some of my mother’s favorite lessons.
I hope when you grow up you'll have kids just like you.
o Always wear clean underwear … you never know.
o How to eat dinner with my ‘mouth shut’.
o Telling me a million times ‘not to exaggerate.’
o That if I keep making funny faces my face could freeze ‘that way’.
o ‘Shut the door – you don’t live in a barn.’
o ‘You can be anybody or anything you want except rude – don’t be rude.’
o ‘Eat your dinner – people are starving in Africa.’
o ‘Don’t make me come in there.’
o ‘Mind you Ps and Qs’.
o One of my favorites: ‘I hope when you grow up you’ll have kids just like you.’
Kevin Driscoll(Mostly) Vegetarian, Politically Progressive, Daily Runner, Spiritual, Helpful, Friendly, Kind, Warm Hearted and Forgiving. Resident of Braintree MA.
Characterizations:
been there, funny, moving
Thanks Kevin for sharing your Irish mom’s good advice , I think much of it is universal!
These are great and very familiar (Irish and Jewish mothers must have a lot in common). Thanks for the smile, Kevin.
Those sayings do sound familiar, although I hadn’t heard the one about being rude—that’s a good one. Especially these days with so many bullies out there insisting that their freedom is paramount regardless of what it does to others. Whatever happened to the golden rule?
Thanks for giving us your mother’s lessons, Kevin. The only ones that resonated with me were the “clean underwear” and the “people are starving” ones. This prompt has given us insight into so many different types of mothers!
Love these rules! My Jewish mother had the same ones, plus “Turn out the lights. We don’t work for Edison.”
For us it was “Public Service” we neither worked for nor owned stock in!”
Good advice from Mom, Kevin. As others have noted, I think many of those were universal pieces of “mom” wisdom!
Some of these things actually end up making more sense than we are inclined to give them credit for.
Four of your Mom’s proverbs made their way directly into my Mom’s parenting advice handbook!