Mom says “You are a wart on the pickle of progress” I had no idea for years that she is the only person on the planet who says this, I assumed it was a common expression.
One thing my mom used to say that never failed to crack us up was “Lies have short legs.” It’s still funny.
Another thing mom would do would be to stutter through all of our names to finally hit on the name of the perp-of-the-moment. Sometimes even the dog’s name or the cats’ names got thrown into the mix! When I had teenagers of my own, I found myself doing the same thing.
I was known to disassemble toys (or non-toys) to see how they worked. I was told more than once that I would “tear up the devil himself, if you could get your hands on him”.
Kid: “I want …blah blah blah”
SIL: “Well I want a million dollars and a trip to Tahiti” (my husband has co-opted this as "a million dollars and a trip to Antarctica. Not a hot weather person there)
Whenever my family would be late to go somewhere, which was almost always, my dad would inevitably say, “And we’re off like a herd of turtles.” I have taken up the mantle and utter it from time to time.
When my mom got exasperated with us as kids, not when we were really bad but if we were being really silly or annoying she’d tell us to stop it “or I’ll Beat You TO A BLOODY PULP!!!” with her voice crescendoing at “pulp.” None of us even knew what a “bloody pulp” was, it was just a funny thing Mom said when she was tired of our shenanigans. She had an embarrassing moment in the grocery store one day when she chastised me and I jokingly said “Oh no Mom, please don’t beat me to a bloody pulp!” I remember all the other moms looking shocked at her as she sheepishly tried to explain that she never beat me to a pulp, she just often said she would. They didn’t get it.
Without thinking I once said it to my girlfriend in college when she did something annoying, much to her abject horror. I explained that it was just something my Mom used to say to us growing up, and that it was meant to be funny. She didn’t get it either.
My dad, bless him, used to say “If it cost a nickel to pee, I’d have to wet myself” whenever my sister or I would ask for money.
His opinion of family? “Ya gotta love them, but you sure don’t have to like them!”
I say many things to drive TheKid nuts. If she announces she’s going to ask me something, my response never makes any sense. The favorite non-responses are “lavender salamander” or “7,892”. If she asks where something came from? “Well, when a daddy [object] and a mommy [object] really love each other…”
Yes. I am that parent.
When my sisters were competing excitedly trying to be the first to tell my dad something he would raise his hand and say " Hey you two, not so fast, slow down to a frenzy!"