My mom has a bunch of little signs with positive sayings about. She’s one of the parents that those Progressive people are becoming.
One of them says the following:
“True friends leave footprints on your heart.”
I see what it is trying to say, but my first reaction is to think, “True friends don’t walk all over your heart.”
It seems dumb to me. What do you think?
Yeah, it’s weird. It sounds like it’s missing the contrasting first half, like it should start with ‘bad friends leave footprints on your clean carpets’ or something
The very best friends don’t leave tooth marks on your privates.
@Cervaise:Unless you enjoy that sort of thing. 
Back to the OP:
A lot of schmaltzy sayings are written by folks who are barely literate, or who are pretending to be. That’s also their target market, so it works.
You can see the miscued allusion to the schmaltzy saying about footprints in the sand and Jeebus carrying you through the hard parts. There are similar sayings about your pets leaving pawprints on your soul.
My bottom line: Yes it’s dumb. Such sayings and signs are all mostly dumb.
It’s a clumsy metaphor for someone having an emotional impact/connection. Yes - it’s dumb.
Maybe help her find a replacement saying?
“It’s darkest just before it goes pitch black.”
How about
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to post a bunch of silly signs and remove all doubt?
Optimism is the first step to disappointment.
Never stop giving up!
“But, I only see your footprints on my heart during the good times, not the bad times. You abandoned me during my worst times!”
“No, those are the times when I carried your heart.”
If this thread is going to turn into a general thread about weird or creepy sayings, how about the one where somebody gets a shiver out of nowhere and says “a goose just walked over my grave”. So, at some point in the future after the person is dead and buried, a goose walking over their grave sends vibrations backward through time that gives them a shiver? Creeeepy.
Sounds like a variant of:
“You can count on your friends to tell you the brutal truth.”
“I asked why there was only one set of footprints in the sand. Jesus told me the sand people travel single file to hide their numbers.”
“Bad friends take pictures of your heart….”
Right now, in the future, but right now, then.
Trying is the first step on the road to failure.
Trust is the first step on the road to betrayal.
A friend will help you move. A true friend helps you move a body.
You tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.
Every dead body on Mt. Everest was once a highly motivated person.
You’ve got to start early if you want to be drunk all day.
I understand the sentiment- it’s supposed to be the idea that your friends leave an indelible mark on your soul- they’re more than transitory. But the footprints thing does imply walking over someone’s heart, which is a weird idea.
I kind of think that it, like most of these sort of “wise” one-liners aren’t supposed to be thought about very deeply- they’re just supposed to be read, understood at a very surface level, and bring a little smile to your face/warm your soul a little bit. They’re not collected sayings from famous philosophers or anything like that.
That’s also why those sarcastic ones are so funny; they’re kind of showing what’s behind the curtain.
The grass is always greener on the other side 'cause you haven’t been over there to fuck it up yet.