Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. ~Pearl S. Buck
I’m still thinking about Moms. And why not? Don’t you thing a mom deserves a week of special thoughts and memories. Someone on my Facebook page last week said she thought we should change Mother’s Day to Mother’s Remembrance Day. She meant that we ought to take time to remember and share stories. Maybe ask our mothers, if we still can, about their lives before they had kids or how they coped when they had kids. I like that idea. Before Mom sank into dementia, I took her to many doctors’ appointments where I would ask her questions about when she was a kid while we spent time in various doctor waiting rooms. Those were sweet times of memories because Mom loved talking about her younger days. And turned out to be be good times for me too since many of those memories made their way into the background of my book Angel Sister set in 1936. Her stories helped make my story better. The picture is of Mom, my sister, and me.
An old blog post I wrote in 2016 that was all about things mothers say popped up on my website and took me down memory lane as I thought about momisms. A momism is something a mother might say to her kids. Generally when we remember those momisms after we grow up they make us smile, but back when, those sayings probably ruffled our feathers a little.
My mother the same as most mothers had some momisms. She was always telling me “You’re going to trip on that lip.” I did a little pouting when I was a kid or so they said! She’d tell us our giggle boxes had gotten turned over when we couldn’t stop laughing. Sometimes she’d tell us to snap to it and we generally did. Later on, after we got older and had kids of our own, she’d tell us to not fret the small stuff. To enjoy the kids and not worry about the mess or the bare places in the yard. We were raising kids, not grass. I could always depend on Mom having common sense advice. One of her favorites was “It’ll all come out in the wash.”
My kids can remember a few Momisms they had to listen to as well. A favorite saying of mine was “If you don’t like it, don’t eat it.” I didn’t have the time or patience to hear complaints about whatever I had cooked for supper. None of my kids ever starved, so I guess they managed to eat what I cooked most of the time. Then when they reached driving age, I couldn’t let them go out the door without telling them to “be careful” as if that would keep my protective hand over them wherever they went. Young drivers have no idea about how a mother worries when her child gets behind the wheel of a car. But one I probably wore out with them was “Patience is a great virtue.” I’m sure my kids probably hated hearing that one because it generally meant they were going to have to wait for something.
A few years ago when I asked friends on Facebook to share their Momisms, I got some good ones. I especially liked this one. “You can get glad in the same clothes you got mad in.” Made me want to go back in time to say that to my kids. 
“If you don’t stop crying, I’ll give you something to cry about.” (Surely a favorite of mothers and fathers everywhere.)
“Can’t never could do anything.” (Mom said that and so did I. Maybe all mothers do!)
“Don’t worry it’ll be better before you get married.” (Talking about a minor cut or bruise.)
“Put some elbow grease in it.” (A teacher told a funny story about telling one of her students that and then the student searching the cabinets looking for a jar of that elbow grease.)
“Children should be seen, not heard.” (Not sure parents these days say that anymore. LOL)
So what Momisms did you hear when you were a kid?