Parentisms

What weird things did/do your parents say? Things that may or may not be unusual but you always and forever associate with them?

The one that comes immediately to mind from my mom is "stop fiddlefarting around!" I have NO idea if other people use that non-word.

My dad liked to do the wrong word on purpose. Like "do me a flavor" and "it's getting froggy out". I get misty when I find occasions to use those.

Oh my god. My parents are FAMOUS for these things. Mostly my dad, really, and his little pet names. He calls me and my brother "oondegowa" and "tootaweenie." We've been called that since we were little. And I really have no idea where he got that from. Nor do we know which is which... :o/

My mom and dad also have this ANNOYING (to me) habit of correcting each other's speech to make it sound like they were from NE Philly. Example:

Me: "I'm going to take the train from Trenton-"
Dad: "You mean Treh-ah."

or

Mom: "I think I've lost a button."
Dad: "A what?"
Mom: "A buh-ah."

...It drives me MAD for some reason. I don't even know why.

hahahah! i know just what you mean! people in philly talk like that!

my mom says prounces "hurricane" as "hairacane" and she says "tavren" and "cavren" instead of cavern and tavern.

She also makes us call her mother dearest sometimes. Or if she sees something beautiful like a sunset she'll say, "breathe that in, kids. you might be dead tomorrow."

I actually have that accent and never really realized it was an accent until I got to college and people found it very annoying. *embrassed*

my mom uses fiddlefart, she also uses the shortened form "stop farting around"

I got "stop farting around" but never the fiddle related one. My mom calls me Munchkin even though I'm 23 and 6 feet tall now, and Dad still insists that it's 'bedtime for bonzo'.
Alex

Be proud of that accent!!! I live in Arizona now where just about EVERYONE has a midwest accent (because that's becoming the standard for the country). It has fewer vowels and nobody can say my name right. Keep that unique dialect!

I've been told I have a midwestern accent by certain right-coasters :-)

my mother did the "Fartin' around" thing but she also says:

When she's being sarcastic:
"Oh, be still my beating heart"

when we were younger:
"see my finger, see my thumb, see my fist you better run!"

"are you high?" (i do a perfect imitation of her saying this)

re: anyone misbehaving
"s/he's got the devil in 'im"

"oh, lordy-lordy!"

anything done fast is done "for jesus" - "when they said she was in the hospital, i was drivin' for jesus, i tell yeh." ..to which i usually tell her she's never done anything for jesus.

"you little shit!" (said in cutesy voice to nearest child, usually followed a few hours later by a scolding for one of us to not curse in front of said child).

..despite the few religious quips, my mother is not religious at all. in fact, she converted to judaism but doesnt practice much anymore. they're mostly family sayings. :P

My dad's most-used phrase is probably "I'm sorry if I'm talking while you're interrupting." I've never heard anyone else say that. Except maybe me. He also likes to tell people that "blackberries are red when they're green." Somehow, he keeps finding new ways to work that one into conversation.

It's harder to think of quirky things my mom says, probably because I'm a miniature version of her so I think they're all normal. A big one is "well, throw you a fish!" as a sarcastic congratulations to someone who's bragging. She also likes to talk about "bad mom cards" whenever she feels guilty about anything - it's an illusion to an old New Yorker cartoon.

My sister and I both hate onions. My mother would cook with them anyway, and every time we protested, would tell us "you can't taste them. They're just there for flavor."

I used to have the Philly accent... and then we moved to the suburbs and I conformed to what my parents sounded like (my mom being from NJ and my dad from... well... everywhere). But I remember people making fun of me in elementary school because I pronounced the first month of the year "Jee-anuary."

And so it was lost forever. Well, sometimes it comes out when I'm with a bunch of other Philadelphians, but it's definitely subtle. Wudder forever! ;oD

you hate onions? like, even in things?

What do you eat???

Where my mom's theory fell flat (besides the fact that you could, in fact, *taste* the onions), was that I objected most fervently to the texture of onions, and not the flavor. And also to the concentration of all the onion flavor in one spot. I'm fine with diffuse onion-a-city. I just pick out onions that are too big to pass the "can easily blend in with the rest of the forkful" test.

I also disliked the texture of onions. I am so glad I am not alone.

Me too. I could ignore them if they weren't the focus of the dish and if they weren't noticable texturally. Then I could live in denial. :) But any direct noticability? ew. wouldn't eat it.

Yeah, I guess I could see that... cooked onions can be kinda slimy.

I totally agree. My mother would say that kind of thing all the time. Or she's say, "you can't even taste it." To which I'd reply, OK leave it out then.

When I'd bite my tongue or my cheek my mother would say;" That's for telling a lie to your mother."

If my father accidentally hurt me (e.g. stepped on my toe) he'd say; "That's for nothing. Imagine if you did something."