Sayings that need to be amended - - -
 

I've heard some of these sayings over and over - and thought they made no sense or should be amended -

Examples:

"You made your bed, now lie in it!"

Okay - so it's uncomfortabe - why do I need to stay in it?

I can get (the ****) our of it and
a) remake it,
b) buy a new bed, or
c) go sleep on the couch
d) if things are really bad, there is the floor or under a bridge


"Get off the pity pot"

Okay - I think it's okay to sit on the pity pot - for a while - just be careful to not fall in it!


"If life hands you lemons, make lemonade"

That's limiting - one can also make lemon bars, lemon pie - there are even some folks that ENJOY sucking a lemon. Of course, the lemons still need to be usable - - -


Anyone else think along these lines?

I've has similar thoughts.

Making your bed and lying in it --- will only mess it up. Lay in it before you make it. Lots of sayings don't always make sense. Maybe the sayings have been changed since they originally were said.

An alternative to the bed is "you sh** in your nest, now live in it" - and I think it is meant that you screwed something up yourself and now you need to deal with it yourself. And the person who coined the lemonate phrase obviously had not met Tequila.

LOL I think you said it all !

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Could never figure this out as a child.

Maybe it should be, "Here, have some cake to eat."

I want to eat some and then have some for later.

I thought the saying was "You can't eat your cake and have it too."

Time's fun when you're having flies!

You can't take it with you.

sure you can. you might have to buy a few extra burial plots, but you can make sure you stuff ends up where you do.

i can't see the point, though.

having taken it along, you still wouldn't be able to use it.

LOL, time is NOT fun when you have flies!!! I've always said, "Time flies when you're having fun" and it does fly when I'm creating at my sewing machine! At least when I'm sewing, not unsewing.

Girls, you are missing the point of these sayings. You made your bed has been explained, the one about making lemonade means turn a negative into a positive. As for you can't take it with you, I believe it was meant that we shouldn't place too much importance on money or material things. Time flies when you're having fun. Look how much time we spend on QB and how time flies. I think it was said as a sarcastic remark in the first place. You must all be younger ladies.

Totally agree.

My mother telling us when we were crying "stop or I'll give you something to cry about".

I'm ALREADY crying!!!

Maybe I'm weird but I think most sayings do make sense. I have lots of these sayings that I seem to use a lot and my DIL especially often comments on them. Also my daughters little boy often repeats them to his Mum and Dad. They lived with us for 15 months and when they moved into their new home and he would say one of nannys sayings she said it's just like having nanny here with us. I think it's cute that he does it.

When I was little & my Mother would say that to me, I never could understand why you couldn't just break your piece of cake in half therefore having it & eating it. Yes, I was a weird kid... LOL!

My kids used to do the same thing re my Mother (their Mimi). I always tell DH "Cliches are still around for a reason".

I used to get that, too & I was always puzzlded by it... but puzzled while I was crying... LOL!

The new one that I am sick of hearing is "This is a teachable moment".....

"Don't cry over spilled milk"...no cry over fabric we've cut wrong!

momisms: "time flies when you don't know what you're doing."

"he who laughs last just doesn't get it."

"people who live in glass houses should undress in the basement."

"he who laughs last is worth two in the bush."

"a rolling stone...moves."

"pretty is as pretty does, but stupid goes all the way to the bone."

okay. i'm not trying to make her sound unhinged--my mom just had a bit of a twist in her sense of humor...

I am not young, think most of us are making fun of them because they really don't make sense.
Our oldest Granddaughter can come out with sayings my Mom would have said and DGD was born 1-1/2 years after my Mom died. Very ironic.

I am going to take a stab at explaining making your bed and having to lay in it.

In our times we buy beds to lay in, not so much in the last century. Beds might be made of a tick stuffed with hay or if you were extremely lucky feathers (after many years of saving/accumulating feathers. The tick would be stitched up and to take it apart would have to wait to another day if there was a problem after the "bed" was made.

One quotable I remember from my childhood was "You'll $#!+ and fall back in it". Anyone else know that one or is that something my mother came up with? I use it a lot on my husband and we determined it trumps all arguments! I guess my sayings are more crude than the above ones:
"I was so confused, I didn't know if I should $#!+ or go blind" (sometimes followed by, "So I closed one eye and farted"),
"She's got more ___ than Carter's got liver pills"
"He's as crazy as Cooter Brown" (is that a real person??), and my favorite, which I never understood until I heard myself say it...
"This hurts me more than it hurts you". Ugh! I hated that one when I was a kid!

One that bothers me is: "There's always a tomorrow."
Some tomorrows never arrive ....

My mother used to say something about vanity, can't remember it (and probably don't want to), but it deflated me when she said it. She usually said it when I was proud of how I looked or something I did ... like I wasn't entitled to have pride ....

How about parents who say "Don't act stupid" on the one hand and then "Don't get smart with me" on the other.

"It's not what you say, it's how you say it" Hey, I worked hard at achieving sarcasm as a young'un! Oh, which brings me to "You pay for your raising". Which I guess means I'm saying the same things my parents did.... :(

The majority of these sayings are from the 1800's and earlier. Some such as "Pride goes before a fall." is from the book of Proverbs. When you know what these meant when they were originated, then they do make good sense. If you eat all of your cake you cannot still have any left. If you make a poor job of stitching together your mattress and it is uncomfortable, you will still have to use it to sleep on. My grandmother's favorite was "Don't get your cart before your horse." Obviously meaning keeping your priorities in order. A stitch in time saves nine - could today mean keep up the small restorations on your vintage quilts so that you don't have a major restoration job in the future. Common sense hasn't gone out of style.

Meaning she didn't think what you were crying about was that big of a deal, and if you kept on crying, she'd make sure you WERE crying about something!

My new favorite is "Unless life hands you sugar and water when it hands you lemons, your lemonade is going to suck."

I've always said, "Time flies when you're having fun" and it does fly when I'm creating at my sewing machine! At least when I'm sewing, not unsewing.[/QUOTE]

If you're unsewing, time should fly backwards.

not sarcasm ... humor.

When one door closes, another opens..... but sometimes it's miserable in the hallway!!

LOL, who cares, there's worse things in life

Now THAT'S funny - and oh how I wish it were true!

My DD(addy) loved to give a twist to tired sayings.. My favorite was:

"On the other hand.........."(which people would follow with a long pause, he would interject) "She had warts!"

I guess you'd have to have been there.

Tanya, you just took me back to second grade. A stitch in time saves nine was the first proverb I ever learned in Mrs. Curry"s class.

This thread was meant to entertain - - -

A couple more phrases - - -

"He's in a jam" - or "She's in a real pickle"

My 'jam' visual goes to - wonder what flavor? how'd he get in the jar? how sticky will he be when he gets out?

The pickle one starts out with - hmm - wonder if that's a cucumber dill pickle? How in the world would someone get INSIDE a pickle? Or is the person pickled?

Sometimes being literal minded can be entertaining - to myself, anyway.

By the way - I do know that the usual explanation/meaning - is that someone is in some sort of trouble or unpleasant predicament.

"Vanity did I ever offend thee? No, and I never intend to," My Nani used to say that when we were showing off.

Funny, But its not 'Get off the Pity Pot' Its ' P_ss or Get off the Pot ' A very old saying! LOL

I LOVE THE ONE "Pretty is as Pretty Does, But Stupid Goes All the way to the Bone!!' It was one OF many my Mother said to me! She Had Tons!