I thought that it may also amuse some of you. (I'm tired of depressing topics on Answermug.)
Recent flashback: I was six when the Korean War (conflict actually, there was no war declared) began. Whenever my sister, brother, or myself asked our parents why we couldn't have... or why we didn't do... My father had a pat answer, "There's a war on!" Somewhere during this period, I learned to read. One day I was looking at the newspaper and on the front page, the headline read something like "Armistice Signed", "the war is over", so I was surprised when my father answered with the usual "There's a war on!" I decided that I'd better update him with the information in the newspaper. He was speechless. I don't know whether he was more shocked by my "back talk" or amazed by my knowledge, but he could never use that line again.
I think parents (or grandparents) might want to reconsider things they always tell the kids. One of my grandmother-in-law’s pat sayings to my husband when he was a kid was “You should’ve thought about that sooner”.
One of the times we visited her at the nursing home, she said something and my husband automatically replied with “You should’ve thought about that sooner”. His grandma yelled “I’m sorry I kept saying that when you were a kid!”. My husband responded to that with “You should’ve thought about that sooner.”
Now I’m a little self conscious about what I always tell the kids. Half of their DNA is my husband’s so I don’t want there to be something that I always say to come back and bite me when they’re adults. I try very hard not to say dismissive things to the kids.
This post was edited by Livvie at April 30, 2023 4:52 PM MDT