I grew up in a traditional smaller town. All of my friends came from similar homes where you ate at the dinner table nightly. I had one friend whose parents were hippies. My parents had no clue what I witnessed at their house, LOL. While they had a table it was always full of junk so they ate dinner while watching tv on the couch. I found this remarkable, and one time when my family was going to have pizza and I wanted to watch a show I said “can’t we eat like the Allens?” I kid you not, that phrase has extended well beyond my family over the course of 40 years. My friends started saying it, cousins, aunts, uncles. Even my sister’s adult kids now use that phrase. I always wonder what happened to that friend’s family, and am amused that they have no idea that their untraditional ways helped coin that phrase.
Our family of four was eating out at a fairly “nice” restaurant when a man at the next table over belched very loudly. He froze and looked absolutely MORTIFIED. He leaned to the person beside him at his table and in a hushed voice he contritely stated, “It must have been the pop.” This cracked me up (quietly) and ever since, when someone in our foursome does something that seems embarrassing - we blame it on the pop.
We have a mythical “Farkle family” that’s well known around my house. Not sure how it started.
If I leave a mess, or something left outside, needs a bit of repair or cluttered.
What are we, the “Farkle Family” ?
usually means a little neatening up is required. Or the house needs painting. lol.
I hope there’s no real Farkle’s out there. I’m sure they are very tidy.
This one is at my expense.
One time my father, who was normally careful not to ever to show favoritism to any one of his four kids, referred to me as “the best natural athlete in the family.” Since then my siblings have never let me forget it. Whenever I do something dumb or otherwise fail at a task they comment. “Yeah, but she IS the best natural athlete in the family.” My husband has picked up on it as well. Luckily we’re all close so I accept it for the good-natured ribbing it’s meant as.
I thought of another one.
When ds was in kindergarten there was some activity they were doing that involved students rotating among four different tables represented by different colors. At some point it was time to rotate to the next station and one boy, who caused a LOT of trouble as a kindergartener (he was sent HOME twice - from kindergarten!!) told the teacher, “I’m not going to the d@ mn green table.” She told me it was all she could do to not burst out laughing. So, now we sometimes express our lack of desire/unwillingness to do something by saying, “I’m not going to the d@mn green table.”
A very recent one… after the relatively recent spy poisoning events in the U.K., Mr. and I refer to spoiled food and similarly questionable things as “novichok.” For instance, referring to a forgotten Tupperware container with moldy leftowers. “Does it look like novichok to you?” “Ewwww. It certainly does. Toss it!”
Our friends who have sold Tupperware sometimes refer to it as tuppercoffins, including anything in a plastic container that has been there too long.
Our preschool D used to call the quilt I made her a “comfortable” (probably from mishearing comforter).
My oldest made up his own words but they were fairly logical. My all time favorite was when he was describing something his preschool teacher did that he passionately believed to be unfair (taking something away.) He clenched his closed hand and shook it in the air while describing that she “confisticated” it. Made sense to me - combo of ‘confiscate’ and ‘hold it in your first’. We still “confisticate” things here.
A super useful phrase from Meet the Robinsons is “I’m not sure how well this plan was thought through.” Especially helpful when trying to stay cheerful during home improvement projects.
Helicopters are “holidoctors” courtesy of our oldest as a toddler.
If we want to come up with a big number, it’s Fifty-five Ninety which apparently was the biggest number our youngest could think of and used fairly often.
I’m sure there are more I can’t think of at the moment. Some things have come and gone, usually something funny DD’17 comes up with and we pick up on it for a while.
Mine thought that priceless meant things were free. Price. Less.
We still exclaim “It’s free” when something is ridiculously high priced.
On a vacation in New England ~10 yrs ago our young daughter was super excited to be driving through what she thought was New HamSTER.
In our family, that’s what we’ve called New Hamphire ever since.
“Throwing your milk” has become family shorthand for being really, really angry … after a second grade classmate’s suspension for aiming his lunch beverage at the teacher.
Reading these reminded me of another one. And I’m sure there will be more. One time one S, who had been honored for something at school shortly before, did or said something dumb and the other turned to him and said “Didn’t you win a smart award?” So now any dumb question or action is followed by questioning the validity of that person having received a smart award.
@momofsenior1 I do think priceless things are free. Not all, but most…
When we can’t find a price on something my family says it’s “Free today.”
So many of of them-- lots of movie quotes. One of our favorite family movies is Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (probably not well-known on CC…) Oldest S and I have it memorized and can find a quote for just about any situation.
About 50 years ago on a family trip we passed the Susquehanna River. My oldest brother (who was so precocious and bossy that we 6 younger sibs jokingly called him “Dad”), tried to read the sign and proudly announced “There’s the Suskatuwanna River, kids!” --the word “Suskatuwanna” comes up when someone mispronounces a big word.
“Cut it off!” My parents used to say this when kids whined/complained about minor aches and pains. ("Mom, my foot hurts! " “Cut it off!”–Mean, I know, but funny in the right situation.)
Whenever things weren’t weren’t divided equally among my sibs, we had a saying to stop the squabbling: “You take what you get–and YOU LIKE IT!” --Said like a drill sergeant, it usually made everyone laugh at the concept of being ordered to like an undesirable situation, or sarcastically start pretending that the short end of the stick/small portion was the best/what they really wanted all along.
We are the family that always “eats like the Allens.”
A neighbor–who had, years before, been outbid when trying to buy the house we lived in–was picking up his 7yo daughter from a playdate. He walked in, saying excitedly, “I want to see what you’ve done with the house!” Before he even finished that sentence, as he looked around, I could see the disappointment on his face. And his daughter piped up, “They didn’t do nothing–just junked it up!” We still use that phrase, “Junked it up,” for our messy/family-of-9 way lifestyle. A few years ago I started using a similar expression from the TV show The Middle–“Heck/ed it up”-- replacing their name, “Heck,” with our last name.
When our children were small and complaining about the dinner in front of them, I would threaten them with a dinner of “Ishkabibble, with NO cheese.” They took it to heart over the years and our son even begged to please have cheese if he had to have ishkabibble.
Now, they say we are having “Ishkabibble, no cheese” anytime everyone is too lazy to cook a real meal or someone is taking too long to make a selection at a restaurant.
Our family can find a song to fit any occasion or experience good or bad. My D announced long ago that we live in a musical.
“It’s SHOWTIME!” with jazz hands is a fave.
Us too @gouf78 - And if we can’t find a song to fit, we change the lyrics ; )