It’s Mother’s Day on March 14th, and a survey, carried out on behalf of Aldi Ireland, has revealed some hilariously perfect “Irish Mammyisms”! We can nearly hear our own mothers and mother figures saying ALL of them!
The survey asked people what they call their mother, with 42% calling her Mam, 29% calling her Mum and 13% calling her Mom. The other 16% was made up of Ma, Mammy, Mommy, Mummy and Mother!
Dry toast, sugary tea, flat lemonade and fresh air reigned supreme when it comes to a remedy for being sick or injured when growing up! Other Irish Mammy remedies included:
• A little lie down
• Sudocrem
• A hot orange or lemon drink
• Hot water bottle
• Chicken soup
The survey also asked What Irish "Mammyism" were you told as a child to stop you from doing something e.g. "If you sit too close to that TV, you'll get square eyes”, and it seems that Irish Mammies are professionals at this! Answers included:
• “Don’t make that face, if the wind blows, you’ll be stuck like that!”
• “You’ll get a cold if you go out with wet hair”
• “If you cross your eyes for too long they’ll stay that way”
• “If you swallow that chewing gum, it will stay inside you forever”
• “Don’t wear your coat inside; it’ll be no good to you when you go out!”
• “If you eat your crusts, your hair will be curly”
• “If you eat too much sugar, you’ll get worms in your belly”
• “If you don’t eat your carrots, you won’t be able to see in the dark”
• “Don’t sit on the ground, you’ll get a kidney infection”
• “If you bite your nails, your fingers will fall off!”
• “The tooth fairy won’t come if your room isn’t clean”
• “If you eat the seeds from an apple, they’ll grow inside you!”
And finally, when asked about their Mammy’s favourite saying, there were lots of familiar ones including:
• “What’s for you won’t go by you”
• “If you fall and break your legs, don’t come running to me”
• “You don’t have to like it; you just have to eat it!”
• “If your friend put his hand in a fire, would you do it too?”
• “A little Birdy told me”
• “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!”
• “I’m warning you…”
• “Don’t sweat the small stuff”
• “Were you born in a barn?” – when the door was left wide open
• “I’m as full as an egg” – when she finished her dinner
• “Sure it’ll be grand”
• “You know what they say, no grain for the goose!”
• “He didn’t lick it off a stone”
• “You’ll be better before you’re married”
• “Don’t tell your father”
• “Bye, bye, bbyee, byee, bye bbbyeeee” – when hanging up the phone!
So celebrate all our mother figures - biological, adopted, guardian, foster & step mums (& all the dads who have to be mums too), Aldi has everything you need all in 145 stores nationwide, incase you need to pick anything up!
Did you know? Mother’s Day cards sold in 145 Aldi stores nationwide resulted in a donation in the region of €20,000 from sales going to Aldi’s charity partner Barnardos.
*Survey carried out via Survey Monkey
Slán go fóill,
Danny