mom-isms

My sisters and I LOVE to give our mother shit about her "mom-isms". Definition of a mom-ism: some phrase or word that your mother says that you have no idea what they mean or they are just so...so...un-hip that it makes you wince. Because they were sayings popular at the time she was a teenager approximately 189 years ago. (ouch! I think she just tried to hit me with a hair-brush from 300 miles away.) Anyway, our mom has amused us for years with her mom-isms and any time any one of us accidentally "slips" and uses one in conversation, it is fodder for MUCH pointing and laughing and cackling: "Hahahahaha! You're turning into mom! You're turning into mom!!" Not that that's a bad thing, because our mom is actually pretty wonderful (see "snitzy" below). But still. No one wants to turn into their mom, do they?

Anyway, here are some of my favorites mom-isms:

*Choc-o'-block: means "full", as in "My tree out back is choc-o'-block with robins." As if that's SO MUCH EASIER to say than "full".
*Upside-down Rudy: I have NO IDEA what the hell this means but I imagine it to be some sort of cartoon duck from the 40s.
*putter: Used to explain her plans for the morning, as in "Oh, I'm just going to putter around the house." There will be picking up a little bit, watering plants, maybe filling bird-feeders, but no serious work is being done.
*putzy: similar to putter, but maybe less goal-oriented.
*ishkabible: this one isn’t familiar to me, but my sister says it is similar to “wonky” as in “Oh hells bells, I cut your bangs crooked and now they’re all ishkabible.”
*snitzy: This means “fancy”, “posh”, “classy”. As in “Well don’t you look snitzy!” Although usually said about herself, tongue in cheek.

Anyway, I bring this up now because I never thought I'd pass any mom-isms onto my daughter. After-all, I'm pretty hip. Cool. With-it. Groovy. Aside from teaching her every swear word I know, I really do try to speak the English language in such a way as to never embarrass her or, more importantly, myself.

Well, last night as we were out walking Moby, Anna was talking about something, I don't remember what, and she said "Now, isn't that a CO-INKIE-DINK?" oh. shit. This is STRAIGHT out of my mouth. Oh god. It's starting.

What have you heard your kids say that made you wince, knowing that it came straight from you?

**Edited to add: tonight I was talking to my dearest friend Christina, with whom I raised MUCH hell in college...and, who am I kidding, we still raise hell together. Anyway, she's the mother of the two most adorable little girls, Piper who is 2 and Skylar who is almost 4. Christina said that the other day, Skylar said "Mommy, when I grow up I want to be just. like. you!" And I said "Oh man, that simultaneously warms your heart, and makes you nauseous, doesn't it?!" "Exactly, Katie" she said. "Exactly." We are going to be in SO. MUCH. TROUBLE.