Remember the old saying “mother knows best”?
well, if look back at some of the things your mother taught you, you could probably say she certainly did know best!
Everyone of us has learned something from our mothers over the years, and chances are it stems from one of her many pearls of wisdom.
While we might not have understood them at the time, as we got older they all made sense.
We asked some of our Starts at 60 readers what pearls of wisdom they learned from their mothers, and the response was overwhelming.
Here are 60 of the best pearls of wisdom we learned from our mothers…. chances are you’ve heard most of these before – and maybe even passed them on to your own children!
1. Always wear your best underwear when you leave the house, you never know when an accident could happen.
2. Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today.
3. Never fall out with your neighbours over your children’s squabbles because while y0u are still not talking the children are happily over it and playing together again.
4. Laugh and love, don’t take yourself or life too seriously.
5. Never put a clock in the living room, your guests should never feel pressured to leave.
6. Wash the dishes after guests leave so you are able to spend time with company
7. If you can’t say something nice, say nothing.
8. When money worries come in the door, love flies out the window.
9. Put your man first, your children will leave and live their own lives.
10. Treat everyone the same as you’d like to be treated.
11. Loyalty and family is everything.
12. You’re a long time dead – live life to the fullest, wear out and not rust and have no regrets and do it your way.
13. If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
14. Don’t put it down, put it away.
15. Stir with a knife, stir up strife.
16. Don’t sit with your back to the fire or you’ll melt your kidney fat.
17. Don’t swallow your chewing gum or it will wind around your heart and strangle you.
18. Always hold your head high, you don’t have to answer to anything but your own conscience.
19. Never leave the house with your bed unmade and dirty dishes in the sink.
20. You better get that look of your face because if the wind changes it will stay that way.
21. He who does not work, neither shall he eat.
22. Procrastination is the thief of time.
23. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
24. If you make your bed your lie in it.
25. You reap what you sow.
26. Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.
27. It might be old but keep it clean.
28. Raise a child in the way they should go and when they are old they won’t turn from it.
29. Do not gossip, the walls have ears.
30. Never make love at the garden gate, love is blind but the neighbours ain’t.
31. Always tell everybody that you are ten years older than you actually are. That way you will always hear how fabulous you look.
32. Never say that you cannot do something until you have tried.
33. Refrain from calculating upon the quantity of juvenile poultry, prior to the completion of a successful modern incubation (or as, you may have heard it – Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!)
34. Judge not least you be judged.
35. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones
36. When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade.
37. Keep a dime (or a penny) in your shoe to make a phone call.
38. Never be in a hurry to grow up, enjoy being young before you are too old to enjoy it.
39. You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
40. Nothing in life worth having comes easy.
41. Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.
42. Don’t stress over something that may never happen, stressing is not going to change any outcomes.
43. It costs nothing to be kind.
44. Always say goodbye as if it is the last time.
45. It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys.
46. If you don’t have the money don’t buy it.
47. Your daughter is your daughter for all of your life, your son is your son until he takes a wife.
48. Never think you are better than someone… naked we are all the same.
49. Nothing gets handed to you on a plate, you have to work for it.
50. A smile costs you nothing but it takes you a long way.
51. Never burn your bridges because you never know when you might need that person.
52. Never be above anybody else but don’t ever think they are better than you.
53. A leopard never changes his spots.
54. What’s good for a goose is good for a gander.
55. Birds of a feather, flock together.
56. Never stoop so low that you would have to kiss somebody’s rear end.
57. Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.
58. Don’t cut your nose off to spite your face.
59. Never say anything in anger, once said you can’t take it back.
60. Don’t put off till tomorrow what can be done today.
Mum was so right!