This infographic decodes 21 common mom sayings

Every time we stroll the aisles of Target, my girls have a habit of pointing at every trinket in the toy aisle and loudly announcing, “ooooh, I want that!” My response is always the same: “We’ll add it to your Birthday/Christmas/Easter/Insert Random Holiday Here List.” Never mind that there are already five million things on said list. What I really mean is: I have no intention of ever buying any of this crap. In fact, I pray they forget every single item on the proverbial list.

“Add it to your list” is just one of the many mom things I say every single day. Right along with “we’ll see,” “don’t make me say it again!” and “were you raised in a barn?” But what I say isn’t exactly what I really mean.

Take “we’ll see” as a perfect example. Who is going to see? And what, exactly, are we going to see? Oh, that’s right. The answer I’ve already arrived at—hell to the no.

The funny folks at NickMom have decoded a full list of these popular mom sayings, and it is on point:

Moms of tiny humans everywhere can relate. We have all shouted, “I’ll be there in a minute!” And we all mean, “hopefully you’ll figure it out yourself by then.” Of course, this is ruined the day our kids can tell time—we love a minute that can become ten.

And, it doesn’t stop there. When we moms say, “What do YOU think?” what we really mean, as NickMom properly decodes, is “You already know the answer to that.” Or in my case, it could mean my kids have stumped me and I am buying time.

Kid: “Where do babies come from?”

Me: “Where do YOU think babies come from?”

Hmmm, OK, so it’s not a perfect strategy.

Some days, we moms are hanging on by a thread, hoping our kids will just do as they’re told. When they don’t, we ominously count to three. Of course, they don’t know we have no plan for when we actually get to three. They fail. We both fail. Eventually, we throw out the real doozy: “Just wait until your father gets home.” Which, of course, is really code for “I’m sick of being in charge around here.”

Which of these mom sayings do you use?

[h/t: NickMom]