What do you remember your parents saying to you as a kid?

[stroo]

Dad:
"Lord Willing"
"Its better to urp a burp and suffer the shame than to squelch a belch and die in pain." My son really loves that one.
"You need to take a Dutchman by what he means not what he says" We are of Dutch heritage so this meant something to us.

Mom:
"You have to eat a peck of dirt in your lifetime."
"If you have kids, you don't need circus"
"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride"

[TexasGal]

You better never start a fight, but if someone else starts it, you better finish it.

That was my dear mother's instruction for the first day of school and she meant it.

Some others I recall fondly from my Mom who raised 4 kids. She's gone now, but I will always be grateful to her for living a life that blazed an example of honesty, goodness, and love for us in spite of some of how the following sounds :

"I'll brain you if you don't stop (insert any number of things)"
"I'll skin ya alive if you don't stop (insert the same as above)"
1...2...3.. (if she got to 4, you had to sit at the table while she picked a switch)
"Come and get it or I'll feed it to the hogs"
"Get outta my kitchen"
"Don't make me come out there!"

From my Dad:
"Go play"
"You want me to take off my belt?"
"You kids... (insert any grievance just one kid had done)"
and most fondly, I thought my name was somehow part of a list of all four of us kids since he had to run though them all whenever he had something to say to me.
Always knew I was loved...that's the best part.

[tauruspt145]

You better never start a fight, but if someone else starts it, you better finish it.

My dad always told me this growing up. In fact when he was diagnosed with cancer and going through his chemo, i got him a shirt that said "i didnt start this fight but im going to finish it" and on his last day in chemo I got him another one that said " I didn't start this fight but i finished it" and on the back it had a tombstone with the date and testicular cancer written on top. The shirts really meant alot to him.

[quidni]

Didn't get this one from my parents, but from my G.G. (Great-Grandma) shortly before my wedding day:

"It doesn't matter who started the argument, or who is right or wrong. Always try to be the first one to apologize, even if the only thing you're sorry for is that you had an argument."

Probably the best advice I ever received, as we're still married 30 years later....

[TexasGal]

Didn't get this one from my parents, but from my G.G. (Great-Grandma) shortly before my wedding day:

"It doesn't matter who started the argument, or who is right or wrong. Always try to be the first one to apologize, even if the only thing you're sorry for is that you had an argument."

Probably the best advice I ever received, as we're still married 30 years later....

Sounds like you inherited your Grandma's wisdom. Congratulations on taking her advice