What were some of the expressions used by your Balkan parents when you were a kid?

Posted by 5cozi@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 27 comments

I'll start with some classic Romanian ones.

"I made you, and I will end you myself."

"How can "x" kid do it and why can't you?"

"What will the people say?"

"You want to cry? I will give you a reason to cry."

"I didn't raise you that way."

"I hope you will have kids just like you."

"If u don't behave I will leave u here. / give u to the gypsies."

"Maybe you will want to eat some "beating". (used when u refused to eat the meal)"

"Some people die of hunger, they will gladly eat ur food"

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impelagato@reddit

I love me a Balkan trauma dumping thread

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No_Egg9897@reddit

As a mother reading these I think I’m causing some well needed trauma. 😂 I remember just about all these and have said about 90% or more of these

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Vihruska@reddit

"Do you see this one"? while showing the raised hand ready to deliver.

"Just wait for us to go home.. " generally accompanied by The Look of Doom, which used to scare me more than anything else.

"Did I throw your umbilical cord on the streets?" In the sense that I was never home until they called me after dark.

"Behave as a young lady and not a savage, who's gonna marry you if you have no manners?" That's because I used to run wild with my brothers' friends.

"Pay attention to the picture" that's a literal translation from "Внимавай в картинката". Another warning to behave properly.

"Your cousin/neighbors' daughter/classmate are all going to become human while you will end up wild cleaning the streets" 😁

"You are such a pretty girl, too bad you have freckles. It will be difficult to marry you off" - a special one from my maternal grandma.

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icancount192@reddit

"You have eaten my life away" accompanied with "you will be the cause of my death"

"I don't care what other children do, I said so" contrasted with "See what other children do?"

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Vihruska@reddit

Ah yes you made me think about another one 😁 "If someone tells you to jump from a bridge, would you do it?"

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5cozi@reddit (OP)

"If somebody jumps in a well , do you follow them?"

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No_Egg9897@reddit

Not Romanian but my Bosnian mother said all this and I say pretty much all these to my children. Except “ I made you I’m the only one who gets to end you.”

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EngineeringGrand5274@reddit

Just cry along, you will piss less. Plači slobodno, manje ćeš pišati.

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MinuteMinX@reddit

If I was „ungratefull“ of the food: „you‘ve never stayed hungry!“ implying how poor and hard they had it (they didnt)

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Slkotova@reddit

"Have you heard me speak to your grandparents the way you speak to me?"

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I may add also "I'll give you to the gypsies if you don't behave". I remember once this threat was used while I was playing outside the house and actually two gypsies were passing near me. They happily played along and pretended to come take me while laughing. It wasn't fun for me tho, because of hearing this threat so much, in my mind "the gypsies" were some mystical creatures even tho I can easily see they are humans. :D

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BamBumKiofte23@reddit

TIL my parents were Romanians.

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morbihann@reddit

Same

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LettuceDrzgon@reddit

I only got “if you don’t behave I’ll leave you here” and the occasional spanking when I was unbearable, but now I am thinking that either me and my sister were exceptionally well-behaved children or my parents aren’t Balkan. We always hesitated to do dumb shit though because we knew there would be consequences so somehow my parents installed the right amount of fear in us without threatening us too much.

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Specialist_Elk140@reddit

You seem to be listing things the new generation disagrees with, I wonder why our parents somehow had those attitudes? Didn't they fall victim to the same sort of logic that people in the Balkans suffer from and yet still practice?

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5cozi@reddit (OP)

I was born in the 80s, parents nowadays don't use them anymore but when I was growing up they were the norm, including getting beat with different objects, like the belt

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“Oh my god (when they talk about someone fat or see someone obese on TV)”

“I/he/she/they can’t anymore”

“Poor me”

“Heeeeeee (gasping noise)”

“Tsk (teeth kiss noise)”

“I don’t know (means they disagree with you)”

“I’m keeping these photos for now. When I die, then they can just burn them (self-pity)”

We are super close to other Slavic people in the sense that we fetishize our own suffering. Ngl it kind of rubbed off on me and I’m the new generation