I wish there were a "Mama Said" flair so we could all put up things we heard/learned from our female role models whether it was Mom, Grandma, Aunt, Sister, Friend etc.

Been thinking a lot about my Mom today, it's getting close to the anniversary of her passing and I'm realizing that with all the things she told me and taught me, she was living FDS principles before there even was such a thing.... and doing it in the South in a small town where the bullshit of patriarchy was the norm.

Here's my three favorite "Mama said" that were repeated often to me.

  1. There is NO wrong way to be a woman!!!

Mom would whip this out whenever I compared myself unfavorably to others or people compared my sister and I and used the old "Why can't X be more like Y?" She'd even tell people off saying "My girls are BOTH doing fine as they are, you hush now"

( Was really thinking about this one because I'm slightly stalking the "What's your beauty routine" thread and loving ALL the responses.... there's ladies who go "no-makeup", there's makeup junkies, there's "I go way extra with my hair" types, basically every variation of how to do a beauty routine and I'm loving reading ALL of them )

  1. If what makes you happy bothers your boyfriend, he's not the right boyfriend!!!

Used a LOT during my teenage years when boys I dated tried to get me to stop or hide my hobbies and interests. Mom didn't know what a "pickme" was but she did her best to see I'd never turn into one and support my self esteem. She laid a lot of variations of "Don't change yourself for a man" on me and it thankfully stuck with me!!!

  1. I am soooooooo very proud of you sweetie!!!!

Sometimes for little things, sometimes for big things. I just wish there was a way to capture in text her inflection and the face she had on when she said it. Hearing this made me feel like Queen of the Universe every time she said it.