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Some mothers do have 'em!

Posted by R. Berg on October 25, 2002

In Reply to: Some Peoples Children posted by Tom Lodzinski on October 25, 2002

: Does anyone know where this phrase came from or when it started?

I don't know about that one specifically. It might be a relative of a very similar one, "Some mothers do have 'em!," discussed by Paul Beale, quoting other authors, in his revision of Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day:

"An old Lancashire saying popularised by Jimmy Clitheroe in radio's 'The Clitheroe Kid', which ran from 1958 to 1972. . . . Later, as 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em', the title of Michael Crawford's TV series. . . . The 'Don't some mothers 'ave 'em!" version was familiar also in Yorkshire."

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