Thank your mother for the rabbit

Posted by Patrick on July 28, 2003

When I was a young child I would sometimes visit my grandparents in their flat in Cape Town. Invariably at some point during each visit (often, I think, as I was about to leave) my grandfather would say to me, "Don't forget to thank your mother for the rabbit?" At the time it seemed simply one of his endearing peculiarities, but in later years I've wondered if it might in fact be an expression in wider use. Any ideas what it might mean or how or where it originated?