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A comment on Why young parents should focus on building trust with their kids. Parent comment

Re:Why young parents should focus on building trust with the... by silisili on Thursday February 13, 2025 @04:25AM (#43034235)
I have a ton myself that my Dad would say but couldn't explain, so I don't use them as much.

Two notable examples... 'What do you want, a Dewey button?' as a sarcastic way of saying 'who cares.' He didn't know why. Google says it's probably related to Thomas Dewey.

'Kitty bar the door.' An expression to mean he was going to go all out. He didn't know who kitty was or why he said it. I still have no idea its real etymology.

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Re:Why young parents should focus on building trust with the... by eszed on Thursday February 13, 2025 @08:35AM (#43035647)
You may not have been able to find that saying because its more-usual version is "Katy, bar the door":

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/katy-bar-the-door.html

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Re:Why young parents should focus on building trust with the... by silisili on Friday February 14, 2025 @01:51AM (#43045611)
Thanks, this completely tracks as he's infamous for mispronunciations and mixed idioms.

Sadly, even clicking both links and a cursory Google search, nobody really knows where 'Katy bar the door' came from, either.

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Re:Why young parents should focus on building trust with the... by nkurz on Thursday February 13, 2025 @08:55AM (#43035843)
> 'Kitty bar the door.'

It looks like Katy or Katie are the more common spellings in the Southern US, although Kitty seems to the standard when talking about hockey. The origin is disputed: https://worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kat1.htm

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