Your mom’s sayings sound corny until you hear yourself say one to a coworker.

The sayings you grew up groaning at are compressed experience. Your mom did not invent them, she kept the ones that turned out to be true, and the reason they sound cheap is that they are short rather than that they are wrong. You usually discover this by hearing one come out of your own mouth at exactly the right moment.

Next time one arrives, ask her where it came from and what happened that made her keep it. The story behind the phrase is often better than the phrase. And when you catch yourself using one, that is not a loss, it is inheritance.