Debate: Stepmother jag

I'm from Blackburn and use the term stepmother jag too! I currently teach in the South East and when one of them today complained of a sore finger. Upon closer inspection I discovered it was indeed the said "SMJ". The kids were rolling around laughing at the term as they'd never heard of it. But then again, they have mayo on their chips rather than gravy... they've a lot to learn!!

I just found the reference to 'Stepmother Jag' by Googling it. My Mum and Dad's generation (they're in their mid-sixties) still use it. Because they are a little older than my friend's parents, my friends have never heard of it, so it seems i is falling out of general use and people refer to it either as a 'whitlow' or variously, a 'wicklow', or else a 'hangnail'. I live on the Fylde coast of Lancashire, just up from Blackpool.

I just ran a search on Google to see whether anyone had heard of this expression. My Mum and Dad's generation still use this: I'm in Fleetwood, on the Fylde coast just up from Blackpool. My parents are a little older than most of my friend's, so I'm pretty much the only person of my generation to have heard of a 'stepmother jag' (my Mum and Dad are in their mid-sixties).

I was very interested to read these comments about a term myself and my family have long used. I was brought up in London but my mother was brought up in Preston (60 years ago) and she always used it so myself and my siblings just thought it was the correct term. She can't remember whether her parents used it or whether she learnt it from friends. Myself and my siblings have all grown up in London and our friends think it's very funny as they tend to call it a hang-nail. My Dad is from Heywood originally and he didn't use that term there. So it must be a very localised name. It's nice to know it's still used though and we must try and pass it down the generations!

Jane from London

I live in California and still use the term "stepmother's blessing" which I learned from my mother during my Lancashire childhood in the thirties and forties.

My mother was born in Leigh, and we lived around the Bolton/Worsley area. I don't recall others using the term, but obviously my mother didn't make it up so I always assumed it was used by others, at least in our part of the world.

I'm just now chewing on a stepmother's blessing of my own.

I have always use the term 'stepmother's blessing' and came across this website as I was looking for the other word I used to use for those bits of hard skin. My mother was born and brought up in Blackburn

Dear Geraldine,

It is interesting to read about the above, I was born and raised in Birmingham and am now living in Harrogate and have not found anyone that knows this term. Only today I mentioned it to my future mother-in-law (who is Australian but British born) and she had not heard of it.

I would probably agree that it is a Lancashire thing as my parents and grandparents came from Preston and this is certainly how I have become familiar with the term!

Tracy

I hadn't met that interesting word for them before; perhaps it is a local one in the Blackburn area? We called them 'idle-backs' on the Notts- Lincs border.