- English translation
"Mother, get your blind boy to sleep!" She replied, "Who knows how to put him to bed better than his own mother?"
- Literal wording
O mother of the blind one, put the blind one to sleep. She said: The blind one's mother knows better about his sleeping.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying ridicules pointless instruction. Someone tells a mother how to settle her own blind child for the night, as if she had not done it countless times. She points out that nobody understands the child's sleep better than she does, so the advice is empty.
More broadly, it applies whenever a person lectures someone else on a task the other already knows thoroughly. Its point is a caregiver's intimate, first-hand expertise, not the child's blindness. It defends knowledge gained through daily experience and quietly mocks the presumption of the would-be adviser.
- When it is used
Use it to push back on unsolicited advice from someone who knows less than you, taking care it is not heard as mocking blindness. It suits a dry, teasing reply when a newcomer explains a routine to someone who has handled it for years.
- Register
- Colloquial Arabic
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: "Mother, get your blind boy to sleep!" She replied, "Who knows how to put him to bed better than his own mother?"