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Is there an expression in English for "being asked to act on your own suggestion"?

Here's an example of the scenario that I'm thinking about:

Wife: Husband, the living room light is broken. We need to buy a new one.
Husband: Sure, honey. When you go to the market today, could you buy a new light?

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    Two ideas: Getting a taste of your own medicine. He who smelt it, dealt it. Commented May 8, 2020 at 3:21
  • I don't see why this is necessarily a problem at all. What if the wife is simply asking if it's okay for her to spend money on a new light? Or if she's asking because he might have an opinion as to what type of light to buy (which he clearly doesn't). Without additional context, I don't see the necessary correlation to any particular type of proverb. Commented May 8, 2020 at 3:40
  • I think @YosefBaskin you provided the answer I was looking for. If you could give it as an answer, I can accept it Commented Jun 10, 2020 at 2:57
  • @JasonBassford I believe the husband is just being "playful" with his wife. Commented Jul 10, 2020 at 16:18
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    Does this answer your question? Is there a more formal phrase or word for "practice what you preach?" ('Walk the talk'; 'Lead by example'.) Commented Jul 10, 2020 at 16:30

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A taste of your own medicine is an idiom for returning the favor when there was no favor to begin with.

The standard use is the payback for bad advice, hints, or actions.

  • An Aesop fable has it that a snake oil salesman is given his own useless cure-all when he falls ill. If the townspeople know how useless medicine is, that is a prime example of giving him a taste of his own medicine.

  • One unattractive example is the dog owner who rubs the dog’s nose in the doggie doo, as a teaching moment. After Fido drops some offering on the living room floor, the owner repays Fido by implying “If you think your contribution is welcome, how do you like it when I return the favor?” That message is the taste of Fido’s own medicine. For some reason, this educational tool has fallen out of fashion.

  • In the original example of husband and wife, the wife’s comment that “we need to buy” a new light may be neutral, while the husband takes it as a manipulation. And he thinks that if she converted “we need to buy” into “you need to buy,” he can just as well give her a taste of her own medicine by saying that she needs to buy a light. We do not actually know that is all true from her remark alone, but he thinks so.

Here's a taste of your own medicine.

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An emerging phrase, or at least a meme, would be to say that the husband "pulled an uno reverse card," on the wife, because she was implying that the husband needed to take action, but she did not explicitly state that, so the husband took the opportunity to "turn the tables" on her.

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I disagree with "a taste of your own medicine" as being appropriate here, because it implies a level of revenge or, at the very least, a well-earned negative result against the "taster." A husband who asks his wife to take her own advice isn't being aggressive (though perhaps a bit stand-offish).

A better phrase for this is to "practice what you preach", which means to do whatever action you're suggesting of others.

Wife: Husband, the living room light is broken. We need to buy a new one.
Husband: Sure, honey. You're going to the market today-- practice what you preach and buy a new light.

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  • Personally I'm not sure "practice what you preach" carries a perfect connotation either, as usually the "preaching" is done on multiple occasions, not just a single event. Also, if the husband included that it would turn his response from playful banter towards a passive aggressive response. Commented Jul 10, 2020 at 16:15
  • @TylerN Agreed, but I can't think of any way the husband might use the phrase "taste of your own medicine" in this context that wouldn't be even worse. Commented Jul 10, 2020 at 16:28

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