having a cake and eating it too

Hi Mathiaes, This is a difficult one. It is a saying describing a good situation. Obviously if you have a cake and eat it you no longer have it. Sometimes people want to be in a situation where they can take advantage of something but will again be able to do the same thing again or use it again later. It is usually used in a critical way if someone is trying to get more out of a situation than they would normally be entitled to have. Sorry cannot think on a clear way to explain it, Hope I have not confused you.

IVe always heard the phrase as "you can't have your cake and eat it too". I think it means you can't have everything you want. Or you can have things both ways, like if you eat your cake now you don't have it anymore. But I'm with you. I would eat the cake.

But if you ate the cake, you wouldn't have it... that's the point. You can't have your cake and eat it, too. We have to make decisions about what is most important. Does that make sense?

my girlfriend says the same thing all the time. And in a way, you both are right. it's probably a ppoor phrase. I think it just means you can't have everything. it'aq often says when a person has a big sense of entitlement. It would take me an hour to come up with a better example, but here's one. Wanting to be married but still going out on dates. Being married is having your cake, dating other people is and eat it too. That sounds wron g because if you have a cake, you're suppose to eat it, when your married you're not supposed to go out. An example I was going to give was if someone eanted to make a lot of money but not work. The problem with that example is, there are pelople that acctually do that. Mabe someone else will come up with a better definition.

LOL thats the truth!!! that is confusing