I see.
One more confirmation that your mum has "churik" wholesale this
phrase from Teochew rather than the assumption that she has
preserved the original phrase from her native Hokkien.
Sigh! What to do ! It is a multi culture, multi
racial country here, inevitable to "borrow" other dialect or
language's words. I used to think pasar is Chinese
until I realised it is a Malay word. The educator has
translated pasar literally to Chinese for teaching and usage.
Someone from Sg went to Hong Kong spoke Cantonese and included
the word "mattar" which we understand is police. The HK
people looked at her and asked what is the meaning, it was only
then she realised that is not a Cantonese word. How
embarassing! 
