What's the best advice your mother ever gave you?

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And what's the worst advice she gave you?

-- Anonymous, February 29, 2000

Answers

OK, so maybe this isn't the best advice my mother ever gave me, but I thought it was rather timely given the number of diarists in the process of ending their relationships.

My mother once counseled me that in comforting someone who has recently ended a relationship, one should refrain from badmouthing his or her ex. My mom told me that she learned this the hard way after telling a friend that he was better off without his girlfriend who had just left him. Of course, they subsequently got back together and he told her what my mom had said, so after that she never liked my mom. They ended up getting married, and are still married 25 years later.

As for the worst advice my mom ever gave me, it was definitely when I was in junior high and she told me that I shouldn't call boys, that I should play hard to get and wait for them to call me. Yeah, right!

The second-worst advice she ever gave me was at around the same time when she suggested that I run for student government. What a huge waste of time...

-- Anonymous, February 29, 2000


Budget for parking tickets if you work in San Francisco. She worked at SF State, and just planned on getting a parking ticket once or twice a week. It's kind of like a cover charge.

She also said that if you carry a thermos when you commute, never set it down. Most of the times she dropped and broke the thermos it was when she was picking it up or setting it down; if she just always held onto it, they lasted a lot longer.

I don't seem to recall getting any 'worst' advice. At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

-- Anonymous, February 29, 2000


I really can't seem to remember any specific advice from my mother. However, my father once told me to be careful reading books on philosophy because it might screw up my values.

Well, of course it did.

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2000


I don't know about advice, but for my 16th birthday she bought a Playboy... I think that was her attempt at advice.

-- Anonymous, March 02, 2000

Best: "Don't listen to a word your father says."

Worst: "If you don't learn how to be social during high school, you'll spend the rest of your life unsocial and unhappy." Thank you college!

-- Anonymous, March 02, 2000



My mother gave me two piece o' wisdom that I find beneficial:

1) Marry someone who has lived in another state. People who have moved seem to be less sheltered and less inclined to resist change. I have also noticed that people who don't move tend to live closer to their parents. Personally, I couldn't live close to my parents and survive.

2) Men are nothing but large boys. Men like playing with toys, except their taste in toys is a tad more expensive than GI Joes or video games -- say, BMW automobiles or home entertainment centers.

As far as bad advice goes, I can't really remember any. I'm sure I've been told bad advice, but I usually discard information I find unuseful.

-- Anonymous, March 08, 2000


You can change.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2000

Hold your head up high.

Never let anyone decide your life for you.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2000


Don't touch the stove.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

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