What's the best advice your mother ever gave you?
Asked by
Sunny2 (
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May 5th, 2013
It’s Mother’s Day. She must have had some good advice.
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She told me the rules she had made for herself regarding sex:
1. Never do anything with someone who didn’t like you as a person.
2. Never do anything you are uncomfortable doing.
This has been great advice! My Mom grew up in the 20s and 30s so she was pretty advanced for her time.
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Spread your oats, but never do it with a camel, because the magazine said they are AIDS carriers.
dumb idea not going to save lives you hear them geting shot in the head or hell in the chest not in the back how dumb give them swat gear i guess ur all on crack come on it’s all on how you raise your kids they need to be spanked or take there toys or phones so on away from them such a croc there is no way of stoping that just like bullying golden spoon feed brats
Just because someone’s different than you doesn’t mean they’re not valuable.
Make sure you check your zipper before going outside.
I grew up hearing her say the things we worry about the most never happen.
That’s often proved true in my life, but alas, experience has taught me that the unexpected happenings we weren’t worried about often give us the worst tsuris.
Do what makes you happy.
I have followed this my whole life. Sometimes it meant doing things that may not have been the best for me at the time, but those moments made me who I am today and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
When I was younger, through her actions not her words, she taught me that it’s okay for adults to be goofy sometimes.
We had wet tea bag fights, she’d jump and grab me in a headlock. She could be lots of fun.
When I’d say, “This is so boring. I wish it was over.” Mom would say “Quit wishing your life away.”
IS TODAY MOTHER’S DAY???????????????????????????????
But… @Sunny2 said it was today! Maybe we can have 2 of them this month. :D
You know, I’m going to be really busy COOKING for Mother’s Day next Sunday? :}~
Oh dear…I called Mom to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day based upon this question. I thought it was later this month and should have checked. At least I now have time to back it up with a card.
Mom rarely gave advice, but when she did, it was spot on. The best? It was when I was in college and after I changed my major three times. I had no clue what I wanted to do. She said, “Take a year off, get a job and find the right path. Start with a job in a hotel, as that is what you really enjoyed during your summers.” Then she put me on a train to Washington, DC, to live with my brother $5 for a sandwich. It was the start of a wonderful career in the hospitality industry. She was right.
“You know, it’s at times like this when I’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was young!” -Arthur Dent
“Why, what did she tell you?” – Ford Prefect
“I don’t know, I didn’t listen!” -Arthur Dent
When I went away to college, my mom told me there would be people that wanted to go out and party all the time during the week and during exams, and that I didn’t have to go with them to be friends. Unfortunately, I was one of those people.
Probably it was when she said “Don’t marry a man for what you think he’s going to be. Marry him for what he is. A diamond in the rough is likely to stay rough.”
I have to give her full marks for that one.
Mother’s Day, at least in the U.S., is always the second Sunday in May. This is only the first.
@Jeruba, I wish my mom had told me that. I had to learn it the hard way. I did however pass it on to my daughters and they made wiser choices than I did the first time around.
It was actually Hawkeye Pierce’s mother. Always wear clean underwear in case you get hit by a tank and never argue with a crazy person.
My Mom always told me to try to think before you act. Consequences of your actions can sometimes come back to bite you.
@Judi, she did learn that one the hard way. My father was a kind, gentle man with no observable vices whatsoever, scholarly and high-minded, but quite low in ambition. She thought he was going to scale the ladder of academic success, but he was quite content with the humble rung he occupied. That would not have disappointed me, but it did disappoint her.
That when I got into bed and the sheets were very cold, if I lay there for a while they would warm up and I would feel toasty soon enough. I was about 4… she died when I was five. She was right though.
Don’t get anyone pregnant.
EVERYBODY: I have a really terrible, mind-fogging cold. I thought it was Mothers Day and I was wrong. I tried to have the question removed, but failed. I apologize.
My mom’s best advice was, “Always turn OFF the oven before martinis.” A friend and I decided we would cook a turkey for just the two of us. We decided to have a martini or two while waiting for it. We fell asleep, of course, and the turkey wings and legs were inedible. When I told my mom about our stupidity, that was her reaction. A good lesson and one I follow.
@Sunny2 Whatever. I removed my correction because I thought that it wasn’t important to the question being asked. It’s still an interesting question. I tried removing the answer but I don’t think it worked either
Stay on the good side of the irs and the cops.
I hope that when someone asks my sons this question someday, they’ll have a good answer. Maybe it’ll be “Don’t get into arguments with things that are bigger than you are.” Or maybe “If that guy wants the whole road, just let him have it.” Maybe “If you always tell me the truth, I’ll always believe you.”
Maybe “The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach.” My sweetie cooked for me, and I found that to be an irresistible talent.
Maybe “You can’t go wrong with flowers.”
I hope they’ll remember something I said.
And I hope it’s not just “If you think you’re going to throw up, don’t eat chocolate first.”
I hope my son will one day forget the advice I gave him to ‘make sure he used’ the packet of condoms I left on his bed when he was 16… still living that one down.
@Bellatrix I want to know the story behind that one.
He was 16. I wanted to make sure he had some condoms so if and when he did want to have sex he was prepared. I left them on his bed and when he mentioned them I said “and you make sure you use them!”
My children are evil and have no hesitation in teasing me. They of course went with a quite different interpretation than I intended. He still quotes that one back at me.
Which reminds me of when I went to see a lecture given by a sex therapist. She mentioned that one reason men suffer from premature ejaculation is because they masturbate a lot and climax very quickly. She argued this trains their bodies to fire too quickly. She said young men should take their time. Sooooooooo because I have no shame – I mentioned to my son that he shouldn’t rush when masturbating and should make sure he made things last. Sighs… that one pops up when they want to see me squirm… You just can’t help some people.
@Bellatrix i have always been able to make my younger son squirm.
:-) @janbb. I’ve always been very honest with my children and they can ask me anything. Given he (and his sisters) remember this, I guess it had the desired effect. He hasn’t forgotten the advice!
@Bellatrix Awesome. That’s great parenting. My mom was similar. I was 14 or so and she found my Penthouse magazine collection. She looked through it and asked me what I liked about the women.
@Bellatrix He had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that his mother was a penguin.
You guys were awesome parents. Good for you. :)
Since this Q has some really great answers, I hate to remove it at this point. @Sunny2, would you like me to do an internal edit to remove the “Mother’s day” part?
My mother’s best advice was probably just to be myself.
I can’t think of anything my mom ever said to me specifically that inspired me or such but the way she is as a person, so nice, friendly, caring, generous, talented, creative, so so so so loving, nurturing, smart, considerate, I could go on for hours. It was advice in the sense that it inspired me to follow her, and I do, and I am a zillion times a better person because of it.
@augustlan, I don’t see any reason to remove it. And several posts will stop making sense if the reference to Mother’s Day is taken out. By a week from now nobody will care if this post was on a different Sunday.
@augustlan That’s what I tried to have done through the flagging system. I’d be pleased if you did that. Could you also remove the first paragraph of my apology and explanation, since what I was apologizing for is no longer evident. And then there are a number of other answers that would be likewise affected. Perhaps it would be easiest to leave things as they are. It’s obvious I was wrong about the date. Would answers have been different if the date was correct? Do whatever will free your conscience.
@Sunny2, as both you and @Jeruba noticed, changing the question now would make some parts of some answers nonsensical. Probably best to just leave it as is, since I don’t think the actual “advice” parts of the answers would change with the date. :)
Ah screw it. A few days won’t make that much difference. This has got some nice responses.
In two weeks no one will know the difference.
Learn how to deal with weird people, instead of complaining about them. Teacher can be weird for example. Professors can be weird. Colleagues can be weird. Relatives can be weird. Neighbors can be weird. The list is endless.
Don’t ever screw the date of Mother’s Day. :)
^^Mea culpa. My mom is no longer with us, which may be one part of why I made the error.
@Sunny2 I like that you asked it early. Gives me some time to think about Mother’s Day and what to do for this year.
Yes I had the “weird” discussion with my mom too @mattbrowne.
Good talk, right before the “beware funny Uncle’s” talk.
Never bring anything home that you can’t see! from a date or holiday.
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