Three Things I Learned meme

[resonant]

From sanj, with a few changes:

Three things I learned from my father.

- Fill the sink with water before you start cooking, so you can wash your dishes as you go along.
- It's better to do too much thank-you-note writing than too little.
- If you think you might need to turn your headlights on? You need to turn your headlights on.

Three things I learned from my mother.

- Sure you can cook that! You have a recipe, don't you?
- Human beings make a lot more sense once you study personality type.
- You're not going to lose your kid's respect by saying, "I learned something new about that, so I've changed my mind." Or even, "I made the wrong decision the first time."



Three things I learned from my brother.

- Don't take your foot off the clutch unless you're ready to go somewhere.
- The better music is not on top-40 radio.
- What do you mean, you don't need a flashlight? You always need a flashlight.

Three things I learned from teachers.

- Life is a matter of priorities.
- You don't have to stop reading and drag out a dictionary every time you encounter a word you don't recognize. That's what bookmarks are for: to write unfamiliar words on.
- If you don't know what to do, get out a notebook and start collecting specifics.

Three things I learned from the spouse.

- It isn't that other people believe things that make no sense. It's that they're starting from premises that you don't agree with.
- If you read a story or poem and don't see the merit in it, don't dismiss it until you've read it out loud.
- Nothing is ever so good that it can't benefit from one more rehearsal or one more draft.

Three things I learned from my best friend.
- When you start a new job, ask all the questions you can think of (no matter how obvious, no matter how simpleminded) in the first three months. That's when they expect you to be stupid.
- You're going to have to fight to keep other people from trying to raise your kids for you.
- Kids remember a lesson better if it's funny. Adults, too, for that matter.

Three things I wish everyone would learn from me.

- If you explain, you're inviting argument. So if it's not up for discussion and group decision-making, don't explain it.
- When you turn down an invitation, politeness doesn't require you to say why.
- You're not old enough to have sex until you've gotten over that desire to have everybody like you all the time. And you're certainly not old enough to raise children until then.

Comments

[mergatrude.livejournal.com]

I'm begining to suspect that with regard to parenting, consistancy is the wrong choice; what's really required is certainty.