What’s the best advice your mother ever gave you?
Posted May 17, 2018: This past Sunday was Mother’s Day, so it seemed like a good time to ask a question about Mom.
The first answer had us laughing out loud: Don’t stick your finger up your nose!
Once we stopped laughing, we heard more. “It worked! I have a lot of friends and it’s probably because I don’t pick my nose.” The other important advice from this mom: Laughter always helps.
Other advice as we reflect on Mother’s Day includes:
- Always have chocolate in the house.
- Stick up for yourself! This advice given to a daughter who’s the youngest of 4 children. All three older children are boys and they all shared one bathroom.
- Don’t change your values or morals for anyone else.
- Always wash your face before you go to bed.
- Be nice.
- Indecision is a sign of immaturity.
- Watch out for fake sweetie pies.
One gentleman visiting Ardenwoods told us that he was the only child of a psychiatric nurse mom and psychiatrist dad. His mother’s advice? Always be polite to people. He hopes he has been and will continue to be! As his mother was on her deathbed, she read Rudyard Kipling’s poem If* to him.
Ms. Libby Walton said that her sweet “southern belle” mom gave her lots of good advice:
- If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything.
- Laugh a lot and have great joy.
- Love the Lord.
- Get your ducks in a row!
Ms. Libby’s mom lived to be two months shy of 94 and loved getting her ducks in a row. As a result she painted humorous paintings of mother ducks and their ducklings.
Some practical advice can be interpreted in many ways!
Speaking of farm animals… Jane Young’s mother gave her very practical advice that can be a metaphor. She grew up on a dairy farm and her mother said, “Don’t ever learn how to milk a cow and then you won’t have to.”
We were fortunate to run into a mother-daughter duo to ask this question. Sally Rhett is the daughter of Ardenwoods resident Betty Rhett. Sally says that her mother always told her, “Time will tell” and “Live and learn.” Furthermore, Ms. Betty’s mother told her to be nice!
We had a great time talking about mothers and the kinds of advice that is timeless. We will probably update this post on a regular basis.
Here’s one more piece of advice from a smart mom: Put the oxygen mask on yourself before assisting others.
*BY RUDYARD KIPLING
(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)