Practical things your mom or dad taught you

[guitargabor]

Avoid debt!

[kbraker]

That things are not always easy and saying no is often necessary and best. That, plus they also showed me how not to treat a child.

[radiokid]

Use your fork to extract all the potato from a baked potato by mashing the tines into it. Just leaves the skin behind.

[blackie51]

My father always said "don't get old".

This piece of advice I have done my best to avoid so far.

Tom

[Kh1967]

Mom: Always be kind. It is just as easy as being anything else.
Dad: Don’t pay anyone for work/repairs you can learn to do yourself.

[Mr. Paul]

Originally Posted by guitargabor

Avoid debt!

This. I've had debit cards but got my first credit card in my 60s. It is good for 5% back on all Amazon purchases. Then got one that pays 2% back on everything else. Mom and dad would have approved.

[zuzu]

Originally Posted by radiokid

Use your fork to extract all the potato from a baked potato by mashing the tines into it. Just leaves the skin behind.

With a properly baked potato, the skin is the best part.

[The Watchman]

Originally Posted by zuzu

With a properly baked potato, the skin is the best part.

True. Thats where most of the nutrients are.

Not from a parent, but a grade school teacher:

"Not everyone who is friendly is a friend."

[Mary]

There were many but I feel these are the primary rules of common sense. Some are old fashion but good old fashion rules never leave. I was the little Shirley Temple little curly hair blonde girl that sat on Mom and Dad's laps listening when adults gathered. I remember many coffee conversations around the table. The lessons that stuck with me are as follows...

* Speak gently and make eye contact when spoken to.

* Walk into any known home of another only if invited.Men are to remove their hats as when taking that first step to go inside and definitely never wear a hat at a meal table even if you are outside at a picnic.

* If you can't afford it (whatever it is) you have choices
#1- Do not to go into debt. Some who live in a shoebox are happier than the man in the mansion.

* Create an honest plan for living.

* Make the item you think you need. Your own creation is going to be better appreciated.

* Get a clue on how to "legally" get things done. Trade job for job/ask and you shall receive?

* Simply be content with what you do or do not have.

* Lay your head down at night and know you are not the one in control because there is a better plan in sight for you. Be patient.

I debated on these final words, but I heard it many, many times over the years. (Please don't be offended) ... My parents had friends. One owned the insurance company. One owned the local funeral home. The third managed the cemetery.

* Do not buy life insurance

*1) The insurance man said: Life insurance has nothing to do with life ASSURANCE. Tomorrow is not promised. Have a simple plan for final departure. Many "fools" travel the world on the insurance money after a loved ones death looking for happiness when it was the one they lived with under that one roof that truly made them happy. Do things together now. Have enough only money on hand to honor in a simple fashion after the death.

*2) The female funeral director said: Funeral homes decorate for the show but it's impossible to show the true inner beauty. Mom and I attended her funeral because we knew her own final plans. Her daughter did just what she was told. The owner pre-rented a canoe/coffin, picked out her fishing clothes, including waders, hat was covered in lures and her favorite pole was in the canoe with her. She was displayed by horse and antique see through (pre-rented) carriage around the town to declare her final goodbye to the community to thank all those who supported the business which she left to her daughter. She said it would be the best ad for the funeral home so others can see it is OK and can be enjoyable to move beyond the typical viewing.

*3) The man who managed the grounds said: Costly cemeteries hold ashes, but so will the favorite spot where you met many years ago.

[TBman]

Mom:

Turn off the lights when you leave a room (and no one else is in it, lol)

Dad:

Don't open your mouth and prove how dumb you are. (In other words think before speaking and only if you have suitable information on the subject)

[Glennwillow]

It's been interesting reading comments here. So many things that folks here were taught by their parents I learned, too. Stay out of debt; live by the Golden Rule; be straight with people and build up a reputation for honesty.

One of the things I learned from my mother, who was pretty brave about a lot of things in life, was to learn to have courage. My mother could be a little harsh on the subject, such as saying things like "Don't be so gutless!!!" But being confronted like that made me think about it a lot as I grew up.

I have learned that a lot of people go through life afraid.

- Glenn

[TBman]

Also,

My grandmother used to say, "Be nice to the people you meet 'on your way up' because they are the same people you will meet on your way down."

[Mycroft]

From mom:
"I'm from Missouri" "She wasn't. Oregon High Desert born and bred. What it meant was don't just accept what anyone says as being true without seeing the evidence.

"Murphy was an optimist" was hers too.

From Dad:
"Buy cheap, buy twice." He wasn't talking price but rather quality. Dad was born in Oakland, but spent a lot of his childhood poaching deer in the Trinity Alps of Northern California during the Depression. Cattle rancher during much of my childhood, (Yeah, I was an actual cowboy) then restaurateur after losing the lease of the ranch when the trust that owned it decided to sell it to a consortium from LA instead of him. He was a man who appreciated a good quality tool.

[Cypress Knee]

The most significant advice I received came not from my parents, but my grandmother. I was nine going on ten at her house watching television with her when she said, "Jimmy, you ought to go to college and make a doctor or a lawyer or a preacher man."

Nobody in my family had ever been to college. That one statement became my goal from the fourth grade onward. It took three years of working several part time jobs while attending a local community college, but I finally saved enough money to pay my own way through a final two years at the main campus (I did not have a major early on) and I got out.

I look back at friends and family who stayed and think of the lyrics from Blackberry Smoke's "One Horse Town":

"I'm an old married man at the age of 23
Got 2 little boys on the baseball team
And that might be their only ticket out"

I'm retired now, but I still see that attitude when I visit the town where I grew up.

[Joe Beamish]

I learned more from observing my parents than listening to specific advice from them. My mom was a best friend to many people over the course of her life. She had a genius for being a great friend. And from my dad, I observed (from playing cards and board games, doing projects around the house, watching sports, etc.) that in nearly any situation, there are things that you can turn to your advantage if you simply notice them and “go for it.”