You may have heard it countless times, perhaps from the lips of your mother how Mother Knows Best. And the reasons for this assertion may be anything from the fact that they gave birth to you, and hence have more experience; to the one that what you see from a tree-top, they can envisage sitting down.
What do you make of this? Consider some of these advice below:
1. It’s not all about you
Antoine Johnson remembers his mother saying to him that:
It’s not all about you. Take a number and get in line
Johnson’s mother taught him that other people are just as important in their own life-narratives as you are in yours. The idea, he wrote, is particularly valuable if one wants to learn to compromise, share, and live with others. He further added that:
No literary critic is standing by to critique your life story scene-by-scene. Others are too busy being self-conscious themselves to pay much attention to your item of embarrassment.
Word! Don’t you think? One mommy will sure be proud that her son got the message!
2. Find out for yourself
Meanwhile, another Quora user Shannon wrote that because she grew up before you could Google anything, her parents’ favourite piece of advice was:
Go look it up
She wrote that her family was fortunate to have enough money to buy a set of encyclopaedias. And she feels lucky she came to know that:
The world was big enough that we could have a place in it, and that it was wide enough that we weren’t expected to already know all about it.
So even though the World Book Encyclopedia of 1983 didn’t give me all the answers, it taught me that it was okay to ask questions and to not have all the answers, and that is the most valuable lesson I have ever learned.
3. How to Spot Fake People – By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them
Stephanie Vardavas wrote that when she was a little girl, her mother advised her that if you want to find out whether a person is really nice or not:
Observe the way that person treats salesclerks, waiters, and other people in service professions who can’t defend themselves.
Vardavas wrote that her mother was 100% correct, and that she never forgot that advice. It has been very useful in sorting people out, she concluded.
4. Your right or your relationships?
Screenwriter, Ken Miyamoto wrote that while his family love each other dearly, they often have different viewpoints and perspectives which can “lead to many disagreements and overblown arguments, which leaves their mother in the middle.”
A few years back during one of these major debates between his father, brother, and himself; his mother said to him:
Do you want to be right, or do you want a relationship?
Now, when push comes to shove, he comes back to these words because according to him:
There will be no relationship if you always seek to be right in life
5. Marriage, in a nutshell
Michelle Roses wrote that just before she walked down the aisle to marry her son, her mother-in-law told her:
Michelle, if a man can’t make himself a sandwich, he should starve
Marriage is a partnership – of both parties doing stuff for each other – not a slave-master relationship!
What do you think? Any sage words from your dear mother you would like to share, and how you benefitted? Do hit us up in the Comments Section!
This article was adapted from a BBC Capital news story
