Advice Only A Mother Could Give

Mother knows best.

Doesn’t she? With eyes behind her head, built-in radar and on-target intuition, she knows what you should do and when you should do it. And most importantly, who you should do it with.

Here’s what happens when you listen to mother (or father):

Steffi: “My parents told me, when I was embarking on a career after college, not to worry about finding a boyfriend, getting married or having children. They encouraged me to work hard, play hard - I was a competitive weekend athlete - and enjoy my travels. They were supportive financially, but emotionally, I was always stable because they never pushed or prodded me about romance. If I was in love with a man and he left me, my mom would say, ‘Like a city bus, another will come along.’ I didn’t marry until I was 32 and I didn’t have children till I was 34. I can honestly say I had a great 10 years of being on my own with no pressure to marry and produce grandchildren. My parents gave me wings and let me use them.”

Marlene: “I had very serious doubts about my fiance right up until the wedding. I told my mother, but she pooh-poohed them. She said they were just typical pre-marriage jitters. The night before the wedding, I was so sure I was making a mistake, I wanted to call it off. My mother wouldn’t let me. She said we had too many out-of-town guests and that everything was paid for. She said it would be a big scandal and she would never live it down.

“When I told her I thought I would be miserable, she said, ‘You can always get divorced.’

“So, I got married and then, six months later, I got divorced.”

Ben: “I’ve always been very close with my father. When my wife got pregnant, I told him how upset I was. We wanted to have a few more years to travel and save money before we started a family. My father told me the time is never right to have a baby. There’s always something you want to do first, but to just go ahead and do it. I listened to him and it was the best thing I ever did. If I would have waited, my father never would have seen his grandson. He died two years after he was born.”

Karen: “Whenever I would worry about not having a date for an important party, my mother would always give me her standard advice: ‘What you fear most never happens.’ And I would always reply, ‘Yeah, because there’s something even worse that I haven’t thought of. Like I’ll get a date and he’ll get drunk and throw up on me.’ As I’ve gotten older (old) I’ve realized mother and I were both right!”

Diane: “Whenever I would complain that I would never meet a man, my mother’s famous line was, ‘For every pot there’s a lid.’ Well, mom, this pot is 37 and still topless!”

John: “My mother told me, ‘Love between two people is like a newly hatched, soft little chicken. If you hold the little chick in the open palm of your hand, and near a surface where it can step off without hurting itself, it will enjoy the freedom but stay near. But if you ignore the need of all creatures for freedom and close your fist to keep the little chicken from running away, it will squawk, peck and scratch trying to escape. Hold your love gently and respect the universal need for freedom.’

“She was right.”

Cheri: “I don’t remember the best advice my mother ever gave me, but I certainly remember the worst. When I was dating the man I eventually married and divorced, she told me he had the kind of looks that would get better with age. Boy, was she wrong.”

xxxx