"No hanky panky"
I know she had my best interests in mind as well as an awareness of raging teenage hormones. But c'mon Mom, "I have good grades" - my answer to every infraction, even those that were only imagined.
Often, I would come back with something like "Okay, I'll just get sloppy drunk and all potted up on weed, but no hanky panky!"
She wouldn't laugh.
Looking back now, though, I realize she gave good advice on a variety of topics. Some were born out of superstition, but the stories stuck with me.
"Take care of your skin"
Back in the hanky panky teen years, a good suntan was a priority among my friends and me. In the summer months, we would sunbathe. Skin cancer wasn't really much of a thing to worry about, but neither of my parents liked me to sunbathe. Now, it seems a pretty stupid practice to me.
I remember Mom telling me how she was told as a kid that moles on one's shoulder indicated a hard life ahead. They were ominous marks, metaphors for the scars left on the shoulder of Jesus from carrying the cross.
Now, I have shoulder moles. Probably from the stupid sunbathing. Even though I'm living a happy non-hardship life, whenever I notice the moles, I think of Jesus but not in a happy way.
"Don't cheat"
Another story Mom told me from her upbringing was of the practice they had of jumping as high as they could on their birthdays as children. The height they reached from their jump would supposedly become their adult height.
One year, Mom cheated and jumped from a chair. She ended up reaching a (non) statuesque adult height of about 4'11".
No cheating for me.
"Don't pull your gray hairs"
Many of us have probably heard this one. "For every gray hair you pull, two grow in its place". But I first heard it from Mom. When she passed away at 87, she still had a good portion of black hairs.
I don't touch my grays.
"What goes around comes around"
Probably the biggest lesson from Mom was that of Karma, or the Golden Rule, whatever strategy she was aiming for. I remember her always letting people into traffic when they were pulling out of a parking space along the street.
"Someday, I'll be wanting to pull into traffic. I let someone in now, and someone will let me in later"
She assured me that the principle worked for other things too, not just traffic. Trust it, it worked. Thinking about it now, I don't think I practice it as well as she did.
Never too late to start?
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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt
3. Share a lesson you learned from your Mother that still sticks with you to this day
14 comments:
Sounds like some good advice from a beautiful woman!
Moms are actually very wise, contrary to what we think in our teens.
Sound like you had a great, wise mom to guide you, even though you didn't always listen!
I may have told you this already, but you really favor your mom. Beautiful inside and out.
Sounds like some great advice! Loved her proof of why cheating is wrong. And I haven't pulled out any grays, but I disguise them. Is that ok?
Yes!
Yup, and I'm living the "goes around comes around" right about now ;)
Yeah, it's easy to think you're smart when you're dumb.
Mom had a way of giving lessons through stories. I believed that cheating one!
Funny how much wiser our parents get as we get older.
True!
Good mom lessons. I didn't followed all that wisdom either, but I did learn to stay out of the sun.
For the record, I didn't necessarily follow the "no hanky panky" either... Live and learn.
Sound advice from your mother.
Steering clear of hanky panky is how I prefer to live my life to this day.
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