What did your parents tell you ?

What did your parents tell you - and were they right ?

For a long time I thought my parents told me nothing but have come to realize they told me many things and very specifically. Jings, I think I could write a book on it all :ywn:

Well I asked, so I'll start.
#1 NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR EDUCATION

Well that was the refrain since I was about 4. And nothing could take precedence over school and schoolwork. From the age of 11 I was educated away from home (no school nearby) on a Highlands and Islands bursary, although my parents did have to pay part of the cost. I never lived with my parents again.

Was it all worth it ? I think not. Education is important but not to that extent. I think once people have learned to read, write and count they choose to educate themselves or not. I think if I'd left school when I was 11 the end result would have been the same.

 

When we were nineteen my future sister-in-law was seventeen and she and her future husband of the same age, were mad keen on Elvis Presley, they bought every new LP he made.

My future father-in-law said; "He won't last."

Funny thing is, he was right!

 

My mother's theory of childrearing revolved around the idea that the best way to stop young children from doing something mildly irritating was to put the fear of God into them. Therefore, when I was caught drawing flowers on my arm with a biro, I was told that pen ink was a deadly poison which could kill a small child in seconds if it entered the bloodstream. I was also told that the Venus de Milo was an accurate representation of a woman whose nailbiting habit had gone unchecked.

I agree with you about education, Alice. My husband was sent to boarding school in England at the age of seven. His parents were working in Iraq and they didn't think the local schools were good enough. I just can't imagine putting a seven-year-old on a plane and waving goodbye but that is exactly what they did!

 

I was rubbish at sport at school. And I mean really, really rubbish, to the point of being severely bullied because of it. My parents assured me in the long run sport was only a game and didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

They were right!

But two questions.
1) Why are PE teachers such sadists?
2) Why do so many men find sport so engrossing?

 

1) Because most of them were useless at academic subjects and still harbour a festering grudge against people who can read books without moving their mouths.

2) No idea at all. Personally I wish the men in my house would become obsessively interested in something useful, like cooking. Or even making sure that they leave the house in a matching pair of socks.

 

I'm keeping out of this one. My English aint good.

But its a bit like the driving test.

You learn a hell of a lot more after you leave school than you do while your there.

 

My Mum was full of proverbs and sayings.


"The only thing more expensive than time wasted is good food thrown away"

(and when I was a particularly difficult teenager)

"There is only ONE queen in this castle-and it isn't you" Love that one and use it with my two daughters.

 

That is brilliant! :gnthb:

 

'Bullies are always people who secretly hate themselves and suffer from low self-esteem.'

Wrong, unfortunately, despite my earlier remarks about sports teachers. Some people just enjoy being bullies. The nastiest girl at my school went on to put her talent for personal harassment to very good use by becoming a hackette for one of the red tops. I don't believe she's ever had a moment of self-doubt and I don't think she lies awake hating herself.

 

Her karma will come at some point. Hold that thought.

 

On the subject of schools, a friend a retired bank manager, who's father was the local doctor, sent him to boarding school when he was eight.
He found it difficult at first, as he couldn't speak the language.

You see he'd spent all his life until then, in Wales and the school was in England.

True!

 

Doghouse, that just slays me :lollol:And so true.
These days I don't even know who is in the charts.

 

Slightly off topic, but a while ago I was listening to a radio programme about children who were evacuated during the war. Some East End kids got posted to North Wales and arrived back in London speaking Welsh! Must have been a surprise for the parents.

 

I think that's the point I was making Pete - but you said it so much better.

 

Of course I'm biased, as I think popular music stopped, "with the death of vinyl."