Advice your Mother gave you that you actually listened to.

[TheLostWinchesterWife]

Talking to my children today about being nice. Two seconds after they were tearing each other apart again.
Found myself saying 'I always listened to my Mum!'
...then wondered if I ever actually did.
Some of it was good and I should have followed and some was rubbish. But I couldn't think of any that I remembered thinking 'ah yes..I must remember that' so has anyone, anywhere ever listened to their mother?

Nobody gets to choose what circumstances they were born into - so don't ever be a snob and give everyone a fair chance!

Some of these are very, um, dubious. There are a couple I hope whose meanings I've completely misunderstood. This gem in particular: If you can walk, you can work..

Never wear something revealing on both halves. As per catalane, it's books or legs, not both.

I miss her.

Boobs, obviously, not books.

Be good and if you can't be good be careful.

If I was ever tempted to do something that made for a quiet life but was bad for dd, I would remember my Mum saying "I don't care if all the other girls in the class have got those shoes, they are bad for your feet and you are not having them".

Also, the importance of loyalty and "taking the rough with the smooth" from my Dad. If you wanted to go swimming with the Brownies you had to go to church parade as well, because it was the right thing to do.

From Mum. Talk to your baby. Start talking to them in the hospital when they are born and carry on. I still talk to my dd such a lot now she is 18. She has been praised for her communication skills at work. It is so worth it. Put down the mobile and Facebook and please, please talk to your child.

Love and miss you, Mum and Dad.

When I had a baby and I used to phone her for advice she would always turn it around and end up basically saying ' so what do you think?... Then do that'
Gave me real faith in my own parenting

"If you can't sleep just rest as much as you can, even if you don't sleep at all you'll do much better the next day if you are rested." (Said when I was going through a period of not being able to get to sleep as a child and kept getting out of bed to complain I still couldn't sleep.)

"Drive as though everyone else on the road is an idiot."

"Just because everyone is doing it doesn't make it right, if they jumped off a cliff would you think that was a good idea?!"

"Good relationships take hard work, they don't just magically happen."

"Friendships are like 2 people on a tandem bike, they both need to be putting in effort for the thing to work. If one of you stops pedalling, the other person will resent it and in the end the whole thing will collapse."

"Don't put both feet into something until you can see how far down the bottom is!" (This works for relationships AND rivers!)

"Always use sun-cream!!"

I'm sure there are more, my Mum is a bit of a sage...

'People who are easy to tell about your problems are often the most likely to repeat your problems to others.'

'Omelettes and scrambled eggs don't wait, eat them immediately.'

'Always live with a man before marriage to see what he's really like.' ('Did you live with Dad, Mum?' 'No.' 'Ah.')

Like bananagoddess: when I couldn't get to sleep, she'd say "Lying quietly in the dark is just as good as sleeping". Even though I know it's pretty much rubbish now, I still believe it in a way and tell my DH when he has trouble sleeping...

Also, before I moved in with DH (then boyfriend): "Never start ironing his shirts". I never did! He does all his own ironing. Occasionally do a few as a surprise and he is always grovellingly grateful!

Love many,
Trust few,
And always paddle your own canoe

from my Mum, and rather less helpful advice from my father:

"Education is a waste of time."

"Your only goal should be to be a wife."

and

"You'll come to nothing with that attitude."

The attitude being that I really wanted to work (horror - my own job!) to pay for my own education (horror again), so that I could become a scientist (not a girl's job).

I got my education and career in the end, not quite science but close enough.

Never run after a bus or a man, there'll be another along in a minute

don't say bad things about your friend's ex. She apparently did that, friend got back together with boyfriend, they married and split up a few years later. mom always worried a bit that she'd "planted a seed of doubt"

It'll still be there when you're dead.

ie don't get in a tizz about getting the to-do list done.It's never done.

My mother's advice was 'if you can cook a white sauce you can cook anything'.

My father is completely loopy in an old fashioned English eccentric kind of way, think the old brigadier in Fawlty towers. His advice, I think he thought I was a boy, was 'never rub another mans rhubarb'. And 'learn a brass instrument. That way if you get conscripted they will put you in the band rather than send you to the front'.

Women must be able to drive and preferably have your own car. If you can drive you have your freedom and can get out of any situation.

People can take everything away from you apart from your education so work hard at school.

Family are the only people that are always on your side (I know this isn't true and I have amazing friends but I think the principle of not putting up with bullshit friends has been a good one).

Never ever take drugs - I never have, too scared!

Two gems:

'Do as I say, not as I do'

'Do the right thing ' i.e. Consult your moral compass before making a decision.

Your title should include the word' eventually '

Of course, some posters have included their dad's advice, and mine gave me the same as a pp up thread... 'you can only do your best. Only you know if you didn't' applied to exam efforts. It gave me the freedom from pressure at school, knowing that if I didn't get an A in geography, he would know I had tried my hardest nonetheless.

Oh, and 'drive on the left' invaluable.

Never get involved with someone at work, if it goes wrong you still have to see them day after day. Never did.

Never touch your eye, except with your elbow

Never lower yourself to other people's low standards, let them raise themselves up to your high standards. I swear I quote that one daily to my DSS when he comes back from school with things that go on in his class that make my hair curl

Always leave the house with clean teeth and clean knickers

"Never touch your eye, except with your elbow" ha ha- that would make putting in my contact lenses very difficult.

Actually 'drive as though everyone else is an idiot' is something Mother says and I do use. So ... A tick there for mother knows best!

THe BSM taught me that too- it's failry well known and one of the basic foundations of defensive driving technique.

Do as you would be done by....so disappointed what I found she'd half inched from a book, but still think its great advice, and I was a water baby!

from Gran actually but... 'you should ALWAYS live with a man before you marry him - he might snore!!'

from Dad... 'the only man a girl can trust is her Daddy'

from Mum... 'always make sure you wear decent underwear when you go to the Doctors - he might need to examine you!'