MOTHER Knows Best
By Elena Brouwer
IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. You hear that little voice that belongs to your mother reminding you to mind your manners. It may be when someone tells you a juicy piece of gossip, and you'd love to tell someone else even though you know you shouldn't. Or perhaps you get invited to a fancy Afternoon Tea, and you don't know exactly what you are supposed to do with the clotted cream, but you know that doing the wrong thing will be embarrassing
Mothers spend a lifetime giving us good advice that we generally choose to ignore. Sometimes our fathers and grandparents also get in the act, and we tend to ignore their advice as well. Of course, some of their prompting is very practical; get up on time as not to miss the school bus, wear clean underwear, fill up the gas tank before driving to pick up a date or friends, lock the front door before going to sleep. But what about the relentless push to "mind our manners"? As young people, we think we know it all, and commonly overlook the advice from our elders. We not only ignore pleas from them to act with good graces, we often laugh it off and call the advice silly and meaningless.
Yet, we regret our failure to listen to our mothers' good advice when we encounter occasions that make us wish we had paid more attention.
If you are lucky enough to still have your mother around, I encourage you to run, not walk, to thank her for her helpful advice throughout the years. Let her know that you are grateful for her efforts. If you have children, start the pro cess of returning the favor. They will appreciate it in the future. After all, it's just good manners!
Mothers have consistently provided us the following tips as we were growing up: