If You Must Know

A bit of my kind of advice to the General Population:
~When you want your young teenaged daughter to avoid certain activities, you have a MUCH better chance of getting through to her if you actually talk to her about why it would be in her benefit to not smoke/drink/have sex, than if your whole conversation consists of you saying "I expressly forbid you to (insert forbidden activity), or else." Her "But why?" And you responding "Because I said so!" Granted, even being fair and respectful about it and treating her as an equal isn't a dead guarantee to get her to follow your rules; but that's just because teenaged girls always (well almost always) have a need to defy their parent(s) just for the sake of proving they can.

~The best way to keep teenagers and unprepared young adults from having sex and risking getting pregnant (or being the impregnator), is to put them in charge of the care and well-being of at least one would-be-autonomous toddler who doesn't talk for at least 48 hrs., with no baby-sitters allowed. At the end of those 48 hrs., you will either have them scared enough their parts freeze up and don't work, or you will have one/some of the best potential parents you have ever seen.

~There are no such things as bad days. It's all in how you handle it.

~All children have an inherant desire for parental approval, attention, and love. (No I'm not a doctor, I've just been there, and know the gut-pull to please my own parents. That, and I've been part of a lot of group therapy sessions in "treatment centers.")

~Contrary to popular belief, simply not eating for a time will NOT help you to lose weight. Your body eats itself, but as soon as you eat again it gets put in fat storage in case you deprive it of food again. I've done it before, take my word.

~Just because you write about things online doesn't mean people read it, let alone care what you said/say.

~Gentlemen, any time your wife has that murderous and/or devil-may-care look on her face, or in her eyes when she tells you to go ahead and do something because she doesn't care, to actually go through with the actions in question is to put your own life on the line. That facial expression combined with that phrase actually means "I've already made my feelings on this matter perfectly clear, and you risk losing all that you love and hold dear if you go against me." You've been forewarned...never say I didn't prepare you the best I could.