What's the worst advice your parents ever gave you?
Asked by
Val123 (
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December 31st, 2009
In my second year of college my dad pulled the funding out from under me, told me I didn’t need a degree. I just needed to find a man to marry and have him take care of me.
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21 Answers
To just do what my teachers told me to do.
This was at a time when I was getting in quite a bit of trouble for questioning a lot of what my English teacher was doing. I got sent to in-house (on campus suspension) a few times weekly for asking questions he didn’t have answers to and was therefore called a troublemaker.
My mom just wanted me to do my work and get that class over with. I can see where she was coming from. After talks with her my uncle would pull me aside and tell me to keep questioning him. It’s not wrong to ask questions and disagree with people. He did tell me to quit getting sent to suspension though.
Forcing me into social situations. Autism was unheard of in my childhood, to them I was just being antisocial. Of course now the experts say that what they did was about the worst thing you can do to an autistic kid. Forcing me to fail over and over instead of pursuing things that I was really good at, As soon as I got away from their control, I utterly rejected all unnecessary social contacts.
@naivete Ah….you didn’t, did you?
I wouldn’t say I followed my Dad’s advice, exactly…or maybe I did. Got married at 22, three kids, and ten years later I’m divorced, a single mom, kid’s dad moved thousands of miles away, sent no child support. I was desperately poor for the next ten years. Nice.
@Val123 No way. That’s a ridiculous thing to ask of someone.
They also told me to figure out what I wanted to do with for rest of my life (in terms of a career) when I was 16.
When I started driving, my dad’s advice to me was not to take driver’s ed classes and ease into it, but rather to “just get behind the wheel and do it”. There’s a front fender and a lightpole that disagree with his advice.
They told me that I studied too much.
When I was in college I studied most week days.
I relaxed on Weekends . Unless I had a big exam the following week.
@naivete My parents told me that, too. When I was a junior in high school, I was worried about choosing my classes for my senior year. My stepmom said that this was a decision that could affect the rest of my life. My parents kept telling me to choose some really sensible major once I got to college and maybe get a job in the government. That’s part of the reason why I went in completely the opposite direction and went to art school. I figured out on my own that there was a middle ground- now I want to manage a small business.
To always clean my plate. As a result, I have a wicked problem controlling my weight.
I never dated in high school, except for that one time my mother set me up with a date for the prom. UGH! At least now I know why he never had a girlfriend! Heh heh, heh he he!
The night before I was to be married I told my dad I thought I was making big mistake. He told me to ignore the cold feet and go through with the wedding. It took me more than 20 years to get up the nerve to end the marriage. I have since decided that since he couldn’t receive a refund on the money he put toward the reception, he didn’t want it to go to waste.
Not to acknowledge things that I was good at, but work on fixing my weaknesses. As a result, my strengths languished, and I spent a lot of time working on things that I’m terrible at to this day, mostly because of disinterest.
They also said education was wasted on girls, because I would get married and never need to use it.
I’ve been trying to think of any good advice they ever gave me. Perhaps it was, “It’s going to be cold later, you should take a sweater.” Other than that, it was all bad advice.
Wow, my parents really advised me well, and still do so even to this day.
lol @pdworkin, one time in high school I wanted to wear a jacket to a high school football game but my mother refused to drive me to the game if I took a sweater or jacket because it would ruin my outfit. The temperature dropped from 60 degrees to 28 degrees between 6 pm and 10 pm. I was so cold, and was sick for a week. My mom refused to let me stay home, saying it was my own fault I was sick, that I should have taken a jacket to the game.
@PandoraBoxx, I’m sorry. Your mom was waaay off the trail there. I’m guessing this was not the only weird thing that she did to you. I hope you have some sort of normal relationship with her now, and that you have healed enough to forgive her, for your sake, if not for hers.
to look back while you’re riding your bike.
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