- Life is not fair. Get used to it. My mom always said “Life isn’t fair, only interesting.”
- Unlike school, life doesn’t care about your self-esteem; it’ll expect you to accomplish something that’s worth feeling good about.
- You won’t make $40,000 a year right out of high school. Not legally anyway.
- If you think school and teachers are tough, wait until you have a job and a boss.
- Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Neither is waiting tables, washing dishes, walking dogs, changing diapers, scrubbing toilets, etc.
- You are responsible for your screw-ups. Not your parents, not your teachers, not your boss. Not even the mean kid that pushed you down on the playground. YOU.
- Your parents weren’t boring before you were born. It came from working to pay your bills, cleaning up after you, and listening to you tell them how you’d do everything better than they did. Just wait until you’re the parent.
- Life isn’t divided into semesters with breaks in between, and you won’t get summers off.
- Smoking doesn’t make you look cool, it makes you look stupid. And smelly.
- You are not immortal, and you do not know everything.
Adapted from a commentary by Charles, Sykes, WTMJ Radio.
The trick as parents is to find loving ways to help our children learn these things before they get out in the “Real World” and learn them the hard way.
Photo credit: Chapelhillsnippets.com
I appreciate this post, Amy.
A few years back, my sister lived with us for the summer. We spent all summer trying to teach her these things and, at fifteen years old, it was quite the challenge! In the end, before she moved back home with my mom and dad, she learned that she could not freely pile up the minutes on my cell phone, that there is something to be said about volunteering and its place on a resume, and that recognition does not occur just because you whine loudly about life’s injustices. At the end, she finally understood that if you mess your pants, you’re cleaning up crap.
Sam,
It’s such a hard thing to teach, as a parent, because you love your kids – you want to shield them so they’re never disappointed. But I’ve learned that it’s much better for them to learn these lessons at home when they’re young than from the “real world” when they’re older. I’m sure that if your sister doesn’t appreciate the lessons you helped her learn yet, she will eventually.
Thanks for commenting!
~Amy Sue
That’s hilarious! I’m so tweeting that 🙂
Joquena,
Thanks! I can’t take credit since I didn’t think of it myself, but it’s definitely worth sharing. 🙂
~Amy Sue