Listen To Mama

     As parents you spend your life trying to teach your kids the things they need to know to go through life happy, healthy and as unscathed as possible.  You willingly give them advice along the way, wanting them to learn from your mistakes so that they don't have to learn the hard way.
     Getting them to take your advice, however , is a whole other blog.  As I look back over the years there are very few pieces of advice that I can see that my kids took to heart, but they picked a couple of good ones.
     The first one is a high school diploma is something they give to kids who show up every day and don't cause trouble in class.  There was a time when it meant you could find a job, keep it your whole working life and retire comfortably.  Those days are gone forever.  You have to have a collage degree to get anywhere in life and even that is no guarantee, just ask the good folks who have lost their jobs due to the economy. We have a daughter with an accounting degree and one with a degree in Communicative Disorders.  We have a son that is prepping to be a pharmacist and another one who wants to get an engineering degree.  Another daughter is starting college soon and is thinking about something in the medical field. Having the older ones set the example of higher education for the younger ones is beyond valuable.
     The other piece of advice my kids seemed to have taken is one of my favorite sayings, "If it seems to good to be true it probably is."  No one walks around handing things out for free despite what some people claim.  It takes hard work to get ahead in life and sometimes even that isn't enough.  If someone is promising you the moon step back and take a really close look at it.  There are more folks out there wanting to take what you already have rather than having to work for it themselves.
     Out of all the advice I've given my kids I am glad these are the words of wisdom they have taken to heart.  What is the best advice you have ever been given?