Do We Learn The Lessons Our Parents Try To Teach Us?

We don't always learn lessons from our parents until we're older and have had time to digest the information and realize that they were not as silly as we had thought them to be. If we think back to our youth, how many lessons we learned do we apply to our lives as adults? And do we appreciate what we did learn?

One evening when I was eight years old my mother, along with her friend, decided to take me to a special event. Dressed in her finest, a fur coat inherited from a deceased aunt, brand new rhinestone earrings and her hair newly coiffed, we set out one rainy evening. She wore gumboots of course because anyone living on a farm knows you don't wear your best shoes when it's pouring cats and dogs no matter what special event it is you are attending.

After being dropped off by the bus we walked the rest of the way along a dark road until suddenly I heard her muffled cries. “Sir,” her friend called to a passing gentleman, “would you please help my friend out of the ditch?”

This was not an easy matter. Trying to pull a woman from a water-filled ditch who is wearing a soggy fur coat and gumboots that are filled with water is a difficult feat. But eventually with a lot of grunting and groaning, they managed to pull my mother to the top of the ditch.

Together we slogged to the washroom where the special event was being held. My mother used paper towels in an attempt to dry her hair, but the mud stuck like glue. They emptied the gumboots of water but they couldn't do anything about the dripping fur coat which was beginning to smell like a wet dog.

“Well,” said my mother, “we've come all this way, we may as well go in.” She planted a cheerful smile upon her face as we left the washroom.

At my age, I had not as yet developed any great understanding for my mother's predicament. In fact I felt very embarrassed to be walking down the aisle behind this disheveled looking woman who people might realize was my mother.

Now as an adult, I have to give her kudos when I think of her walking to her seat with squelching gumboots, her hair still in muddy wet strings, carrying a dripping fur coat but still wearing her brand new rhinestone earrings.

What did I learn? Well, for one, we can't always look our best all of the time. Sometimes circumstances prevail. My mother was not going to let a bad hairdo spoil her evening. She could have cried, sulked or spoiled her friend's and my evening by refusing to go into the event. But she carried it off by holding her head high and smiling at the curious who craned their necks to get a better view of the spectacle walking down the aisle. She made the best of a difficult situation. In other words, she didn't let it get her down. Her attitude was that worse things could have happened. After all, she could have drowned in that water-filled ditch.

I realize now that her attitude was great. How nice it would be if all people who suffer disappointments or have problems could look at the positive side of a bad situation. I have tried in my life to apply this same attitude when a situation has not gone as I may have wished. It makes dealing with the unplanned or the difficult much easier when it is viewed and treated in a positive manner. And usually things really can be much worse.

I was fortunate to have parents who taught me many things about living life to the fullest. By watching them, listening to them and thinking, after I became an adult, about how they handled things, I have tried to follow their good examples. I appreciate the lessons I have learned from my parents. Even if the lessons were not good, we can still learn from them. As adults it is something to think about.