Our Parents’ Life-Long Influences on Us

As is frequently addressed in self-help and pop-psych books, our parents were our primary teachers. Through their modeling and child-rearing practices, they indeed influenced and molded us when we were young. It’s amazing, nonetheless, how frequently we, as adults, still see their handprints on us. For example, “Like father, like son,” and “Like mother, like daughter,” are many times heard at family gatherings.

One of the many ways our parents influenced us was through the inspirational quotes they gave us. I’m sure you can remember those memorable pearls of wisdom your mom and dad gave you while you were a child growing up? “Take all you want, but eat all you take.” And even into adulthood, like when I was telling my mother about how my adult daughter had changed after her son (my first grandson) was born, Mom said, “Children become better children when they have children of their own.” Likewise, I’ll never forget the day my Dad said to me, “Do the right thing even if no one is looking, and the man in the mirror will be proud of you.”

If you have any of your parents’ memorable sayings that have stayed with and helpfully guided you through your life journey, please share them with me. And down the road if/when you read my recently published pop-psych book, Mom and Dad’s Pearls of Wisdom: You Gotta Love ’Em (amazon.com), please let me know what you think. But remember, “If you can’t say anything nice about a person, don’t say anything at all.”

Thanks, Bill