I learned how to talk. I guess that's important.

Clearly more important for some than others.

How to treat my potential future kids. My parents found a good balance between strict and relaxed, but when I don't step out of line we have a great type of relationship. It's casual, I can talk to them with ease about anything even though I don't confess all my thoughts and feelings with them. I have a lot of respect for my parents, we're not a lovey dovey family but we all love each other a great amount. It's all good.

Hard work doesn't always get you ahead but it at least pays the bills


and while watching University of Alabama football games, never leave before the end of the game.

Work hard when you are young, reap the rewards once you are done.

Suffice to say, I'm reaping the rewards now: I recently bought my first car and a snowboard =)

Still looking at a PS3, but meh.

A snowboard, huh?

I guess they educated you pretty well!

I really admire my parents, especially my mom, for being the way she is despite coming from the parents she had. Not because her parents are bad, but because my grandparents were always very Right-wing, very prudish and very Republican. My mom is everything they are not, and is very supportive of all the ideas that my grandma considered "wild" and "foolish."

My dad always made me pay for my own stuff, even when I was 6 or 7 years old. No free toys from daddy... if I somehow acquired money from birthdays or Christmas, I had to save it and buy things with that. Did I really want that giant T-Rex with stomping sound effects? Or would I rather save that $40 and put it towards something larger, like a Sega Nomad? :eagletear: (yes, that was the decision I made one Birthday...) So it's not that I bought things that were important necessarily, but I did learn to be selective with what I spent my money on. Now that I'm older and more independent, it's definitely a useful life skill -- especially since I have friends that lack that kind of selective spending, and it affects their quality of life.

I think my 'down to earth' trait was something I picked up from my mom... if I wasnt taught that by her, then I certainly learned it by watching her life. I will always be grateful to her for passing on her dark sense of humor, including her sarcasm, to me. And something she had to tell me before I really completely noticed it for myself... she sarcastically remarked one day, "Oh the HORRORS, I've raised my daughters to be INDEPENDENT WOMEN!" I'm more than grateful to her for that. <3

My dad... well, he taught me that a check doesnt always go as far as you'd like it to (or need it to), so budgeting is always good. And his unintentional lesson was keeping a watchful eye on how much I drink.

When thinking about my parents and what I've learned from them, a couple things stand out. Mostly from my father, but anywho...
My father told me that I shouldn't be hurt if I can't have something since I didn't have it in the first place. And of course there's the whole "knowledge is power" thing...
He's also told me to do the (class) work because it's gonna help me in the long run. It's another way of thinking. This is in response to me failing a class I hated(but needed for my major).

My mother has taught me to be a hard worker and share. And I do well with those.
Outside of home.

I learned to persevere from my mother. I have never seen anyone as hard working or determined as her; no matter what shit life throws her way she just keeps going. Admittedly with a kind of desperately chirpy optimism that irritates me, but then I'm quite cynical myself.

From my dad I learned a good sense of judgement and tact with most things. He was always the one who stood back and evaluated situations, then dealt with them appropriately. My friends tend to look to me to help them with difficult problems and I hope I've managed to give them that.

I think my parents have just given me a lot of emotional and spiritual guidance. There is a cultural and generational gap between us, so they're not great at teaching "life" issues. But I've definitely learned character and morals from them.

I figure I've learned far more from the shitty example my parents set throughout my later childhood and adolescence than anything either of them actually sat me down for a talk about. Everything I picked up from them is a result of their own shortcomings - of which there are many. Hell, I was never around them long enough to pick up on anything.

Without bitching and moaning too much, long story short: I spent ten years in a place I hated and only realised towards the end of that time that I should have been questioning my circumstances all along. A shitfit I threw at eight was the full extent of any defiance I showed in the face of the situation, and a consequent hide-tanning taught me to not bring it up again. I did my best to play by all the rules throughout, but during the last two years of school, a few things occurred which caused me to so thoroughly change my perspective that I found it hard to accept my surroundings. The main lesson learned as a result of all that was to be assertive and perceptive from the beginning - and I'll be damned if those years didn't bolster my resolve something solid.

Oh, yeah, and when I was fifteen mum taught me how to iron things.

Hold my word. Once, when my father was angry at me, he still agreed to copy some cassettes for me because he promised it. He may be a mountain of pride, but he is a man of honour.

Responability. He had a rather rude manner to show it to me, but my father taught me to be responsible for my actions.

I learned not to have kids at a young age thank god! but seriously, my mom had to raise me and sister on her own and we don't always get along but no matter what's happened in our lives or whenever I was struggling personally, even when I didn't think they loved me at all, they were still there. I guess what I learned is how to survive. Things are constantly changing, you don't always get notice of it, and falling down won't make it any easier.

My dad, I talked to him once, I learned that sometimes ppl deserve second chances. He made mistakes and wasn't around but I still love him and I know he was doing the best thing for me. I really should try and talk to him again but he has a new family now and I want him to be good them and be there for them since he couldn't with me.

The best lesson I've learned from my parents' mistakes: Nothing in life is permanent.

I learned never to sleep arround with strange women. My dad went on a business trip to mexcio and came back with crabs.

If you're going to fuck before marriage, be a little bit more assured in your methods of birth control :)

DO your research! My mom always taught me this and a teacher did as well. one of the best lessons of my life. I see this in different ways now that I actualy do my research instead of listening to what anybody tells me. Especially the damned media. I was always one to judge and say things without knowing the whole story. I regret it but now I know better. Boy do I ever.

I learned from my parents is simplicity, courage, fearless and respect the old people. Also to stand in my own interests.

how not to be like them

I finally learnt not to wear gym pants in public.

I think I've taught them more than they have me, though. =o

My Mum taught me how to read. She taught me not to complain, to work hard, and to not assume that I am entitled to something just because my friends have it... that we all come from different situations and the truly meaningful measure of success is not so much how far we get in life but how far we have travelled.

I had a number of fathers growing up, never knew my real one, and only ever had a real relationship with the last one. He taught me that I was worth saving. That alone has kept me going, methinks. Knowing that no matter how much I screw up he'll still think I'm worth something makes the mysteries of life that much less intimidating.

My mom never taught me about shame or modesty. My pop taught me how handle a pocket knife and to keep a roll of dimes in my pocket, in case i ever wanted to punch a dude... Yeehaw... sigh. :twitch:

I've learned about never giving up from my dad. people always know me as extremely persistent....and in the end I usually get my way.

if you never give up, you will eventually succeed. for the most part. and yes, even with women (kinda) lol

Not to be like them. Obviously, an implicit lesson, but one of the most important ones I've gained over the years.

It's funny because my parents always told me to look at other people as a marker of who I should be and how I should develop my own personality, and I turn it back on them and see the way they both are and how I never want to be.