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How many times have you said something that you wished that you could take back? How many times have you prayed that the earth would open and swallow you whole because of the thing that you just said? I know that I have said some things that were horrible and have wished death by be-heading on myself a million times. I have learned to apologize for the occasional slips of the tongue and move on. We all do this to each other. It is nothing new to offend others. We have to learn to be slow to speak and that is what is getting us into trouble. Somebody says mothers should not work but, stay at home with their kids. Those of us who are mothers blow up right? We throw a tantrum because we either have to or choose to work and that is all there is to it. What gives someone the right to judge us because we have jobs? Well, maybe the person that fired off that comment had a legitimate argument but now, we may never know because all we heard was judgment. What's more we didn't even defend our position properly. How could we have? We were screaming and irate about how wrong they were to suggest such a thing.

What about your teenage daughter that is struggling to develop her identity? She comes into the room in what she thinks is a really cute outfit and all you can see is a monstrosity before you. What made her put those two patterns together? Why is she wearing her hair like that? Why do her eyes look bruised? First off, you know that you are risking all your cool points if you tell her you hate everything that she is wearing and you are privileged to even be asked for your opinion so what do you do? Well, you can't lie to her right? Praying for blindness is not going to save you either. Here is where the shutting up comes in handy. I usually take a deep breath, check my facial expression (Because you can say yuck without opening your mouth) and give her the old thumbs up sign and disguise the twitch in my eye as a wink. She usually falls for it and my cool points stay in tact. After all, this may very well be just a faze so why break her spirit?

I also have to deal with a constant whiner. I cannot tell you how often I would love to just rip my head off and kick it across the street rather than listen to another tirade complaints. I hear about how the job stinks, the weather stinks and there is no end in sight to how bad the world stinks. For every positive I give I get at least two negatives. Imagine how hard to shut up it is when this is what you deal with. I have not quite figured out how to conquer this one except to keep giving the positive pats on the back in order to refrain from the swift kicks in the pants this person really deserves. What can I say? To me the cup is always half full. To others, it's always half empty and yet to others, I have no life because I am basing off of the state of the glass I drink from. Go figure..

Learn more about this author, Andrea Miller.
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