I was seeing a lot of “Slavic mom advice” and “my Asian mom taught me these habits” popping up on my YouTube, and I was wondering what the American version would be.
I will likely be having a child in a foreign country with a foreigner and I want to pass down the best parts of my American nationality to my future children (asking because one of my parents is foreign to the U.S and my other parent didn’t really teach me anything)
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We are far too diverse with kid wrangling to make any type of statement.
Try to aim for center mass
If you can’t afford to save up for something you want, you can’t afford payments either.
It’s a combination of “I can’t afford another kid so I know you can’t so always wear protection” and “It doesn’t matter how hard they hit you as long as you hit them back twice as hard”
Always keep your word.
Think before speaking.
Never threaten. Only do.
Family is everything. Protect it with your life if needed.
“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a person healthy, wealthy, and wise”
“You can’t unscramble eggs” (be careful of the consequences of your actions)
“Actions speak louder than words” (Pay attention to what someone does, not what they say)
“The early bird gets the worm” (Don’t be late)
“Beauty is only skin deep”
The pairing of “A lie can fly around the whole world before the truth can get its boots on” and “The truth comes out a little at a time”
“Never judge a book by its cover”
“Closed mouths don’t get fed” (ask for help)
“Don’t start fights, but if someone starts a fight with you, you finish it”
“Take only pictures, leave only footprints” (in nature)
“Never quit a job until you have another one lined up”
“Love your country, not your government”
Things to always have:
– a melee weapon by the door in case of intruders (usually a baseball bat)
– A spare tire, a car jack, and ~~whatever you call that cross thingy that gets the bolts off~~ a tire iron
– Plastic bags, but I think this one is universal
– WD-40 or some other lubricant
– A can opener (the military surplus ones are decent and can go on a necklace)
– Candles and a flashlight if the power goes out
– BATTERIES!!!
Text me when you get home!
From my grandpa, “Never hit somebody first. But if they hit you first, do what you have to do. Deal with the consequences later.”
Be Prepared.
Most of the stuff I was taught no longer applies, but the overriding lesson will always be true.
My mom would say, “always keep a dime in your shoe in case you need to makee a phone call”, or “bring a coat, you’d rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it” or “learn to drive a stick so if your date gets fresh, you will know how to drive his car and get away from him”, “never go to a second location”. (That last one might have come from Dateline. )
So I guess the habits my American parents ( both, 5 generation New Englanders) handed down to us was the Boy Scout motto. Be Prepared.
It’s a diverse country with many customs, ways of life, and values.
Be prepared for anything.
“Children should be seen, not heard.” This advice actually changes meaning as you get older.
As a child, it means to not interrupt adults that are talking
As an adult, it means keep an eye on what yout child is doing, but sometimes you should ignore the noise they are making.
I don’t know if this counts but every single American home I’ve ever been in has a plastic bag full of plastic bags under the sink 🤣
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” —My Dad, My Grandma, Me
Cops exist to control, not help. They’re not your friends.
“It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.”
“Don’t take no shit off nobody” – stand up for yourself; if someone starts with you, make sure to end it.
“Even a fish wouldn’t get caught if it kept its mouth shut” – my phone auto-filled this one, make of that what you will.
“Speak up! I’m not a mind-reader” – ask for help, ask for what you want (“the worst they can say is ‘no'”)
“Touch it once” – don’t half-ass a job/project; you will just have to come back and fix it.
“Measure twice; cut once” – make sure you know what you are doing; bring receipts. Also, very literal.
My gram added: “it’s just as easy to love a rich man as a poor one,” “never buy a pair of shoes without wearing them for a bit” – it’s not about shoes.
And my stepdad added one through how he lived and I’ve verbalized it as, “don’t make your weirdness someone else’s problem” – the only thing of his that I kept when he died was an oatmeal tin he labeled “Bits of string too short to save” and that’s exactly what’s in it. It was in with all his other very neatly labelled items in his workshop. He was weird and quirky, but not in a chaos monster way. He never let his issues be someone else’s burden. There’s something very Yankee about this one that I’m having trouble explaining… Like, I drank too much for a while and he handled it by letting me know that what I do with my life is up to me, until it affects other people. My mom said it as “your right to throw punches ends at my nose” and I guess that sums it up. We were big on metaphor in my house.
I don’t know about specifically American, but Black people always sneak in food to the movie theaters, use grocery store bags to hold anything, and use the phrase “if you touch it, you buy it” to keep their children from trying to get things they can’t pay for. It worked a lot on me.
If Mom is cold, you are cold. Put on a sweater.
I think it depends on where you are. Something I notice Americans having is not being afraid of failure
It costs nothing to be nice
I feel like American children mostly all taught the Golden Rule, “treat others the way you want to be treated”. It’s pretty good advice and it feels pretty American.
Always look both ways before taking candy from a stranger.
I never went anywhere without hearing “Stay with your group”. Dont be wandering off alone. Ever”
One that always stuck with me was my mom saying “people in glass houses should not throw rocks” in other words don’t be a hypocrite, and I hate hypocrisy to this day. So mission accomplished Mom, haha