you'll poke your eye out

Great advice is passed down from generation to generation... It is generally unaccepted until one has proginy of their own, and it then becomes immediate truth. Or at least worth repeating. This is especially true among the female race. And I do mean race... Men are a different breed altogether. I'm sure I will never understand them. I think the problem is that they are much simpler than we give them credit for. You need never read into a male's actions. There is no deeper meaning.

Anyway, I am reminded of this because yesterday I rode my bike with flip-flops on. And even before mounting the thing, I heard my mother's voice in my head, "You should never ride a bike barefoot or with flip-flops. My cousin Barbie's friend's sister lost her toe because of that!" Every mother knows somebody who knows somebody who lost a toe because it got caught in the bike chain while wearing inadequate footwear.

I rode the bike anyway. I don't know anybody who's lost a toe.

That brings me to all the other tid-bits of wisdom:

If everybody jumped off a bridge, would you?

How many times have I told you?

What part of "no" don't you understand?

Because I said so.

You'll poke your eye out.

Your face will freeze like that.

Don't sit too close to the TV. It'll ruin your eyes.

Be home by nine.

If I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times...

There are more, I know. What's scary, though, is not that I remeber these things, but that I have found myself, on occasion, repeating them. I'm not old enough for this! Or better said, I don't have children! I'm still supposed to be fun, right? I'm afraid I'm becoming my mother... (no offense, Mom :)