Some of this is happy horse manure. We didn't tell our children that we would understand if they ended up nearly dead in a whore house because after all some of us are born with addictive personalities. We tried to teach them what we were taught; to stay away from trouble and if you lay down with dogs you are gonna get up with fleas. We were told if we got arrested we weren't going to get bailed out and that if we burnt our butt we would sit on the blister.
I was pretty hard on my kids and my folks were hard on me. There was a lot of addiction going on in my family. Alcohol was badly overused by several, but that didn't keep anyone from pointing out that it wasn't anything to be proud of and that it could ruin your life.
I don't think I lack compassion but I save it for the things that can't be avoided. We weren't religiously against alcohol. I am the granddaughter of European immigrants and wine was served every evening. My father and grandfather were brewmasters. But a lot was expected from us. And we expected a lot from our kids.
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It is better to laugh than to cry.
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