It’s quite an enigma to me why we remember certain rather useless things from our childhood, while probably forgetting a lot of important things.
I remember growing up when we had relatives over for dinner, my mother would start washing dishes right after dinner. My father would tell her to relax and enjoy the conversation with the relatives. Her response was, “It’s my job to wash the dishes. If I relax now, I will still have to wash them later. I would rather do it now to get it out of the way.”
Every time I look at the dishes in the sink, or at a chore I have to do, I remember what my mother said. Sometimes I would try to do it quickly to get it out of the way. But at other times, her words inspires me to do the opposite. “It is my job, and that means I can choose to do it now or later. I’ll do it later.”
Either way, my mother’s words had an influence on me. 🙂