Advice for Sons

I've never been a great believer that you should give advice to your son that you wouldn't give to your daughter and vice versa.  I have told both my children that 'No' means no, even if you want it to mean yes; putting bleach in the toilet after a poo stops your partner being disappointed in you; if you drink too much and end up doing something you regret you should try not to give that thing so much power it stops you getting on with the rest of you life and learning not to do it again; work hard; be nice to people; laugh often and if the water looks like this after you have washed the kitchen floor you probably need to do it more often.

Other people seem to feel differently and if you search the internet you can find lists of advice for daughters and sons that are not at all similar.  Today, I overheard a man giving advice to his 6 year old son, that I don't believe he would have given to his daughter. He was frog-marching his little boy, clad in a football kit, down the footpath from the park giving him a lecture about not leaving the pitch to go to the toilet.  The little boy was sobbing slightly and the Dad continued, "I mean you know that you have to play the match so you go to the toilet before you start."  The little boy protested that he didn't want to go before the match started but the Dad was not swayed by the argument.  He said, "Come on! Never let the team down!  You can't leave the game in the middle.  You cost us the match.  You're a waste of space and I'm surprised if they'll let you on the team again - I wouldn't."  I could be wrong but I suspect that he calls his daughter 'princess' and lets her wrap him around her little finger.

Whilst, I'm not a fan of seperate advice for sons the optician gave my son a piece of advice that was absolutely brilliant but is also not advice I can pass onto my daughter.  My son had asked for an eye test, not because he was having trouble seeing but because his friends had all had one and he felt a bit left out.  The optician was quite happy to give him the full works and explain everything to him, as she went and when she tested his colour vision he made a slight mistake on one of the numbers.  She turned the card to me and I got it right immediately.  She said, "Now, listen to this piece of advice it will be interesting in terms of your vision but also be useful for your whole life.  You made a mistake on that number and your mum saw it immediately and that's because women have better colour vision than men.  Yes, you heard right, ALL women see colours better than men, so when you have just got dressed and your wife or girlfriend says that the shirt doesn't go with the trousers go an change because she is right, you just can't see it."