What you need is an “elevator button” speech. I am not one to give out advise on how to run your life in a broad or general way.  Rather, I like to give advice on how to do each and every small little thing that makes up your life.  I am especially good at giving this type of advice to my kids. Unfortunately, they either don’t hear me because I am not talking loud enough or simply don’t understand me because all of my sage advice seems to go unheeded. This in turn has made me talk louder and longer and I have found myself repeating my advice in a myriad of formats trying to get through to them.  This has not yielded any better results. They still pretty much ignore me. In fact, they have recently told me that the more I “advise” them and the more examples I give them to illustrate my advice, the less they listen. HUH?  Yes in deedy, they said they hear the first time and after that it sounds like “blah, blah,blah.” They said that the minute I start on what sounds like a “remember this as you go through life”  speech, they just tune me out. So when I read the following advice given by someone else I thought – I think they are talking to me!
“You know that pressing an elevator button more than once does nothing to make it arrive faster. Giving advice often works the same way … and unlike elevators, people get annoyed when you keep pressing them. So plan to make your point once, wait for it to have an effect, and never, ever bring it up again.”
So kids, I will try not to push the elevator button too many times, right after I say the following, for one last time. Don’t forget to wear your seat belt, don’t drive with anyone who is drunk, study, don’t watch too much TV, get some exercise, eat vegetables, drink plenty of water, wear sunscreen, don’t drink alcohol, don’t do drugs or smoke, call your mother everyday, send thank you notes, be nice to people, follow the rules, blah, blah blah…