Life Lessons

I have two scenes from recent times that I give you as potential life lessons.

Lesson One – Showers and telephones do not mix.

When you phone your mother to arrange to meet up for Sunday lunch and need to consult your partner for a view think about the circumstances, think. If your partner is in the shower, you might want to mention that not only are you seeking their advice, but your mother is still on the phone, which is in your hand. This might have a bearing on what they then choose to say to you, and whether they want your mother to hear it.

Lesson Two – Answer phones are not normally a good way to break bad news.

I know that grief hits people in different ways and that we cannot always be rational in such circumstances, but a colleague of mine returned to her desk from a meeting and checked her voicemail. There was a message from her mum saying that her uncle had died. This led to a very public breakdown in the middle of the office. Not ideal, although I suppose her uncle dying was, in itself, less than ideal.