What other people think of you is none of your business.

Really?  Come on, tell the truth.  What do you really think?  I'll bet you're thinking, "This is a trap.  No matter what I answer, he'll turn it around and get his way anyway."  Heee, how'd ja guess?  I've got a couple of these.  Like, "I am pro-choice.  You?" Then there's my favorite, "No Crying at my Funeral."  I like these because they all have a flip side.  Depending on your mood, you're either with 'em or agin' 'em.
During the day today I got a lot of stuff on the Internet.  In the pile was this thought: 
 What other people think of you is none of your business.  It just so happens that I grew up believing that and living it too.  It used to really twist my parents in knots.  I could never figure out why because of all the diplomatic people I ever met, I have to say that they weren't in charge at the Hartford Street dwelling.  Strange how we remember the clashes between what we say and hear and what we do.  Hear is a cute story that I am not afraid to tell because it is about me as a parent.  
You know how you tell children to never talk to strangers?  You told that to your children, didn't you?  We tell it to them for quite a while and as they grow older, they actually catch us doing things that we forbid them to do.  C'mon admit it.  I happened to you too.  So pay attention now, because this is a sweet piece of life.
Because we lived about 90 miles away from Disneyland, we would got there at least twice a year with the boys.  One sunny, Southern California day we were spending time standing in line with the hordes of tourists at the Magic Kingdom.  Well, adults actually do strike up conversations while standing in the company of other humans waiting for the thrill of experiencing a 90 second ride in the Mad Hatter tea cups.  Well, this one time, our eldest child was beginning to be quite wise about life and he asked me a couple of times, "Do you now that lady? [Man?]"  I was always truthful and said "no."  Never did I see where he was coming from.  I would answer him and he would just shrug.  Later on in the day I was accosted by the Voice from the Kitchen with a piece of advice that sounded something like this: "Your first born wants to know why you are breaking the rule of talking to strangers."  
I was deeply impressed that a person so young could figure stuff like that out.  So Mom and I decided that we should take a break for a "casse-croute" at an outside table so that we could talk it over with the boys.  


It was a good lesson for us all.  Now we are all careful about choosing who it is we approach in public.  We never know when our now adult sons will scold us for breaking the easy familiarity rule.  I mean, they take care of their second childhood parents.  Very protective, they are!  So, I could care less what you think of me, but you had better be impressed with our offspring.