One of the really important things my Mother taught me was “if you can’t say something nice, say nothing”. I tried to pass that on to my children and I think that they embraced that attitude. When they were little, I got a record from the library that had a great little song on it. The lyrics were:
If you can’t say something nice, say nothing
Take a bit of good advice, say nothing
Think of kinder things to say
That’s the path to follow
If you can’t say something nice
Button your lips and swallow
If you can’t say something nice
Then don’t say anything at all.
This seems to be one of those lessons that we learn in Kindergarten and then forget as we grow up. Thumper said the same thing in “Bambi”. You would think that folks would listen to a cute little rabbit. I know a lot of grownups who need to go back to kindergarten and take a refresher course. I wonder if they offer that in “adult continuing education”.