Q&complAints #150: Mom’s Greatest Mantra

What is something your mother said that you will never forget?

Post your answer in the LEAVE A COMMENT section below. I’m not the boss of you, though. Don’t write anything for all I care! But your Mom would probably want you to.
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. . .here are my thoughts.

What is something your mother said that you will never forget?

“If you don’t have something nice to say, keep your damn mouth shut!”

I’m paraphrasing there, but that’s the gist. What a golden mantra that has turned out to be. I’ve heard it countless times since, stolen and repurposed into all sorts of popular media. Yet Mom never even once demanded credit for the saying’s pioneering delivery. I recently watched Bombshell, a film about the FOX scandal. At the very end, Nicole Kidman’s character signs a non-disclosure agreement attached to a $20 million payout—assuring she’ll keep her damn mouth shut concerning the lawsuit and settlement. Before the ink of her signature is dry, she says with a wink, “We’ll see about that.” Obviously, the film I’d just watched sufficed in telling her story to the masses, and circumvented the NDA. This makes me wonder how NDAs are enforced. They don’t exactly seem to be iron-clad. Is it a fear technique, more than anything else? Perhaps it’s the threat of being sued into poverty—while time and money are monopolized in court—that strikes one dumb at the very thought of opening their mouth in violation of an NDA.