The truth is that it feels good to do meaningful things, and it feels good to be appreciated, and these skills pretty much guarantee a combination of those two good feelings.
Catherine Newman
I bought How to be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn before You’re Grown Up by Catherine Newman for my teenage daughters. But, you’ll be surprised how often I find myself picking it up now and then. It’s fun to flip through and useful, too.
Some of the things are so basic. Yet, modern life has made it such that we forget we need to teach kids to do things like how to answer a telephone.
I also love that this book teaches you to be a good person–someone who knows how to write a proper thank you or condolence note, or how to “bring a little sunshine to older folks.”
The book makes for a nice middle school graduation present. It’s useful to the parent to be able to say, “Refer to page 56 when you load the dishwasher, please!” Avoiding unnecessary bickering can help you be a good person, too!
Knitting Notes
I had started to knit a sweater for someone a very long time ago. Shortly thereafter, however, she had done a couple of things that hurt my feelings. The sweater was a UFO (what knitters call unfinished objects) for a while when my Mom happened to see it.
When I explained what happened, she told me it wasn’t good to have such reminders in plain view. She was right. So, I unraveled it and found the Linen Tie Shrug pattern but made it with this rayon yarn. I finished it in 2016.
Perhaps if she had read three pages from this book, I wouldn’t have this shrug to show you now.
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