Email of the Day: I Used You to Help My Kids Through the Teenage Years

When I was in law enforcement, your radio program was always on in the squad car and you were a great source of advice and entertainment for me. My kids were becoming teenagers at that time, and I often shamelessly plagiarized something you said on the air while trying to help my children navigate the issues they were facing.

Ever since they were small and did something to cause themselves to be punished, I would make them write a book report or a theme. One time my son was suspended from sixth grade for protesting the removal of backpacks, and I had him read “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau and write a paper on the purpose and goal of protest. I had him read one chapter of your book, “Ten Stupid Things Men Do to Mess Up Their Lives” for other minor infractions and write a neat, well-thought-out summary of what he read. I know he learned much despite his protests.

I used your book “Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives” on my daughter. She learned a lot and married a good man who appreciated and recognized her worth. At the time, my daughter hated your book, but I credit you for helping her sift through the “boys” and seeing a “man” when he arrived.

I also stole one of your lines and told it to many young men. I’m paraphrasing, but it was something like “any boy can say he would die for the woman he loves, but only a man can be willing to live for the one he loves.

Happily married for 37 years,

John

I Used You to Help My Kids Through the Teenage Years