Theme Thursday: Lesson Learned

Well here we are, it's Thursday again and that means it's Theme Thursday.  A day where pretty cool bloggers get together the world over and link up HERE to share their thoughts on a particular theme that is given to them.  This weeks' theme is:

If you could impress one lesson, ideal or moral on your children, what would it be?

Simple.  Don't be an asshole.

I don't say it exactly like that, but I get my point across to them...well at least I think I do.  I tell them don't be someone that others don't like but make sure you are being yourself.  It's a hard balance to do that, there isn't one person in this world that EVERYONE likes.  I'm a pretty likeable guy but I know there are people out there who just plain despise me for whatever reason and that doesn't matter and it shouldn't matter to the Minions either.

Now this sounds confusing and honestly it is but when I break it down it makes sense, at least to me.

Ask yourself this, what exactly constitutes being an asshole?  Sure you can  reference the Denis Leary song...

And for the most part those things are true.  It's a great video but I don't think it is proper viewing material for the Minions.  There are three things you can do to make sure you're not being an asshole.

Don't brag.  Nobody likes someone who brags.  Sure it's fine to tell people about something great that you did or an accomplishment you achieved, but limit that to once maaaaybe twice.  Anymore than that you're bragging.

Don't one-up people.  One-uppers piss people off to no extent.  If you did something they did it bigger, better and faster.  A simple "Oh yeah, I know what you're talking about." would suffice.

Don't interrupt.  Nothing is worse than someone who constantly jumps into your sentence because they think they know what you are going to say and want to correct you.  Let people finish their sentences and then respond back to them.

Sure, these things seem very minor and you are probably thinking to yourself how do these make you an asshole.  Well each one individually doesn't but I find that if someone does one of these, the other two aren't far behind.  You put all three together and you form an asshole.

Being an asshole is different for everyone, in fact there are other things that I can think of that would make people assholes, but this is a lesson for the kids, so we will start small.

So, today's lesson for all the kids out there, don't be an asshole.  Nobody likes an asshole, even farts don't like assholes, that's why they are always trying to escape.