What Do You Wish You Were Taught When You Were A Kid?

 This was a question I overheard as I was eating breakfast. It was asked by one of a group of older adults (by that I mean older than me) who were sitting at the table next to mine. 

Six people, four men, two women, all over sixty if a day. Probably all over 70.

I was playing a game (Words With Friensds2) on my phone when the question was poised (I had two U's, two E's, an A, an I, and an S. Barf.), and I picked up my ears when I heard it. If I have learned one thing over the course of my life it's that old people know stuff worth listening too, especially when it comes to life lessons.

Some of you may be shaking your heads thinking that's what Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles, and your Parents are for, but I never had any Grandparents, Aunts or Uncles, and only one parent - who was much too busy just trying to keep us all alive to be ruminating with us kids about life lessons.

So I eavesdropped for almost an hour, lingering over the bacon as if I wasn't too hungry (no easy feat, believe you me).

Everyone of the people sitting at that table chimed in with answers. I got the impression that none of them had grown up together - I think the oldest reference to a couple of them passing up the same good advice was when two of them discussed an economics class they took together in college.

They all seemed to agree that, generally speaking, they all wished they had been taught how money works, and how important it was to save for the future.

I made a mental note about that and how common the lack of an education in money matters was in just about everyone I know. Heck, I didn't even know how to rate a stock until I was in my late twenties, early thirties (and still really don't believe I actually know - I just tell myself I do when I make my paltry monthly purchase online).

The one thing that caught me off guard and really turned my ears was when one of the group of six stated she wished she'd been taught how to raise her kids before she had them.

The fact that everyone else at the table agreed with her made it all the more startling.