What's the Craziest Advice You Have Ever Been Given?

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
Or someone you know has been given?

In retrospect, was it good advice?

I remember once my mom told me 'if you're gonna mess up, really mess up. Don't just go half way.'

Yeah.

Maybe she meant 'Go Big or Go Home'?

Anyway, not sure if I have ever really tried that one out or not.

Though I can kinda see how it applied to her own life.

Anyone else?
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
If you really don't know what to do (as opposed to not wanting to do what needs to be done)... sleep on it. It often makes a major difference.
 

Tanya M

Living with an attitude of gratitude
Staff member
My husband and I purchased a house for rental property which we paid cash for. A friend of ours went on and on about how instead of buying just one house we could divide our money up and buy 4 or 5 properties. I kept telling him we didn't want to have a mortgage. I didn't want to have to worry about paying a mortgage if I didn't have renter. He was relentless!!
He lost his home to foreclosure last year.
Never take financial advise from someone who can't manage their own money.;)
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
"Don't marry a man with kids. You will NEVER love them like your own." From someone with a stepdaughter & 2 biological sons. Not surprisingly, she and her hubby divorced later... And in my (humble) opinion she was full of beans. I love Belle and Pat as much as Rose.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Every time your child disagrees with you or shows even a hint of defiance, even being slow to get up and do what you tell him, spank him with a paddle or wooden spoon. This will ensure he grows up to be a moral, caring, loving man who respects women.

I have absolutely no clue how beating your child each time he has an opinion or isn't listening or even is being outright defiant is supposed to make him loving and caring and moral. It makes no sense now and made no sense then.

I was dismayed to hear this from other parents (and we heard it a LOT), but I was outright SHOCKED to hear it from a licensed psychologist with a PhD. I didn't pay him for that session and never went back. When I told my insurance what he said, they helped me file complaints and he lost his license. Apparently he had been warned repeatedly that it was not even legal to do this (he would have had us 'spanking' Wiz, J and thank you just about every 5 minutes and told us that 'bruises are a sign that you love him enough to correct him'!) OR to tell parents to do this. My complaint was just the last straw in a whole bale of complaints about this.

The other craziest advice was from a girl in college. She said that every woman should work as an exotic dancer or unlicensed massage therapist so that they learn to truly enjoy sex. I have NO clue how those things would help, they would drive me away from men, not towards them. Of course she was really wild and had almost no boundaries when it came to appropriate behavior.

Oh, the other was a roommate telling me that if a boyfriend doesn't hit you then he doesn't really care about you. Truly sick if you ask me.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
My mom telling me I shouldn't let my husband do the laundry and clean the bathrooms because I would end up divorced because of it! I had to laugh because my mom is divorced and did all of those things!
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I had a friend tell me that once you are married you can only have friends who are married. Having single friends is the cause of divorce according to her!
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
My grandmother told me that I should sterilise my nipples before each time I breastfed my first baby.

Well, I suppose if you did it by dipping them in whisky you'd end up with a quiet and contented baby! ;)

I'm just sure I must have been given some crazy advice at some point, but I can't remember anything at the moment.
 

Californiablonde

Well-Known Member
Difficult child's very first psychiatrist told me to spank her during her worst bipolar meltdowns. Basically he told me I could beat the mental illness out of her. What a load of crap! All it did was make her more violent. That guy was a quack!
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
I did take my son to a psychologist when he was little, like 3, and he spent 20 minutes alone with him and then told me he was ADHD and to put him on Ritalin. Why? Because he looked at the door every time there was a noise. Imagine that - a kid taken from his mom into a room he's never been in before looks at the door whenever someone walks by - shocking huh? Obviously, I got a second opinion with a psychiatrist who talked with me for 1/2 hour while my son quietly put puzzles together in the corner, and then told me if we put him on Ritalin we'd be peeling him off the ceiling! There was no ADHD there. I was advised he was never going to be "easy" and that he needed more socialization and structure...and that drugs might help him focus, but he didn't recommend them.

Even after that, I had to go to the first guy again to get a paper signed to have him in the pre-k program thru the school system and he STILL told me I was wasting my time trying alternatives to medication! Quack.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
A local OBGYN who specialized in matching unwed mothers with prospective adoptive parents told me to never tell my son where he came from or even that he was adopted. Just tell him that he is a special child of God.

I tried to tell her that 1) no one thinks like that any more, and 2) he was mixed race, but she wouldn't listen. (Yeah, I'll just cover all the mirrors with paper.)

Stubborn woman got senile and rammed her truck into some piece of farm equip in NC a few yrs ago and died a gruesome death. Sigh.
 

Nomad

Well-Known Member
Staff member
It wouldn't be worth going to law school. (I was accepted into a very good school.) Long story. Bad advice. I do regret this. Life moves on.
 
In High school I had a drivers ed teacher who told us that if we ever ran over a person, back up and run them over again to make sure they're dead. He said we get sued for less if they didn't live.

I'm sure he was joking but that's an odd thing to say to impressionable young kids.

Fortunately, I've never had to put his theory into practice.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I had a neurologist tell me that my migraines were because I was working in a bank & had children. If I wanted to work then I should give up my children because they would grow up to be awful people because I didn't love them - mothers who love their kids don't work. Mothers who have jobs end up with migraines and other neurological problems because our brains are not capable of working (esp in a men's field like banking) and having children. Pregnancy changes the female brain so it can't think like a man and this is the reason mothers should not work - their brains just cannot handle it.

The guy was fanatical about his ideas about working mothers and at one point I thought he was going to hit me when I asked how children and a job caused migraines because mine started before I even started school. The resident with him (supposed to be learning from him - scary thought) thought he was going to hit me also. After I got away from him (end of appointment), the resident came to find me so she could apologize for him. That was the first time I learned that you could file a complaint with the hospital and the medical board and your insurance co. The resident gave me a sheet of paper with directions on how to file a complaint about a doctor. This neurologist was so terrible that the student doctor working with him typed up directions on how to complain about the guy. She (the resident was female AND had kids!) thought he was starting something like Alzheimer's because of thee rants to patients. She was truly afraid that he would hit a patient sometime soon. It amazes me how bad some doctors are and how hard it is to have them removed. Though being arrested for assault because you hit a patient apparently IS one thing that will get you fired, esp if it hits the news.

Of course I did NOT give up my kids or my job.
 

New Leaf

Well-Known Member
My son at three could not pronounce his K's and had a wonderful imagination, he told his teacher who had been to our very rural house, that the chickens fly up on the clothes line and then the roosters crow.
She told me I should have him evaluated.
Where do they find these people?
At 14 my son does quite well in school, is a gifted tuba player and is extremely kind and sensitive.
I am very glad I ignored that idiotic advice.
 

New Leaf

Well-Known Member
When I went to a dental clinic the doctor told me I had to have 4 teeth removed. I had never had a problem, just went for a cleaning. I went to see another dentist and he told me there was nothing wrong with my teeth. Huh.
 
Top