Advice

One thing I have really had to get used to this year, is the amount of advice I am given. This advice comes from just about any direction, friends, our househelper, neighbors, complete strangers, and is about just about anything from what my children or I should wearing to what we should eat and everything in between. I have been learning to be thankful for their care and thinking of us, but also to use my own discretion. For example, is it really necessary that we all wear long-johns when in the house? (This is one I came upon the umpteenth time yesterday.) I recently learned a new phrase in our local language, "had better" or "had best". Yesterday I was practicing making sentences with my tutor and used this phrase in a sentence. I said "I had better make dinner for my family." She immediately stopped and corrected me. She said that I would never use this phrase when talking of myself, I would only use it to tell someone else what they should do. I immediately laughed, and then had to catch myself. We quickly got into a conversation about the use of this phrase. I told her that usually I would not tell someone else what they "had better" do, but use it often with myself. I have been learning that is not the case here. My tutor said that it was not very polite to just tell someone to do something but the polite way is to say that they "had better" do it. I now know the next time I am given advice, most likely tomorrow, that if the phrase "had better" is being used, I am definitely being given friendly advice.