featured-image

One benefit of being a mom is that you get to dole out unasked for advice. It goes with the job. The same is true for home design columnists.

As the mom of two, stepmom of three, “glamma” to five, and a home and lifestyle columnist, I am a virtual font of unasked-for opinions. You know where this is going, and you’re right. I am going to abuse my position and the occasion of Mother’s Day to tell you what I think, and more to the point, to tell you what I’ve learned mostly the hard and painful way over the decades, so just maybe you can avoid the same trouble.



After I scratched down a few of my maxims for this column, I bothered my two twenty-something daughters, who have endured my unsolicited advice longer than anyone else, and who are only slightly scarred. I asked them to recall advice I had baked into them. They delivered.

The exercise proved a) they did hear me b) their memories are superior to mine, and c) whatever goes wrong in their lives is my fault. As the list grew, I was surprised — though why should I be? — to see how much of my advice about life, love, work, and what to wear, also applies to home design. Then, I never could see the line between where home design stops and home life begins, because there isn’t one.

So, this Mother’s Day, please indulge my advice-dispensing nature, and see if any of the following unsolicited advice is worth heeding. • They can’t win if you don’t play. The comparison game is a cancer.

Compete where it counts.

Back to Beauty Page