I wouldn’t say anything to my children or grandchildren. I don’t think kids listen to you. One time one of my grandchildren sent me a mother’s day card. The essence of the card was: “thank you for making us behave.”

I think you influence your children more by what you do then by what you say. I don’t think the talking to children does much good. With my own children I always told them what I thought. Then I let it rest. Let them make their own mistakes. You can’t make mistakes for them. They can’t do what you want them to do because it is not always right for them.

And all of my kids have done well. They’ve done well. All of them are in high tech. One of them is a dentist. Most of them are managers. I would never assume to tell anyone what to do. I don’t always know best.

In the first place kids don’t hear if they don’t want to hear. They tolerate us a lot. I don’t think they pay a lot of attention to what we say. Kids make mistakes but that’s fine. They learn more by their mistakes and they do buy us telling them what to do.