You know the old saying, “My mother taught me if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” that most of us like to throw out whenever we’re placed in the difficult position of choosing between brutal honesty and just keeping our thoughts to ourselves?

Yeah. I do, too.

There’s just one problem with that statement, though. My mother never taught me that. Nor did my father, or any of my grandparents, for that matter.