MISTAKES MEN MAKE WHILE PROPOSING
• Proposing on a holiday or birthday: Consider picking a day meaningful to your relationship, such as the anniversary of your first date. Your girlfriend wants her day to shine – don’t propose on a holiday that can’t be yours as a couple.
• Leaking the news: When you’re ready to pop the question, don’t spill the beans to too many “confidants.” Sharing the news with friends and family is more exciting if you do it together.
• Forgetting her family: Pull your manners out of the closet and call the appropriate member of her family for “the talk.” According to a recent survey, 42 percent of Americans feel the act of asking a woman’s family for her hand – whether it be her father, mother or even a sibling – is still a time-honored tradition.
• Staging a practical joke: Minutes before the proposal, throwing your girlfriend off by convincing her that you’re in jail or that you won’t be ready for marriage for years could have unintended consequences.
And – in a somewhat related topic,
AWFUL WAYS TO GET DUMPED! _ Reddit users were asked about the worst ways they were dumped.
• “My English teacher in high school took me out in to the hall during class to tell me my girlfriend was breaking up with me. Boy, was that awkward.”
• “I dated a boy one night in middle school. Two hours in, he had a change of heart and dumped me by saying, ‘You can’t tie this rockstar down.’”
• “After a few days of him not answering my texts he finally sent me a message that said (among other things), ‘Long story short I’m in Iceland.’ He had moved without bothering to tell me.”
YOU AND THE ATOMIC BOMB _ From the 1951 New York State Civil Defense Commission pamphlet “You and the Atomic Bomb” — what not to do after an atomic attack:
• Don’t get excited.
• Don’t excite others.
• Don’t drive your car.
• Don’t turn on water.
• Don’t touch things.
• Don’t eat or drink in contaminated areas.
• Don’t use the phone.
