as a mother who commented on another essay on this site though, i WILl say I don’t want to hear at what age your child slept through the night or potty trained. I don;t really want to hear about bowel movements, human or pet, at all, in fact, unless I am in a professional capacity as your health provider and you have a problem that needs my assistance for diagnosis and recommendations for treatment.

I don’t want to hear about your SAT scores and their percentile ranking in high school, especially if you attended high school in the 1960s or 1970s; if you must brag, please find some more recent coup to boast about.

I don’t want to hear about you mate’s lacks, or assets, as a lover.

there’s undoubtedly plenty else but this will be a start…there are good reasons that some things are traditionally confidential, and while I may break with convention in many ways, there are some traditions and conventions I feel duty boun to uphold.

keep it in your notebook!