Women tend to carry the stereotype of people who love to talk. Well, at the May meeting of Female Factor, the women did just that – talk. Four women created a panel of grandmothers who shared advice about parenting, spirituality and life.

“Everybody can use some good advice from mothers and grandmothers,” said Dianna Lee with Troy Bank & Trust, a Female Factor sponsor.

Kaye Jinright, Mary Lou Anderson, Jane Segars and Kathleen Forbish made up the panel of women, and they answered questions that were predetermined and also spontaneous questions from the audience.

“Use your years of experience to share your wisdom,” Jinright said.

Forbish had the room laughing from the start when she said that young women should change the way they dress.

“As I used to tell my students, let them wonder what you have,” Forbish said. “Don’t show what you have. Your first impression is always the lasting impression.”

Most of the questions focused on parenting.

“Every household needs a mother and a father,” Segars said. “I think that’s one thing that’s wrong with the world today is one parent doing all the parenting. Children today just don’t seem to have the values that we had. I don’t know if I’m right or wrong, but the ones I see don’t respect authority. They are just not like we were. We knew better.”

“Love is the most important thing that we can give our grandchildren,” Anderson said.

Throughout the program, they ventured back and forth between serious and silly topics, but it always came back to one subject: God.

“Families that worship together and pray together, stay together,” Anderson said.

When asked what the most important item is to keep in a household, the entire panel said the Bible, and they all said it at the same time.

Forbish said that families should take time to read the Bible and teach it to the kids. She said that because children are curious, they will ask questions, and all of those answers are in the Bible.

“Life is full of trials and tribulations, but don’t let them get you down,” Jinright said. “Because we all need to remember that no problem is greater than God.”

Female Factor, sponsored by Troy Regional Medical Center, among other local sponsors, holds a meeting the second Wednesday of each month at noon in The Studio in Downtown Troy.