You'll know you have achieved success when your children turn around and get peeved at you when you ask them to do something they have already done.
Wives and female de-facto partners (usually of guys under 35) will also understand the power of repetitive requests, although sometimes this does get branded as nagging rather than the helpful, relationship-saving re-education that it is.
Newspaper columnists also reiterate ideas and subjects they believe are important and one I feel the need to keep harping on about involves the Rena.
Our unwanted guest - that used to be such an eyesore - is now largely hidden on Astrolabe Reef, but its cargo should remain in our minds as a timebomb waiting to detonate.
I know a recent report has said that the environmental consequences of the wreck and subsequent oil spill have had minimal lasting effect - except for heightened levels of contaminants at Astrolabe Reef and near Motiti Island - but that good news must be tempered with the knowledge a massive amount of ship, cargo and other materials still remain to pollute our seas.
I am still encountering hundreds of small plastic beads on Papamoa Beach - so what else is floating in and around the wreck of the Rena and within its scattered containers?
Iwi leaders worry one of the unintentional consequences of the environmental study could be that it is used for the owners and insurers to try to weasel out of an official order to completely remove the remnants of the Rena.
Those key partners would love nothing more than to be rid of the vessel and its unknown legacy.
And that is why we residents need to oppose such moves and reject minimal payout offers because that blasted ship will still be there when our children's children are playing on Papamoa Beach.
And that is why we need to keep voicing our concerns publicly - to reinforce by repetition the fact we will not be ignored, nor steamrollered into accepting anything less than the complete removal of MV Rena from our futures.
IN MY view the term "hero" gets used far too easily by the media today.
But one man who definitely deserves the accolade is Constable Dean O'Connor - the BoP Times Person of the Year.
Constable O'Connor was the policeman who risked his life to save a passenger in a van that was knocked off the Maungatapu bridge and into Tauranga Harbour one night in August.
It would have been a really scary thing to do, but he braved the darkness and cold waters to save Ashley Donkersley.
I've met Constable O'Connor a couple of times while out taking photos and he is a very approachable police officer who is a real credit to the force.
He is also a hero in every sense of the word.
IT SEEMS I have lost an English mate of mine, he's gone missing somewhere in Tauranga.
The last time I heard from him was on November 21, which was the first day of the first test in The Ashes.
The Ashes is a cricket competition between England and Australia that has been played since 1882.
After decades of Australian dominance, England has won the past three series and their supporters were brimming with confidence heading into the current clash.
So when the Pommie bowlers had the men in baggy green caps on the ropes my mate was crowing. When I pointed out my boys were fighting back I got a text "tut, tut wishful thinking it all going to pot".
Then he added: "It's a great pitch looks like a 500 a good score but will see how true when the Australians bowl."
"Mitchell Johnson will go feral," was my prediction.
He did and the test ended with Australia winning by 381 runs.
The massive victory was greeted with silence on my mobile.
From a text almost every 10 minutes to nothing - he must have run out of credit I thought.
Now the second test in Adelaide has come and gone - and still no contact from my mate.
I'm thinking that it could be due to another huge Aussie win.
Actually I think he forgot the Latin phrase I taught him before the series: "Nil Ravenus Completus". Basically it means "Don't crow til the job's done".
Richard Moore is an award-winning Western Bay journalist and photographer.
richard@richardmoore.com
