Does this sound familiar; You're out with your girlfriend- you guys just sat down and you noticed lipstick on her front tooth! You think to yourself, "do I tell her now? Or do I wait until after dinner?"
I'm not always one to follow the latest Internet trends but last week I was visiting with my younger sister and her friend. We start talking about this all-too-common dilemma. Her friend tells me she came across an article on this exact situation and this is what it said;
It's called The Five Minute Rule and it goes like this - let's say your friend has lipstick on her tooth. For her, it's embarrassing when she finds out but what's worse is that no one told her! Now she's hurt because her girls weren't looking out for her and she could have fixed it super quick... in less than 5 minutes!
Thats the rule! It has to be fixable in 5 minute or less.
Alternately, let's say you and a friend are walking into a bar. She's walking in ahead of you when *gasp* You see she has a sharpie stain on the butt of her favorite light-wash Rushmore jeans! Do you tell her now or wait? The 5 minute rule says you wait. She can't do anything about it now and in all reality, It's going to make her more insecure if she knows now rather than at the end of the night. Why ruin a fun night over something she inevitably can't fix?
So there you have it folks. The answer to things like, "do I tell him his fly's undone?" "Does she know her boob is hanging out of her swimsuit?" "Should I tell her that her pocket is ripped and I can see her underwear?" "...They just sat on a grape."
It's not fool proof and it doesn't mean telling them will be easy but it's a guideline I've used at least twice in the last week.
...and so far so good.