I was having a conversation the other day with my kids’ sitter about her children. We were discussing the graduation of one, and the awards ceremony they had recently participated in. She had mentioned during this conversation how proud she was of her boys for receiving Character Counts awards at this awards presentation.

I told her it must make her feel like she’d done something right…to have boys (not just one, but two) receive awards testifying to their character. She said it was gratifying…but…

She had heard from someone once that it isn’t your children who determine your successful parenting, but your grandchildren. To which I’m pretty sure my response was “Oh…shoot”

I guess we all want our children to be perfectly behaved, polite, small versions of ourselves. We want them to come out knowing how use manners and sit respectfully and be seen and not heard. Realistic? Probably not. Have you met a child lately? But we think this determines whether or not we are successful as parents. I know that I’m as guilty of this as anyone. But, perhaps it doesn’t determine our success. Perhaps our success should be based on whether we took solid advice from our parents, and learned by their example. Perhaps it is about how much they taught me and how well I absorbed it in order to be the best parent for their grandchildren that I am capable of being.

Goodness, I hope they’re not horrified. My newest thought now in parenting…it all still comes back to making your parents proud. If my children are a reflection on them, why wouldn’t I want to do the best job possible in order to make them look good??

Perhaps next time someone comments on how well-behaved my my children are (assuming this happens), I’ll mention how they’re a reflection on my parents, and hope they (my parents) don’t cringe.

And for the record…and for what it’s worth, I think they’ve done an amazing job at parenting and hope to someday have the same things said about me.