Accomplished

In case I haven't made this clear, I wish to state for the record that I adore my son, the charming JT.  It goes without saying that I find him to be the smartest, most attractive, most capable child around.  It is perhaps likely that I feel this way because I am his Mama.  Or perhaps it's because of his obvious superiority to every other child in the universe.  It's hard to be sure. Either way, my kid is the best.

Of course, it has occurred to me that we all feel this way about our children.  In a recent post at her blog Mom 101, Liz Gumbinner addresses this very issue and I found her thoughts interesting.  I would add that  in our desire to ensure that our children have perfect, happy lives and are never once scarred by adversity or failure, let alone imperfection, we may not be serving them well.  I see this everywhere and the most recent example hits a little too close to home.

JT's school has asked us to send word of any of our children's summer accomplishments.  To which I can only say Oh.my.word.  Asking a bunch of folks whose kids attend prep school to brag about their precious snowflakes children?  Really?  Who thought that was a good idea?

I run a low tech childhood and summer is where we truly achieve greatness.  The sort wherein hair goes unwashed and pajamas are worn all day.  Sure, books are read.  Math puzzles are solved.  History is discussed.  Science happens.  Blah, blah, blah.  But, really, there's a whole lot of nothing scheduled into our casual, relaxed, lazy days.  "Accomplishments"? Not so much.

Still, I'd hate for JT to be left out of the parental bragfest, so I'm going to devote some time to making his picture while he catches bugs.  Because that kid is a champion bug catcher.  I'd venture to say that no other kid in the 7th grade is nearly as accomplished at slaying flies and mosquitos or catching lightening bugs.  It's his special and unique talent and I intend to brag it up.