Parental pride

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bragging, child, College, parent, postaday2012, pride

Before sitting down to write this post, I checked in with the baby girl to ask for permission  to brag about her grades from her very first semester at college. She said “brag away Maman, brag away”. I am so very proud of her and all of her hard work this semester. She did exceptionally well taking initiative on her own when it came to seeking help when she needed it and made sure to take advantage of all the tools and homework services that the college made available for the students. She didn’t get carried away with abrupt and often overwhelming feeling of complete “freedom” from the usual household rules. She behaved very responsibly and showed us a lot of maturity her first semester away from home.

What makes me especially happy is that she is proud of herself and now has concrete proof that there is nothing that she can’t accomplish if she puts her mind to it. She came into my room and announced that she had gotten an A+ in Psychology, an A in Art History, a B in English, an A in College Algaebra and an A in First Year Experience.

As a parent, one always worries about their child no matter what age they are; when your child passes a special threshold and does it with such success, the happiness that you feel over their hard work, their accomplishment and their increasing signs of independence is something that warms your heart and lifts your spirits.

Who is your favorite parent?

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parent, postaday

Who is my favorite parent? That is almost like asking who is your favorite child, you don’t want to say because one gets hurt even though you assure them that you love both of them the same. The parent with whom I got along with the best, was my father, he isn’t alive now. We lost him in 2003. I miss him very, very much.

My mother was the disciplinarian and very strict. She was home after work and every night. She believed in the strict European way of rearing young ladies. Those days had me chafing against the strict rules. I wanted freedom and I believed that with all my hard work at school and being responsible with chores that I deserved more freedom, I was the only one who had that opinion. My father was smart, he stayed out of the battle between my mother and myself, coward.

My father was a lot of fun to hang out with when I worked with him at his restaurant after school. He didn’t care if I smoked cigarettes and he didn’t care if I had a glass of champagne every now and then. He would take me along to the next door restaurant to unwind after a long night of working with his friends. We would laugh and talk about restaurant business and the customers. It is a grand tradition of what restaurant owners do after work, they meet, eat, drink, talk and laugh and I got to be part of the gang, it was so much fun.

My father was fun, funny, smart, loving and not your typical father. I have to say that my sister and I were lucky to have my mother who did all of the parenting, she did the hard work of disciplining us and keeping us on the tight and narrow road.

I was very lucky to have someone who was a constant and who kept a constant vigilance on my education and formed my work ethic in everything that I did and tried to do, my mother had a challenge in me because I was very rebellious, I definitely gave her a run for her money, poor thing. As a mother now, I can appreciate my kids all the more for not being the rebellious smart mouth that I was.