One of the goals of any good parent, I think, is to have your kids grow up to be awesome.
And by awesome, I don’t necessarily mean popular. Or rich. Or having a job with a fancy title.
When my daughter Lucy grows up, I hope she turns out awesome. I do hope she has lots of friends, but I really hope she has a handful of great ones. I don’t really care what kind of job she has or how much money she makes, as long as she loves it, can support herself, and makes the world a better place. I hope she takes the status quo with a grain of salt and is brave enough to go her own way when necessary. I hope she stands out in a sea of average, and stands up for what’s right, even when others are too afraid. I hope she does things that inspire other people to be more awesome.
I hope her story is filled with love and fun and magic and meaning.
In a word, awesome.
I’m not exactly sure how one goes about making sure his or her kids turn out awesome, but I suspect that the parents who allowed their Dark Knight to attend this Princess Party are on the right track:
If the goal is awesomeness, teaching your kids that they don’t have to do the same thing everyone else is doing is important.
And learning the lesson ourselves, perhaps even more so.
My son, eight, just finished first grade. His teacher said she will miss “his encyclopedic Jedi mind”. Oh and his current plan is to go to pastery school (skip regular college) and become a gourmet pastery chef. Now that all seems pretty awesome to me.
No real clue on how this happened. Definately fun watching him evolve. Maybe it was all all the books we have been reading to him since he was born?
Nice. A gourmet pastry chef with an encyclopedic Jedi mind is quite a niche.
“These are the croissants you’re looking for.”
..With parents she has she will be Awesome, my 2 “Beastie Boys” (all a loving nick name of course *g*) have big dreams and no idea where to start as well. My 8 year old wants to be a Professional Poker Player and a Senior System Engineer for a major company. While my now 4 year old wants to be a dog… yep, I will settle for vet, he just has to stop sniffing the people at local stores to get a reaction.
I hear “dog” is a booming, up and coming career path. Good for him he’s got an early start :)
Katie,
You have inspiring kids.
I always said we can learn so much from kids.
Open mind is something they have naturally.
it is wonderful you appreciate this ability.
May he will never lose it for the title “adult”
Jason,
love this!
It is such an amazing, simple message that we need to teach our kids to be awesome.
They are awesome and they need to know that.
We are awesome and we need to know that.
This is an awesome message
Ronit
Thanks Ronit! Think what the world would look like if we really believed it!!!
Jason,
If we as parents truly believe in it, our kids will believe in it too.
I believe in it with all my heart and I promised myself to hold on to this belief with the hope it is contagious and others around me believe it too.
It is so easy to transfer it to kids.
It is easy to transfer it to grownups too.
Do you know anyone who doesn’t’ want to think he or she is awesome? I don’t!
I agree with you, the only way to do it is to truly believe in it. There is no way to fake it – unfortunately.
Ronit
Very true, Ronit. Perhaps the best we can hope to do for others i help their unbelief.
No kidding. This post is great.
We just graduated our oldest at just 16 and watching her figure out her future… it’s amazing how awesome she has become. And I have a 13 year old astrophysicist, a 10 year old chef, an 8 year old who wants to be Julian Smith when he grows up, a couple of little pilots and a batman…
They’re all going to grow up to be awesome. I just know it.
I believe you are right.