my kids are the most wonderful people

life

It doesn't compromise their privacy, and it's worth saying. Their calm resilience and determination, their incredible optimism and enormous appreciation of everything fun and good in their lives, their deep consideration and caring for other people, and perhaps most of all their ceaseless quest for new challenges, new learning and new experiences, in different but never less than impressive ways, all make me feel incredibly lucky to be their mother.

Lots of parents regard their own kids as exceptional geniuses, of course. But also, lots of people unconsciously try to snuff out extraordinariness in children. One anonymous person suggested to me that my son and daughter needed "levelling out"- to have their weaker educational spots improved (nothing wrong with that, obviously) but also to have their strongest talents quashed. Fortunately, I never take in that kind of information till hours after the event, or I would have been completely dumbstruck and unable to continue the conversation. But I don't think it's as uncommon an attitude as one might expect.

Anyway, kids- well done, you're doing great, keep it up! (They won't read that, but I tell them whenever I remember anyway :-))