Skip to content

The 'proudest day ever'

Nearly every week as a parent there are moments filled with pride, frustration, and often in our house, a few rolled eyes, with a side of utter confusion. This past week, we experienced some extra special moments of pride.

Nearly every week as a parent there are moments filled with pride, frustration, and often in our house, a few rolled eyes, with a side of utter confusion.

This past week, we experienced some extra special moments of pride. Thinking back, it makes me realize that at times, I feel like I am succeeding as a parent, while at other times, it appears that I have no idea what I’m doing.

It was already past bedtime one evening this week, when I had a minute to sift through the boys’ backpacks, only to discover that it had been report card day. As a kid, I was always super excited about report card day, an excitement my own kids don’t share.

When I opened up our oldest son’s report card, I had to go chat with him in bed (since he was still awake), and tell him about how good he did.

Now in Grade 4, we had a rough start to school with out oldest. He was much happier to be at home with mom and dad, rather than at school. Although kindergarten seemed to be ok, but Grade 1 was torture. Some days we gave in to his cries, but many days we toughed it out and fought hard to get him to school.

By Grade 2, things were looking up – way up actually. But, it always weighed on my mind that he would now be forever catching up, having lost nearly a full year of learning. Somehow, in his own way, he buckled down and steadily improved in all areas.

In Grade 3, those improvements kept happening, and Grade 4, according to him, is “the best thing since Kindergarten.” He has been coming home excited and happy. And last week we experienced the best-report-card-yet moment.

At times, I have been known to push a little hard as a parent, and I think my husband would agree. He’s much more willing to let things slide, and give the kids a day off at home. But I have a bit of a competitive streak in me. It may have rarely come out in an athletic way, but it did come out in other ways growing up – I was never good at group work, insisting on doing it all myself so I knew it would be done right.

There has been a few times where our oldest son has shed a tear or two, because of my pushing. He is likely the least competitive child I’ve ever known, so when I push him to try a little harder, we often end up bumping heads.

On Saturday morning, we headed to Bonnyville for a karate tournament with our oldest. After nearly five years in karate, he has never been concerned about winning a medal, convinced that trying his hardest is all he needs to do (and he certainly isn’t wrong).

As parents, we want our children to excel, and I feel like that’s just a natural feeling. But on Saturday, I decided to let go a little, and convinced myself that as long as he tried hard, it was more than good enough.

I’m not sure if it was the lack of pressure, or just finally handing over a little trust to the kid, but he excelled. He worked hard and took home his first medal, all on his own.

Later in the day, as he looked down at his medal, he acknowledged that it was his “proudest day ever.” And I fully agreed.


Janice Huser

About the Author: Janice Huser

Janice Huser has been with the St. Paul Journal since 2006. She is a graduate of the SAIT print media journalism program, is originally from St. Paul and has a passion for photography.
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks