So How Do You Measure Your Child’s Success as a Parent?

As my family enters the “tween” and teenage years, this is getting harder and harder to define as a parent.

I want my children to be polite, respect their elders but have resiliency and their own minds for forming an intelligent perspective.  Straight A’s in school is good, but it’s not really the end goal.  I want my children to be good citizens, charitable of heart and strong in soul.  Yet I know that they will have their struggles and for me as a parent I know that is a good thing … but hard to witness.

As a mom, I often want to jump in and fix things but that’s not my job.  My “job” is to assist my children in finding their own path, their own passions.  To be the best, overall, balanced person that they can be.  As my husband likes to say, everybody needs a good, strong “wing-man”. 

I celebrate their successes and acknowledge their failures.  In school, children are told they learn more from their mistakes than the easy successes.  Easier said than done as a parent.  (Maybe that’s why we have too many people in society today, who are famous for just being famous!)  I’d rather my children be able to recite the names of the 9 Supreme Court Justices than the Kardashian sisters!  And it takes us as parent to guide the way… and set the example.

So, on a day-to-day basis how do I do that?  For one, pay attentions to the overall school system as a way of building a strong supportive community around them that sets realistic but challenging expectations.  Not just the teacher interaction from year to year but the whole system from top to bottom.  I care about the good teachers, informative test results, strong principals, and visionary superintendents.  But I also care about the active recesses, clean restrooms, healthy lunches, helpful administrators and fair & balanced budgets.

But I am just one parent looking out for my own children.  What can I do? Or any other parent or guardian?

• Educate yourself and your adult “circle of influence” about the issues of the upcoming BSD Operating Referendum and the current efforts of Race-to-the-Top now that we are into Year 2
• VOTE on your opinion of the Referendum when in comes up in March 2012
• If you haven’t already done it, join your local PTA … or if you are just a concerned adult about education you can join on the State level of PTA (de_office@pta.org)
• Donate an extra $5 to the spring book fairs at the local elementary school (That’s less than a week’s worth of coffee.)
• Support the S.T.E.A.M. program(s) throughout BSD.  (Whether music, drama, arts, Lego League, Math League, Odyssey of the Mind or a vibrant chess club, all of these S.T.E.A.M. avenues are important for young, thriving minds.)

We are the adults, looking out for the vibrant youth of today!  ACT ON IT!

Side Note:  Congrats to Elaine Osman, the whole team at Lancashire PTA, Principal Gladfelter and the “real charitable housewives of Delaware” for their quick response and wonderful example of the power of parents and the PTA network in responding to the recent fires at Ballymeade neighborhood.  We can all learn more from their efforts in the New Year.