perspectives

My father-in-law once asked me if I wanted my children to be gifted (in reference to my husband and I, who both were in gifted classes) and I responded, "No". He asked if I wanted them to do well in school and I answered quite honestly, "I don't care what they do in school, or if they are as dumb as a rock. All I want my children to do is three simple things, Have a GREAT work ethic, Be respectful/polite, and have a good heart. I truly believe that if they can do those three things, they will do well in life."

I don't know what prompted me to think of this...perhaps I was just being a sentimentalist, or it was Kaelyn's comment earlier today regarding how she was "determined to learn to read". Since Nolen's gotten sick and set back, I've started to adjust my perspectives and forget about the silly "Your child should be doing x,y, and z by age blah" book and let my son and my girls write their own stories. That, and one of Ryan's co-workers looked at him after asking how Nolen was doing and simply said, "If he is only 3 months behind for the rest of his life he is still doing pretty damn good". I'll take that.