Parental One Upsmanship

While driving home from Mill Creek this morning, I noticed on the back of a car a bumper sticker. I have never been one to plaster stickers all over my car and the topic of my rant here today holds a special place of disdain in my heart. The sticker read: Proud Parent of a Scholar.

Really? Does it make you feel better to shout to the world that your child has cognitive skills? My child has cognitive skills, and I refuse to minimize them by slapping a sticker on my car. Does the parent feel better about themselves because they are letting complete strangers know that their kid is smart? What about their other kids? How does that make them feel? Is this kid your favorite? I just don't get it.

I happen to be a Proud Parent. I don't need to add any more to the statement. I'm a proud parent when my kid uses a word in a sentence that I never knew they understood. I'm equally as proud that they remember to flush the toilet. There's not high or low in the pride department. Shoot, I'm just proud I managed to birth them and not kill them in the process. That, my friends, is a feat unto itself. The proud moments, at least at this point in their development, have always outweighed the disappointed moments. But, if those disappointing moments become teaching moments, and they actually get it, then a proud moment it becomes.

Proud Parent of an honor student. So what! My kid is has the ability to be an excellent liar. Deception is a sign of intelligence. Should I put a bumper sticker on my car that says, "Proud Parent of a Pathological Liar". Intelligence is found everywhere. So tout that your child's intelligence has been determined by the public school system isn't something to be proud of, in my humble opinion. Be proud when your kid can make change out of a twenty, or can figure out how much 25% off is on a sale item. Be proud when you have taught them to cut apart a chicken and prepare it properly. Be proud, when they find a wallet/iPod/cell phone and turn it in to the closest person of authority.

Am I overstepping my bounds a bit on this: Getting a bit carried away? Possibly, but in this day and age, I have come to realize that these small displays of one upsmanship are usually eclipsed later on by greater displays of "My Child is Better at _____________". My kids can shower, brush their teeth, wash dishes, and to a multitude of other domestic tasks. Those are all fine and dandy, but what makes me the most proud is to catch them being polite to each other when they think I'm not looking. So, maybe I should put a sticker on my car that says "Proud Parent of a Repectful Child".