Daughter: Can you spread the cheese on the cracker for me, please?

Me: Why can’t you do it?

Daughter: Because I don’t do it very well.

That is simply music to my ears! Don’t know if my writing conveys this, but I’m a stickler for good grammar. I subscribe to the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar and I correct people when they misplace prepositions. Yes, I’m that annoying person.

I try to cut the kids some slack because they’re constantly switching between at least three languages to communicate. I speak uniquely English to them and when they get stuck, I let them explain something that happened whatever language is the easiest. This works well, but promoting good grammar is tough. Not necessarily with the two year-old who is just now beginning to form sentences with more than 3 words, but I have different expectations for my daughter.

Every time someone asks her how she’s doing, she says “good” and I cringe. She asks me what is written in small print because she can’t see very good and I involuntarily twitch. After my physical reactions, I repeat her sentence correctly and ask her to do the same. This happens over and over again…it’s just become part of daily interaction. So, imagine my delight the other day when she says it correctly on the first try! I mean, my heart skipped a beat I was so happy.

It goes to show that consistency really does pay off. She may be annoyed with me correcting her now, but one day when she’s one of the few people who speak what will probably be called “old school English”, she’ll be in high demand and thank me.

Maybe I’m getting old, but lately I’ve been thinking a lot about where I am in my life – if that even makes sense.

So, here I am about to move for the 4th time since becoming an adult and I’m trying to figure out if I consider myself to be successful. I know that this judgment is relative to a person’s culture and experiences and only I can really know the answer, but I can’t help but to think of what my family (and friends) may have expected from me. I wrote a while ago about cultural expectations for career choices and I think that’s where this all starts.

My mom always pushed us to go far in school. Very early on she made it clear that she expected my sister and I to at least finish college. Check, so +1

Then, I made the choice to get married and start a family soon after graduating college. –1

But, then I went back to school and obtained my masters’. +1

However, I am still trying to decide what I want to do for the rest of my life. –1

Even without my very expensive education ;) , I would know that this complex equation adds up to 0. Let me also add that I know that my friends and family are extremely proud of me – it’s the successful part that makes me wonder…

One thing I know for sure is that I am happy and I wouldn’t have things any other way. I just don’t want my type A personality to look back one day and wonder if I really made use of all my talents… [-O<

How do you (or your culture) measure success?

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