Pixie Notes

I care a great deal about the people my children are today and what I can do to help encourage them to be successful adults and loving spouses and parents down the road.  Most of the time,  I don't give a rat's fanny about their grades. Sorry, this is the truth. They're good students but as a family we don't put a great deal of pressure on them about academic achievement and really try and consciously work against the trend of perfectionism in my daughter's school. Isn't there a saying to the effect of "don't let the perfect be the the enemy of the good?" I still believe that good is often good enough.

I actually had another mother tell me one day that, "no one will care that your child is a good citizen, they only care about the grades." This was right before she announced that she wouldn't be attending a poetry reading at the school by her child because the child hadn't made the finals and "everyone knows that my family always places or wins." Ouch! Did this mom ever stop to think that her child may have learned a great deal even though she didn't "place or win?" The idea that we play just to win or study just to rank in the top percentile is a suffocatingly narrow way to raise a child.

Here is the link to a great article on why we should all fight the trend of perfectionism.  If your goal is to raise a successful adult, you need to get off this train.

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/half_full/?p=298