Day 12 - Something you never get compliments on.

Never is very definitive. I never get compliments on the symmetry of my ears, although I think that kind of compliment would have me backing away slowly lest the person pulls out a carving knife and tries to add them to his collection. Or hers, I guess. Woman can be serial killers, although it is statistically much less likely and they typically have different psychological disorders that cause them to kill. Yet I digress.

Compliments. As I said, never is really impossible. But how about not as much as I would like.
My parenting. I rarely get complimented on my parenting skills. I don't parent for other people, I do it for my daughter. So I shouldn't care. She tells me I am the best mommy ever, but she doesn't really have a basis for comparison, and besides, I make her say it. So yeah. Not so much, although I love it anyway.

I am more strict than is the current fad and I know sometimes it can make people uncomfortable. I don't yell often and I'm not a spanker, but I mean business and she knows it. I just don't buy into the whole "let them run free and they will choose the right path" philosophy. I wouldn't. So we have rules. And consequences. And talks. And it must not be so bad. She is intelligent and funny and confident. She is proud that she makes great choices. She can eat out with strangers and go shopping without problems.

People tell me she is wonderful and well behaved and one of the best children they have ever met. They often say it in that tone that says, "so don't expect so much from her". To them I say, how do you think she got that way? I mean look at the husband and I. It sure as hell isn't genetics.

The funny thing is that I have been talking about this post topic with the husband and he has taken sympathy on me. I sent him a picture of her finished Halloween costume and he texted back that he would have been lucky to have had me for a mom. Which sounds much creepier than it seemed at the time. And he's been calling me "good mama". Which also sounds kinda odd. Anyway my point is that his little attempts to recognize my parenting skills have made me feel like a good mama. Which makes me even happier to be around my daughter. Which in turn, makes me a better mama. I hope.