Report Card

Tomorrow is the last day of school for my children. I received a comprehensive report card for my son. He's in Montessori and this was his last year so essentially it was kindergarten. No grades but 3 pages of assessments on all of his social and mental skills. It was all very good. Not one negative.

But there was one line that I feel has been my most important achievement as his mother.

J always tells the truth.

That is the line that I fixated on because that has been one of my greatest fears as their mother. I know both my children are both naturally smart. They get that from their dad. Not that I'm not, I have just always had to work harder whereas my husband is a walking encyclopedia even though he rarely reads and did not pay attention in school.

So I haven't worried as much about how smart my children are, or how successful they will be. I know they will go far in whatever they do. But I have worried a lot about their moral compass.

That one line means the world to me because it is what I have struggled with over and over again with my husband and if there is one attribute I hope my children will get from me it is honesty. And mostly, for their own sake.


"Honesty is not a social duty, not a sacrifice for the sake of others, but the most profoundly selfish virtue man can practice: his refusal to sacrifice the reality of his own existence to the deluded consciousness of others."
-Ayn Rand