Hi friends!

 

Let's talk about report cards - you all know report cards - those documents you get from your kid's school that shows how your child is doing in school.  Some families love them, some dread them.

 

We looked forward to report cards when Kasey and Keeley were in school.  Lisa and I were pretty involved with their school and we trusted their teachers for an accurate glimpse of how our girls were doing.  We knew enough about the teachers to know that some teachers were tougher on grades and some were easier so we learned to look at the grade through that perspective.

 

Keeley asked when she was in 1st grade, "Daddy, why don't you and mommy get report cards?"  Wow - out of the mouths of babes.  SO - I developed a parent report card.  Every time Kasey and Keeley got report cards, I had them "grade" me on how I was doing as a dad.  They would give me an A, B, C, D or F on such items as "Easy to talk to"; "Spends time with me"; "Patience" and "Good Listener".  I got great (and very touching and sometime troubling) feedback on my parenting skills. 

 

Kasey was very protective of me and Keeley was much more cold-hearted.  If something was seriously amiss in my parenting with Kasey, she might give me a B+ or, heaven forbid, maybe even a B whereas if Keeley was miffed at some parenting shortcoming, she would gladly give me D-!  I learned that a B+ from Kasey meant the same thing as a D from Keeley - and what both grades meant was that I was exasperating and frustrating my daughters.  The information I got from their parent report cards opened the door to numerous outstanding dialogues and helped me greatly improve my parenting .

 

Kasey and Keeley knew that they could write anything on the report card and they were safe.  I wanted their candidness and as I look back, it is amazing how correct and insightful their grades and comments were!

 

How do we know if we are exasperating our kids?  Just ask them.

 

 

Scott