Pitfall Parenting

I’m Sharing a Picture of My Favorite Daughter

She’s intelligent, has my eyes, and she loves rabbits

I love all my daughters, but I love my favorite one more. She’s a source of joy and pride and is already better at many intellectual activities than her dad. Last week, we went to her favorite restaurant for her eighth birthday, and she surprised me by calculating the tip faster than I did.

It was tough because I thought Mathematics would stay my thing.

I already knew I wouldn’t compete in the language category. My daughter speaks German fluently, thanks to my mother-in-law, and has a good accent in Japanese and Korean from the extra classes she got in pre-school.

On the other hand, I can barely speak English without making mistakes. The same goes for my other children. She won the genetic lottery. That’s why she’s my favorite.

I love winning lottery tickets.

I keep my pride alive with push-ups and chin-ups. I still can do many more than my daughter. And I can still carry her. She can only pretend to carry me. (Which is fun)

But that’s about the only thing I can do better than her.

For another example, she’s much more loving and empathetic than I am. We were walking back from school the other day with one of her friends she had invited for a play date.

Suddenly, her friend started crying for no apparent reason.

I thought the best course of action was to leave her alone. Kids cry, and then they always stop at some point. From my experience, it’s better not to interfere. It makes them stronger.

But my daughter taught me a lesson that day

She immediately put her arm around her friend’s shoulders and asked her what was happening. She used an unusual tone of voice, a soothing one. I was very impressed.

And it worked! Only a few minutes passed, and her friend was already feeling better, ready to eat the ice cream my daughter had promised her in exchange for stopping her tears.

Very clever. I noted down the idea and will certainly use this trick in the future.

Learning from my daughter is a true pleasure. I guess that’s the best parents can hope for — having kids who are better than them.

I have at least one. For the others, we will see. They still have time to develop and learn.

Hopefully, being better than me will be enough for her to succeed in the strange world that awaits our children.

(Particularly mine since I don’t plan on leaving them any inheritance.)

Social media might be the worst part of my children’s future

It’s mostly my fault because I’m constantly monetizing their stories and pictures.

Thanks to human psychology, it works very well. Posting pictures of my kids makes people think I’m a better person than I am. And it’s easier to convince them to give me money.

Cool stuff. Right?

PS: The picture isn’t mine. I lied in the caption. I got it from Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.

For more lies, subscribe to my Top Hat Seminar on Substack.