“My kid just got a PhD”
“Yeah well my kid can do a real sick kick flip tho.”
“Dude no way that’s sick!”
Hmm, I don’t know. Seems like the perfect instrument to make “nerdy” kids feel even more insecure. Having very good grades is something you absolutely can and should be proud of. This does not automatically mean that your children, if they do not have good grades, are less valuable or “good” per se. But I think that the reasoning employed in the screenshot makes it very easy to say “Yes, your child’s grades are good, but my kid is way cooler”, belittling an entire and very respectable achievement of the other person.
Being nerdy and getting good grades doesn’t preclude being cool, especially not these days.
cries in growing up in the 90s
Eh, I think it’s good to make sure kids don’t pin their self esteem on anything overly tangible.
Grades are something that’s inherently tied to cultural capital. If your parents are able to teach you the skills needed to succeed in academic subjects, you’re going to do better. Pinning kids’ self worth to grades often leads to kids with disadvantages like a disrupted home life becoming disillusioned with the education system and suffering as a result.
I got good grades; I do not think the grades themselves are anything to be especially proud about. What’s more important is the effort that went into getting them, and that’s something more worth focusing on.
A parent saying they think their kid is cool is a value judgement from their perspective. They have a child they enjoy spending time with and with whom they have a good relationship. That’s something that I think anyone can get behind.
I don’t think it’s “cool” the way like…90s teen movies meant cool. I think it’s more like, “are they a kind person who is enjoyable to be around?” You can have other achievements that look good on paper and be cool. You can be an awkward dork and still be cool in that sense. Unfortunately, some parents prize the resume over raising a decent human being, and some kids end up being assholes, which is not cool at all.
As an incredibly and habitually nerdy kid none of my nerd shit had been an obstacle to my parents thinking I’m rad. I taught and ran my Mom through a D&D campaign over Covid…
Also I don’t think a parent who adopts the 'Is your kid cool" mentality is looking to make it another vector to disparage kids but to open adults minds to actually appreciating their kids as people not just little self congratulatory vicarious vindication of success. My parents are not fans of my Brother-in-Law’s family because they refuse to look at their son and my sibling as success on any other metric than acedemic or career related successes. They look at their careers in slightly lower paid but fulfilling careers doing things they feel make the world a better place makes them “the dumbest smart people we know”… The fact their son is just fucking awesome in his own merits just never enters their heads (and makes my Mom mad enough to bite through steel.)
Having parents who are cool is a blessing.
Good point. Good personality is trait as is academic success.
Hmmm yeah okay. Someone who’s like a honor roll student biglaw attorney might have a lot of accomplishments, but if they’re insufferable to be around that’s not a complete success as a parent.
On the other hand, a blast to be around but with no skills to succeed in this dystopia is also not a full success, either.
Of course you would want a balance, ideally speaking.
I worked so hard to impress my parents.
After my first semester of college I started getting depressed. I didn’t know it was depression at the time…but it’s very obvious in retrospect.
At some point I had to sell a car. By matter of coincidence, a few years later I found a blog by the buyer about his progress in restoring the car (of all things, a 1990 Volvo 740GL Wagon…not really an impressive car except that it cannot be killed. But I guess there’s a niche for everyone on the Internet).
In it he had a post about the day he picked up the car. My dad handled the transaction with this complete stranger and apparently my dad felt the need to vent for 10 minutes about how much of a deadbeat loser I was.
I wasn’t trying to be a deadbeat loser at the time. I was just severely depressed, and they were completely ignorant of it. Even when I said I think I’m depressed, they said in typical boomer fashion to get up on time and take a walk and I’d magically feel better. And that was the same advice I got from my damn doctor.
So must be cool for your parents to think you’re cool. Now I make it a point to avoid talking to them as much as possible. Not quite no-contact, just a bit of anxiety leading up to calling them, and a bit of a letdown when they call me and it’s not to tell me one of them is dead.
Are they happy? I think this should be the measure of success for a parent to worry about. Encouraging them to reach goals can absolutely be a part of happiness but I’ve had friends who spiraled down the drain because their parents pushed them so hard to make tangible achievements and completely neglected their actual happiness
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Goddam right they are cool - precisely because they are smart, talented, and engaged in the world around them. Why would I have raised them to be less than that?
My mom used to do this but with kindness. I may be a fuck up but I helped people without being asked and my mom was proud that that’s who I grew up to be
This is what I do with my son. He is truly kind to all people and animals, and I praise that all the time. Our world needs more kindness.
i knew a kid in highschool who was just kind, all the fucking time. No questions asked, just did it to do it.
Dude was awesome, one of the very few people i genuinely respect. Weird, and a little bit funky, but aren’t we all?
Yeah it was really good for my moral development to know my mom was proud I was kind. She always told me that that was what she wanted most for me, first to be a good kind person and second to be happy.
She also made a point to tell me the compliments she received about me.
As a kid who grew up weird and closeted and struggling with school because of disability it was so important to know that my mom was proud of me. Especially since my father made no effort to hide that he was disappointed I didn’t have any achievements he could brag about compared to his friends’ kids.
And the thing is kindness has done wonders for me. I’ll never be rich or famous, but I’m happily married and have found a good community. I’d rather that than be some of the assholes I grew up around.
Hah, sounds like the kind of person that votes for president based on whether or not they want to have a beer with them instead of their platform or accomplishments or experience
your kid might be a doctor, but my kid will be changing the world positively.
Probably through some autistic shit i instill in them, but hey, that’s not a bad thing.
“My kids are better than yours.”
What an asshole.
