There are some things that I will never learn.

"You ruined us, Mommy!" Standing there, my beautiful, intelligent, creative 18 year old daughter who has physically blossomed into quite a gorgeous woman(ish) is reprimanding me on my parenting skills. "You made us believe that we are special, unique and above the crowd in our thinking. You taught us to question everything and to not accept society as it is. And then we get out there and we don't feel normal; we think we're smarter than everyone else, have a better edge on life, and we don't!!!" .......well, she was saying something to that affect; referring to herself and my three teen (still) sons.

I just smiled at her and told her how pretty and smart she was as I cleaned the food mess off of my 2 (almost) year old daughter's face. Sure, I was being a bit glib at the moment; but I'm her mommy and she can expect that. I home-taught my kids. I was and am quite short of perfection, but I have always treasured my babies. So I reminded my older daughter about this very thing. And I told my younger daughter how cute and smart she is - and her older sister chimed in. I grinned my obnoxious grin. She grinned back and went on down the hall to her room to journal.

And in 16 years or so, my younger daughter, standing there in all her beauty, will let me know that I ruined her by having her believe that she was special and unique ....etc......And I will grin at her whilst wiping up her 2 year old nephew's food art creation that he made on the table - letting him know that I liked his design and choice of colors........and how smart and cute he is. And she will chime in .