On Watching Your Kids Become People Who Are Absolutely Crushing It

There is a specific kind of pride that I do not think anyone warned me about when my kid was small. It is not the pride of the little moments, though those are wonderful. It is the pride that arrives when you watch someone you raised become a whole, capable, thriving adult human being who is out here doing things and achieving goals and handling life in ways that genuinely impress you. That kind of pride is different. It hits differently. It is a little overwhelming, honestly.

I have been watching my kid hit milestones lately that remind me that the years I spent trying to show up, stay consistent, and be honest with her about the world actually produced results. That sounds clinical. It is anything but. When your child accomplishes something hard, something they worked for, something they wanted and went after, there is a moment of pure uncomplicated joy that is very hard to put into words. I will attempt it anyway because this is my blog and I do what I want.

What I find most satisfying is not just the accomplishments themselves but the way she is handling the journey. The setbacks. The pivots. The moments where things did not go according to plan and she figured out another plan. That is the stuff that tells you who a person actually is, and watching my kid navigate that with grace and grit has been one of the most quietly profound experiences of my adult life.

I think about it in the context of how I approach my work sometimes. I am someone who solves problems for a living. I find a broken thing, I figure out why it is broken, I fix it, and I document how I fixed it so the next person does not have to start from zero. Parenting is nothing like that. There is no documentation. There is no change management plan. You make the best decisions you can with incomplete information and then you wait to see what the output looks like years later. The fact that the output is turning out this well feels like a genuine miracle that I had some small part in.

To my kid: I see you out there doing the things. It is the most satisfying thing I have ever gotten to watch. Keep going.