We head up to Snowbasin Resort. The sun shines (a little too hotly for January) and the car is a roar of excitement. Today a few friends are coming up to ski with us, and my son and his friend have a morning lesson with the Grizzly Cubs.

They have a fantastic morning but later I find my son’s ski instructor stopping me on the bunny hill.

“Are you his mother?” I nod. Ugh oh. Here it comes… some bad news from this morning’s lesson. She continues,

He is an outstanding skier, especially for his age. Very comfortable. Very balanced. But you know what amazes me? He is such a good listener! Every time I asked him to do something, he did it! Right away!

Somewhere in the midst of this I realize she is praising him and inadvertently, me. And while I indeed feel proud of his skiing prowess, I am even more ecstatic to hear of how well he listened to his teacher.

I don’t share this to boast of my son’s auditory triumph. What you don’t know is that every week we battle his “listening problem” in gymnastics. Apparently, tackling his friend into the nearest pile of mats seems far more interesting than whatever instruction his teacher is giving.

Paramount Principles:

I write this for you as much as for me.

It is really easy as parents to forget about what is truly important. It is really easy to become immersed in all our busy activities, soccer, gymnastics, piano lessons, etc. It is really easy to think if they are excelling in these things then we are excelling as parents. It is tempting to believe that if the report cards are coming home with decent grades, then we are helping mold decent individuals. But the most important things a child needs to learn cannot be taught in most classrooms.

Things like listening.

Like Humility / Respecting Elders / Loving to learn / Thinking of others before themselves / Giving even when it hurts / Admitting wrong / Asking forgiveness / Moving past failure

Let us not forget what is important.