Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else. (Judy Garland)

When the summer is ending and the autumn will be here in the blink of the eye, our kids are headed for the school again.

How do they feel about it?
Are they excited to meet their friend or are they afraid to go back to school?
Are they happy to learn something or are they just trying to get by?

And how do you make them feel? Are you encouraging? Are you pushing them to get good grades? Did you read Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Kid, Smart Kid (Rich Dad’s Rich Kid, Smart Kid: Giving Your Children a Financial Headstart) - remember how his “poor” father managed to motivate Robert  even when he was not doing good in school. The grades are just one side of the medal. Do you see beyond that? Do you see the real potential in your kids? Do you listen to them and appreciate what they really want.

I remember when my older daughter Anja was 6. She wanted to go to swimming and I was very much against it. She just started the school, and winter was coming, and I just thought she is no good at sports. But somehow she was so persistent that I gave up. Not that I wanted to. Or that I thought this was the right thing. But I let her go. And by 9, she was competing and getting medals, and now, when she is 12, she is still swimming, 7 times a week, and she just loves it. On the other hand, my younger daughter Tina, for whom I still believe she could be a great athlete (and she is good at ball games too), doesn’t want to go to any sports activities at all, and when I made her, she sticks to it for a year and then we are searching for another sport she could enjoy.

This lesson always have me thinking, how well I really understand and know my children. Do I pay attention to their wishes, to their dreams, to their reasoning? Because whatever we might think, everyone knows himself the best, even children.