What makes one proud as a mother? When your child is systematically top of the class? When your child is a musical prodigy? When s/he finally gets the hang of a difficult issue and you see the light in his/her eyes? When your child is a sporting hero?
All of those things, surely, and yet, I find I am inordinately proud when my children spontaneously show humanity and generosity; proof, if you like that I am not bringing up heathens.
My eldest was off on a school visit today, to see the Perrier factory. He had asked me for a picnic lunch, which I provided (chorizo sarnies!). Upon his arrival home today, he brought out a bunch of Perrier goodies - a pen, keyrings, ruler with calculator, etc. and asked us to choose what we wanted. I assumed they had been free gifties from generous Perrier.
Not exactly 'generous Perrier' although each child had been given a bottle of water... No, my son, unbeknownst to me, had raided his pocket money, taken ten euros and bought goodies for all his family, including NG. Not only that, but he offered the goodies around without reserve for us to choose what we wanted. Although he had his eye on the ruler, he didn't try and influence our choices. Naturally, we guessed what he wanted to keep and just accepted a little keyring.
Now that's a generous-hearted boy. He may not be a ruthless top notch businessman in the future, but he'll always be my pride and joy.