Who Do You Admire?

Here at my house I am the biggest hard ass about little nit picky things. I get this fabulous trait from my beloved mother. Yesterday I was going over the homework and I spied a little piece of paper that my step daughter had in her folder. I immediately snapped at her wanting to know what she was trying to hide. She said it was for an assignment that they were doing in writing. She proceeded to tell me that they were writing about the person that they most admired. I snapped again who are you going to be writing about. She said the person she admired most was me. I immediately felt like total crap. Today as I was going through the homework folders I saw the half finished writing assignment. As I read the paper I started to cry. She said the nicest thing about me. She said that I was teaching her to grow up and be smart and polite. I just felt horrible as I read this paper. I am soooooo hard on this child and she writes a nice paper about me. I do not deserve in any way to be honored in this writing assignment. Her paper has taught me two things. The first is that I need to think before I start reprimanding the kids. I have been way too hard on them. The second thing that I learned is that the things that I am trying to get through to them is actually getting through to them. I am very proud of Kaitlyn. She is a beautiful and intelligent young lady and I hope that she makes all of her dreams come true. Some day maybe she can reconnect with her mom, but for now I will try my best everyday to make sure she is taught the things she needs to know to make her way in this crazy world. I just need to remember to do that in a more kind way, so as to not imitate my own disapproving mother. I'm not bitter or anything....