Ultimate Blog Challenge - What did your parents or guardians tell you that you’re good at?

Happy Friday and welcome back to the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Today's assignment is to talk about

What did your parents or guardians tell you that you’re good at?

I was thinking about that when I was writing about compliments I get. 

Let's structure the answers in a unique way.

Here are things my Mom would tell me I'm good at:

Art. When I was as young as 4 years old I would get up shortly after 6am, after Dad left for work, get dressed and start drawing, painting, you name it, at the kitchen table. When Mom got up, she was usually greeted with several pieces, usually there'd be people, flowers and colourful houses in my pictures. Apparently, the people on this particular one, are not random people. I told my Mom who everyone was (and she had the presence of mind to write it down). After some time we had visitors, and I showed them my picture, and I counted up all the people, and they were the same. 

Independence, see above. I would also go grocery shopping at that age. She gave me a bag, a  list and money, and I'd go to the neighborhood store. 

People skills. Obviously I liked to strike conversations with random people in the park, on the street or at the store. I must have lost this along the way. These days I like to mind my own business.

Literacy. I sort of taught myself to read and write, and I must have done a good job because later I was good at essays and stuff. She thinks I'm really good at free writing as well as proof reading and catching typos. When I got older she was impressed by how easily I was learning new languages.

Organization / Planning. My Mom has many positive qualities, but being organized is not one of them, and she admires me for that. Same goes for parallel parking ;-)

Responsibility. Be it to look after my baby brother or actually babysit other people's kids, she trusted me to do the right thing. In retrospect she obviously taught me to do the right thing! Credit where credit is due. 

Memory. Starting with the fact that I was literally good at memory games, she noticed that I was great at remembering names and faces as well, so she gladly let me lead the way at public parties, which helped her to greet people by name as well ;-)

Sensory skills. When my Dad, who's a wine lover, opens a bottle, we like to pour, give the glass a swirl and smell. We will come up with descriptions like blueberry, with a hin of wet mushroom from the forest ;-) 

And she'd be like it smells like wine 🤷‍♀️

Photos: Alice Dietrich and Lefteris kallergis on Unsplash, Quote: @womenbehavingbadly

Here are things my Teachers would tell me I'm good at:

• Literacy
• Helping others
• Organization / Planning

I've mentioned this anecdote before, but I'm happy to repeat it:

When we had our elementary school reunion ten years ago, during dinner I sat across from my teacher. He brought a binder, in which he collected memorabilia about us kids: pictures from field trips and other outings, drawings we gifted him, newspaper clippings of some of my classmates' athletic successes, you get the picture.

Almost at the end, there was a hand-written letter, and I recognized my own handwriting when I was about 12 years old.

It said something like:

Dear classmates,

Soon our ways will part, and we will attend different schools.

Wouldn't it be great to have some sort of farewell outing? Here's the plan:

Insert exact dates, timetables for the bus, ticket prices for the bus, entrance fees for the indoor swimming pool and "what to bring" as in bathing suit, towel,...

I was stunned. I had no recollection of having written this. I also could not remember if we actually went?

The teacher smiled. 

"Looks as if you were quite the party planner back then already."

Ha, no kidding. It bugged me that I had forgotten about it though.

Here are things my Dad would tell me I'm good at:

...

...

...

Blank?! I can't come up with anything. Does this mean he thought I wasn't good at anything? Probably not. I just can't remember that he ever told me. He didn't hold back when there was room for improvement though. 

Today, in our adult life, he will ask for my help when he can't solve a Geocaching mystery in a field where there aren't any conclusive Google results / I actually seem to be good at: Hockey and traveling in North America.

Over to you: What did your parents or guardians tell you that you’re good at?