Bring on the bragging...

Yesterday, while my son napped, I helped my daughter paint a unicorn-themed canvas. She was having a blast spending alone time with her mom. I could tell that she was loving the fact that we were making our own colors by mixing the white and black with a variety of other colors. She kept sayings things like, "look how great this looks" and "I bet this color combination is going to be just perfect." Mind you, she is a loquacious little girl.

While we were working on the project her grandpa stopped by to say hello. She eagerly explained that she was creating a beautiful project. She wanted him to watch her paint and was legitimately confused when he said he had to go. I could see that her little brain was fruitlessly trying to figure out how anything could be more exciting than watching her paint. When her grandpa left she stated, "I am going to give this to Poppy when I am done and he is going to be sooooo excited," obviously projecting her own excitement.

Well in my Sunday supermom glory (and yes, this is me bragging!), when her brother woke up, I decided to stroll both kids to their grandparents' house, about a mile away. My daughter made sure to bring her canvas so she could give it to her grandpa, exclaiming again how much her Poppy was going to love it.

Low and behold, shortly after we initiated our walk, we ran into my cousin, her uncle. And yes, as you could have guessed, we are a pretty large and close-knit family. He was driving by and pulled over to the side of the road for a quick chat. My daughter jumped out of her seat and ran over to the parked car with her canvas in tow. She completely forgot about the plan to bring it to Poppy and instead asked to be picked up so she could hand it over to her uncle through the car window. She proudly boasted, "Drew I made this for you!" P.S. I think he was equally as excited to receive it because I later received a picture of it hung up on his wall at home.

I recant this story, not to call my daughter out on her lack of gift-giving etiquette, but instead to share how proud she was of her artwork. When was the last time you were that proud of something you did?

We, especially as women, have been socialized to shrink away from our achievements for fear of coming across as pompous or condescending. Wanting to share our successes with others does not make us braggarts, it makes us human. We are wired for connection and we don't have to rely solely on lamenting as our only means of communicating. Help me break this ridiculous social norm and brag with me. Join our Facebook group, which provides the space each and every Friday to boast. It's so important to share in each other's successes because when women support women incredible things happen!