When people think of parental moments of pride, they oftentimes think of major milestones, like the first time crawling, standing, walking; preschool or kindergarten “graduation,” the actual graduations, acceptances into college/law/medical school, etc. What tends to get overlooked in the broader picture are those small moments when kids start to assert autonomy and their own personalities.

Today, the nanny reported to me that Kaia made her really proud: she had taken her down to our building’s play room, and there were two other older kids there with their nannies (both kids were around 2 years of age). One kid was being very aggressive and kept hitting the other kid, who was passively just taking it all. The aggressive kid came up to Kaia and forcefully tried to pull a toy out of her hands. Kaia, not one to be pushed over, held onto the toy firmly and started yelling endless jibberish, staring hard at the aggressive kid and not stopping the yelling until she let go and backed off. The aggressor got so freaked out that she not only backed off, but she ran away! The aggressive kid is over twice as old as my baby is!

Our nanny said she was so proud. I was also super proud, too. I didn’t witness this happen, but my heart was warmed. The last thing I want is for my baby to be bullied; I want her to stand up for herself and assert her authority. I don’t want any other little twit pushing her around, whether it’s on the playground, at the play room, or at school in the future.