The greatest moments of parenthood are those times where your kid will do something so spontaneously kind or wonderful that it makes those 9 months of pregnancy almost worth all those incessant trips to the bathroom.  

Whether it’s an unprompted, “I love you, Mommy” or a burst of good manners when you were convinced your kid was spawned from the devil, those random acts of kindness--even if unbeknowst to the kid--are irreplaceable.

Like the other Thursday night when I came home late from work, faced with a bare fridge, and lamely pulled together a dinner of stale bread with butter and plain pasta for my kids.   It was clearly not my shining moment but as I put the plate in front of my four year old son, Max, he looked up at me with genuine appreciation and said, “Oh thaaaank you for the bowtie pasta, Mommy! This looks delicious!”  

Or like this weekend when we opened the electric keyboard we got for Christmas.  I was blundering through teaching my daughter, Elle, the basic notes.  I was desperately trying to recall those years of childhood piano lessons (clearly wasted) and realizing that if I wanted my child to have any hope of actually playing instead of merely poking the keyboard with index fingers, I needed to find a professional teacher.   But just as I was ready to give up trying to teach her about “Middle C,” Elle suddenly turned to me and said, “You’re a good teacher, Mommy.” 

Sigh. 

It’s these moments of validation that we all need once in a while to happily convince us we may just be doing something right. (Or at a minimum, infuse at least some doubt that our kid was spawned by the devil.)   

So the next time you accidentally step on your child’s school craft project the night before it’s due (true story), or inadvertently feed your child spoiled milk that makes her throw up in class (another true story), be grateful for those random moments from our kids that tell us that we might just be doin' “good” just as we are.