No matter what the occasion, from baby’s first smiles, steps and words to graduations, weddings and grand-babies being born – there are bound to be proud parents smiling, crying and saying thank you.

Why are they thankful? I can only guess and share from my own perspective. I am not privy to every stage in parenthood yet, since I have a year before I get one through high school graduation, but I see parents celebrating and enjoying the milestones of their children all the time. I know why they are thankful.

We can’t help it. We see how far they have come. We know that we did a lot but they did the rest. We are so proud of the people they become as each milestone is reached. None is less important than another…and everything we have done so far has helped, maybe in some little way, to make them into the person they are today.

The year is coming to an end. The middle of the calendar year, ending not with a ball being dropped and a TV broadcast party hosted by celebrities, but with a school graduation. Nonetheless exciting – whether it is the minor milestones of Kindergarten, Elementary or Middle School or the major ones of High School and College – there are proud parents standing there. They are (no doubt) doing everything they can to not cry or shout from the rooftops in celebration of the accomplishments their own children have made. We can only take them so far, then they have to do the rest…and that is worth celebrating.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl