I published an article on Scary Mommy, How Our Children Make Us Braver.
"Yesterday, we went to watch my eldest daughter’s vocal performance at arts camp. When the curtain opened to a packed recital hall, my heart dropped and wrapped itself somewhere around my ribcage. My daughter was in the front row, eyes wide open. I know my kid, and she was terrified.
I started preparing things to say to her should everything fall apart and she begin crying or freeze up completely. My mind was in consolation mode, figuring out how to spin what would surely be a traumatic moment into a positive learning experience. Then a remarkable thing happened. Haltingly and with trepidation, she began to perform. She sang, slowly and inaudibly at first, then more convincingly as she went along. Her little hands whirred round and round, “A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam, guli guli guli guli guli ram sam sam…”