Unless your child expresses ambition and drive from a very young age, your childs’ education IS important to you and the most compelling reason for this – you are not independently wealthy so you can’t afford lazy, uneducated kids. How do I know you’re not rich?

Rich people don’t read MouthyGirl. Chances are one out of every two of you reading this didn’t go to college, and if you did, you may not have gotten a degree. It is our job as parents to teach our children better than we know, guide them to lead a better life. How can you do that if you don’t start with their education?

If you don’t care about your kids’ education, they won’t either and the teacher can’t make them care, no matter how hard they try. What you’re left with is a child that is complacent about schoolwork, and not only school work – any hard work. Sure he might make the effort to pass just to keep from being held back, but the fundamentals aren’t there, nor is the work ethic that boss’s are looking for everywhere.

Why is this a problem? That child grows up with only a very basic skillset to get a job with and is competing with college graduates for jobs. Does that sound fair to you? For you and me, we can still get a job based on experience, selling ourselves and demonstrating what we know, our children will not be so lucky, at 30 I can tell you I have been passed up for many jobs because I don’t hold a degree, many of which I was capable of doing but didn’t have the degree to back me up. It is only going to get more difficult for people like me.

Being a parent means one thing first and foremost – IT AIN’T ALL ABOUT YOU ANYMORE. So why would you leave your child out their alone, with no one to care about their school work, work ethic, dreams and goals? I know it’s hard to be an active and attentive parent but believe me it’ll be worth it, before the dear hubby was around I was a single mom and even then I managed, so you have no excuse.

Are you involved in your kids’ school life?

Everyone by now has heard about Kanye taking the mic from Taylor Swift at the awards on Sunday, and if you haven’t, google it.

We all know this isn’t the first time Kanye West has looked like a complete douchebag. But we’ve all met people like him before haven’t we? Doesn’t it seem like there are a lot of Kanye’s in this world? That guy at the office that takes all the credit for ideas, regardless of whose they were; or the kissass that gets no work done but the boss can’t see that for the lips on their ass; or the girl that calls in sick or has an excuse to get out of working at least one day a week, but they manage to hold on to their job.

How do you maintain confidence without recognition for your own hard work? Someone needs to recognize that you’re doing a good job right? We thrive on praise and love attention as human beings, we need the feedback. But do you just quit if the recognition or praise eludes you? I don’t think so.

The reality is that most often, you won’t get recognized for the hard work that you do, but does that mean you stop working hard? For some people that’s exactly what it means. Don’t let that be you. Take pride in the work that you do, do it right. It doesn’t matter what kind of work, housework, schoolwork, paid work, whatever – do it right. It benefits you to know you did the best that you could, when you put out your best effort, regardless of external recognition, you know you work hard.

It’s easier to walk with your head held high for the right reasons than it is to walk around with false bravado, acting like you’re the shit without being able to back it up. Just like your Mom always told you, don’t worry so much about everyone else, worry about you. Pat yourself on the back when you’ve successfully pulled off a project, treat yourself when your presentation goes well, but don’t stop giving it your all because someone else is stealing your glory.

If you’re gonna have an ego, at least be deserving.