What a Mother Says When Her Daughter Asks

It is one thing to feel proud of your child. It is another to tell them so.

Kimberly came to NAIS Manila expecting to talk about her daughter. She did not expect her daughter to be the one asking the questions.

Fiona, a sixth form student at NAIS Manila, sat her mother down in front of the cameras and, unrehearsed, asked her a series of questions. The first was simple enough: describe me in three words. Kimberly chose confident, compassionate and caring, and then explained each one. Confident, because Fiona has come to know herself. Compassionate, because she notices other people and wants to help. These were not qualities Kimberly took for granted. Over the last few years, she said, she has watched her daughter grow into herself.

The second question turned to surprise, and Kimberly spoke about the AS levels Fiona had just finished, the hours she had put in, the way she had come to understand for herself how much it mattered. As a parent, she said, that is a beautiful thing to see.

Then Fiona asked the question that changed the room. Was there anything she wanted to say?

Kimberly began to cry. "I'm proud of you," she said. Not for the grades, though she was proud of those too, but for the human being her daughter is becoming. Almost fourteen years from home in Nova Scotia, Canada, she talked, through tears, about the school her daughter has grown up in, one that draws children from all over the world, shapes them, and then, at the end, sends them out like a dandelion on the wind, off to become any number of different people.

"I'm so proud of who you have become," she told her. "I'm always proud to be your mom."

It is a small moment, and an enormous one. This is what an international education looks like when you measure it properly: not only in results, but in the confidence, character and quiet compassion a young person carries out into the world. At NAIS Manila, we think those things are connected. A young person who feels known and supported is one with the security to work hard, to grow, and to become someone their family is proud of.

 

This film is part of NAIS Manila's Are You Proud of Me? series, in which students interview their parents on camera, unrehearsed.

Watch the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idT0XJuvFNA

NAIS Manila is part of the Nord Anglia Education global family of schools. To find out more about admissions, visit https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/nais-manila/admissions/enquiry.