PenPenWrites

I was reading an interview with Janai Brugger in the New York Times. Brugger is the 28-year-old singer who entered the Metropolitan Opera's National Council Auditions and won. Then won Placido Domingo's Operalia competition. And then was offered the ultimate and most amazing of prize: an offer to debut at the Met in Puccini's "Turandot" on October 30.

What a whirlwind of wins. Of course it was built on hard work. She started voice lessons in high school–at the urging of her mother. Her preference was musical theater but classical music was good training for any direction her career took. Meanwhile, her opera-obsessed mother had been taking her to see Aida, Madama Butterfly and all the other grand and lesser operas since she was a small child. But evidently she didn't push opera on her child whose career evolved in that direction serendipitously–if I read the interview right.

Why am I writing about this in a blog about parenting adult children? Because at the end of the interview, Brugger was asked how her mom felt about the sudden turn of wonderful events in her child's life–not just the competition wins but the turn toward opera. And Brugger's answer struck me as the definition of the end game: of what we, as parents, would like our children to say–and more importantly, to feel–about us as parents.

Here's Brugger's comment on her mother's reaction to her sudden fame. Reader alert: I almost teared up at the last line–hoping my children feel that way about paterfamilias and me.

"My mom is like a kid in a candy store. She has to know every detail. How was rehearsal? What happened? Who did you meet? And she knows more about these things than I do. So it's great that we can share that. She'd be proud of me for anything, but this is extra special.