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My answer is different that most, yes I raised a great daughter. But I also spent the majority of my career working for an employee owned company. I worked hard and sacrificed, as did others. But the company thrived and many others are now enjoying the fact that their portion of the company is worth a lot of money. So my work benefitted 600 others is a small way.
As a kid I heard stories about great Aunt Maude and the great grandparents. I have not retold their stories. So they'll go with me, never to be spoken of again. Someone may go through pictures my Mom has at some point and wonder who those people are but they won't know. Many of the pics have no dates or names written on the back.
And yes, some people may have earned a few years only of being remembered.
I am fortunate that my dad's mother got an 8mm camera in the 1950s and used it until the 1970s. We have digitized all the film we have and she was pretty good at it, going around the room at big parties and visits getting just a short bit of everyone there. We (myself and other family members) have annotated a lot of it but there are several people, especially the oldest people in the oldest films, that none of us recognize. It reinforces my childhood memories of family I knew but lost long ago and seeing them is special to me. But my kids are really only interested in seeing the people they know; my parents (still alive in their 80s) when they were young, me and my siblings toddling around, etc.
Anyway, I think the 3 generations is right even if you have the means to keep the information around longer. The movies make the people my kids never met more real, but they still have no emotional attachment. They are names in a book like other history.
Yep. In 150 years, nobody will know anything about you or care that you existed. You will simply be a line on a genealogy tree.
Doing genealogy research on your own family kind of changes this. I began to feel close to people who died two centuries ago when I learned about their lives.
Being accomplished means different things to different people. I can remember when I was in nursing school 40 years ago and one of my clinical rotations was at a longterm hospital that cared for the profoundly mentally and physically challenged. One day when I was at the hospital there was a party going on and I asked who was having a birthday. It was no birthday party, it was a party for a 10 year old boy who could finally brush his own teeth after 5 long years of intense occupational therapy. Nothing I have or will do in this life will top what that very challenged boy was able to accomplish. Whenever my life hits a rough spot I think back on that boy who has no clue how much he has been an inspiration to me all these years
Being accomplished means different things to different people.
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It was no birthday party, it was a party for a 10 year old boy who could finally brush his own teeth after 5 long years of intense occupational therapy. Nothing I have or will do in this life will top what that very challenged boy was able to accomplish. Whenever my life hits a rough spot I think back on that boy who has no clue how much he has been an inspiration to me all these years
Agree 100%.
From my POV, all retirees or people at the later stages in their life are ALL ACCOMPLISHED people. We have all navigated many twists and turns, going through many life phases from growing up, going to school, getting a job, getting married, taking care of spouses/children/pets/parents etc Along the way, we all have experienced some or many of the life challenges be it illness, accidents, disability, divorces, layoffs and all other kinds of financial, physical and emotional hardship.
If you arrive at this stage in life relatively intact and have very few regrets, you have accomplished tremendously.
If you take great pride in the way your children turned out or your impactful contributions to your company, church, community or society, good for you. Others have their own yard sticks of their accomplishments.
For me, I am proud of all the things that I had purposedly done or taken efforts to do be it big or small. You don't always have to live a purposeful life but it's good to set goals and try to achieve them. The harder it is to achieve the goal, the prouder and more accomplished that you will feel. If achieving your personal goals also benefit others directly or indirectly, it is an extra bonus.
Doing genealogy research on your own family kind of changes this. I began to feel close to people who died two centuries ago when I learned about their lives.
I partially agree with this. I have a large well researched tree; I was lucky to have a few branches where the family stayed in one area for several generations. I have portraits of every male in my surname line back to the Revolutionary War. I know what they looked like, what they did, who they married, when they were born and when they died. I have a smattering of other facts about them. But I don't really know what they were like. I don't feel close to them and while I am not ashamed of my heritage, their cotton "farms" are not something I brag about. In other branches where I know more about immigrants only a few generations back, I don't feel like I should be researching traditions or seeking out others with similar heritage. I know what clans I can claim on St Patty's day but I feel no desire to visit because of my lineage. Anyway, IMO, just having people be able to find limited info about you isn't the sort of accomplishment the OP was looking for.
To the posters who take credit for raising good children as a life accomplishment, would you take the blame if your kid was a bad apple? I ask this because we too raised a great man, kind and decent for 38 years. He's given us two wonderful grandkids, he's successful in business, owns a beautiful house but 4 months after his divorce he met a borderline personality disorder woman and for the last 2 years we hardly recognize him or his behavior. Do I blame myself for who he's become? Absolutely not. Do I take credit for his achievements, nope. Not at all. He's fallen down her rabbit hole.
Oh I dunno, raised a couple of girls who are now medical doctors, saved a few lives, put some really bad guys in prison so they couldn't prey on innocent people any longer, took some wayward teenagers under my wing who are all now professionals with families. Planted trees, and flowers. Went fishing. I like fishing.
To the posters who take credit for raising good children as a life accomplishment, would you take the blame if your kid was a bad apple? I ask this because we too raised a great man, kind and decent for 38 years. He's given us two wonderful grandkids, he's successful in business, owns a beautiful house but 4 months after his divorce he met a borderline personality disorder woman and for the last 2 years we hardly recognize him or his behavior. Do I blame myself for who he's become? Absolutely not. Do I take credit for his achievements, nope. Not at all. He's fallen down her rabbit hole.
My brother hooked up one like this - he has been a stranger for a very long time. Very sad. Several years ago he called to ask what I intended to leave him in my will and if it was nothing then they wouldn't waste anymore time. This is not how he was raised and not who he was before that fateful day he met her. (I'm leaving them nothing.)
Oh I dunno, raised a couple of girls who are now medical doctors, saved a few lives, put some really bad guys in prison so they couldn't prey on innocent people any longer, took some wayward teenagers under my wing who are all now professionals with families. Planted trees, and flowers. Went fishing. I like fishing.
I have three different girlfriends who all have two daughters either in med school or practicing. It's not what it used to be because doctors don't have the same integrity as before. One keeps moving around the country, positioning herself for that 5 bedroom/5 bath house. Another is a psychologist who also suffers borderline personality disorder. Planting trees and flowers, fishing, helping troubled teens... All commendable. You've done a good job!
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