Tim McGraw just won a country music award for his music video for “HUMBLE AND KIND” which was inspired by his daughter going away to college. It’s such a wonderful song and the video is beautiful with a wide range of diverse cultures represented.

It made me think of the advice my wife and I have always tried to give our three children. Yes, as babies we caught ourselves fawning all over our beautiful cherubs like all other parents do. We would smother them with kisses and always tell them how beautiful they were…but then we realized that we don’t want them to grow up with just that message about being physically good looking. I mean, what kind of message does that send? We wanted to make sure that they fully understand that there was much important things about them. So we came up with our CSS mantra. No, it has nothing to do with web development. CSS stands for “Cute, Sweet and Smart”.

Whenever we caught ourselves showering our children with love and praise we made sure that we never stopped with how cute they were. We always added Sweet….and Smart…. and we always explained that we loved them not just because they were cute as a button but also because they were so sweet and kind and so smart too. We made sure they knew how critical it was to always be nice to others and I have to admit that these three kids are truly the nicest kids you will meet… and this isn’t coming from a biased parent either. This is the feedback that we have always gotten from other parents and teachers and other kids. It truly makes us so proud.

As for the smart part, it seems to have inspired them to always work harder when it comes to school and to instill a confidence in their thinking abilities and self-awareness. We hoped that showing them that our love for them was not based on something as transient and as superficial as one’s appearances. No, we wanted to make it clear to them that love is much deeper than that. We hope other parents do the same thing with their kids. The world will be a much better place if we all did this.

Anyway, please enjoy this song and the wonderful video.