My six-year-old came home from school one day very excited to let me know that Maggie’s mommy was a doctor and she helped sick people get better. Seems Maggie’s mommy was a “community hero.”

My unspoken response: Not Maggie’s mommy again.

You see, in preschool, Maggie’s mommy remembered to send not one, but two rocks on “paint a rock” day. I, sadly, forgot to send even a single rock. My daughter, without a rock, had to paint her clenched fist.

But I digress. Maggie’s mommy was, in fact, a wonderful doctor and very dear friend. My spoken response was, “You are so right—we are so lucky to have community heroes like Maggie’s mommy.” There, done.

Well, I wish. Instead, my daughter followed up with an extremely uncomfortable pair of questions: “What do you do, Mommy? Are you a community hero?” (Is it just me, or is “community hero” day in first grade a quality engineer’s worst nightmare?)

I summoned up my excited voice. “I’m a quality engineer—I make software better!” I answered.

“Did you make Angry Birds?” my daughter asked.  She could barely contain her excitement. Maggie’s mommy couldn’t hold a candle to the creators of Angry Birds.

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