You try everything you can to teach your children all the things they need to help succeed in the real world, but the best part of being a parent remains when your children teach you a thing or two.

My children, 6-year-old Dominick and 4-year-old Mallory, exhibit drastically different personalities but both enjoy the rewards that come with accomplishments at school.

Dominick, a first grader, is studious by nature, enjoys reading books and aims to please when it comes to rules set down by his mother and myself.

Mallory, a newly minted prekindergarten student, is more independent, loves to be the center of attention and is far more likely than her brother to do the things she wants, whether there is a rule in place to prevent such or not.

This can sometimes lead to lazy parenting on my part as I lump Dominick in as the catch all “smart” child, while relegating Mallory as the “full-of-personality” child.

That was my mistake; one Mallory let me know about last week.

The truth is there were obvious signs warning me against why such labels were inaccurate. I had just been choosing to ignore them.

For two years while Dominick was attending prekindergarten and kindergarten and Mallory was staying home with her mother, our little girl watched as my wife Candace and I made big productions every time Dominick came home from school with a completed assignment or received positive feedback from teachers for excelling beyond his grade-level requirements.

Each accomplishment usually meant a reward and certain praise in the household. I usually told Dominick how smart I thought he was for doing so well with his academics, and this was something Mallory noticed.

Now, Mallory is in school and brings home a folder each day, which has a worksheet indicator detailing if she was well behaved at school that day.

With religious devotion, Mallory has made a point to show me this folder each day I come home, within 60 seconds of walking in the door.

She wants me to know she is taking school very seriously, and she wants the recognition that comes with that.

So it was last weekend when I was driving the family home from a trip to see the new football stadium at Tulane University when the conversation turned to school and the lack of appreciation I was showing my daughter.

Mallory told me I was always calling Dominick “smart” and never paying her the same compliment. After a knee-jerk reaction to defend myself quickly subsided, all I could do was feel like a dunce.

Mallory was right. She wasn’t getting her due when it came to me, and it was simply a matter of labels.

Since I can remember, I have been calling Mallory “princess.” As for Dominick, my nickname for him is “buddy,” which often changes to “smart buddy” or “smart boy” when talking about school.

Well heck, Mallory wasn’t satisfied with simply being a princess. She wanted to be a “smart princess,” and why shouldn’t she?

She was certainly smart enough to teach this novice parent a thing or two about labels. The most important being: Never judge a princess by her cover. They’re a lot smarter than you think.

Stephen Hemelt is general manager and editor of L’OBSERVATEUR. He can be reached at 985-652-9545 or stephen.hemelt@lobservateur.com.