As I sat watching my 13-year-old daughter's practice at cheerleading last week, I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of new moms I see in town and at school events but they don’t run in the same personal circle as I do. All of our daughters are on the winter cheerleading team and were practicing some new stunts for their upcoming competition.
What started as a pleasant time waiting for the girls to finish soon turned in a new direction. As my daughter worked through some jumps and landings, the other two moms started talking quietly among themselves, and since I could overhear most of what they said, not quietly enough.
Apparently they felt my daughter wasn’t as flexible as one of theirs, and in fact wondered out loud if it was because she probably wasn’t taking extra dance classes. Not in the mood to entertain their comments, I kept my mouth shut and tried to enjoy what was left of the practice.
Mind you, this wasn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last time I’ve witnessed catty comments (meow!) about one of my kid’s abilities, but unfortunately these days it goes much further than that while raising kids in such a competitive age.
Parents aren’t just overhearing a snide remark about their own or another child’s performances (both academically and athletically), they’re also struggling to keep up with the Joneses when striving to give their kids the same experiences that their peers are getting.
It used to be that a kid grew up riding his bike around the neighborhood and played on one or two recreational teams in town. Those days are long gone, however, and have been for quite some time. Now the average family is scheduling everything from pre-school flute lessons to chemistry tutoring in a second language, regardless of whether they have the means to do so or not.
Why the desperate need to make sure our kids are entrenched in the cutting edge of school, sports, artistic endeavors, and even community service occasions? Because we want our kids to have the best chance possible at excelling at all that they do—particularly where college admission is concerned. Unfortunately, sometimes we can let our competitive nature get the best of us and dictate just how far we’ll go to make our kids the brightest stars in the Universe.
It’s not possible to remove the many overbearing and competitive parents from the mix. Instead, Mighty Mommy shares five ways you can stay above the fray and manage today’s competitive parents without letting them get the best of you (or your kids!).
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