Mompetition … Don’t Play Along!
By Kerrie McLoughlin
694 words
Please contact me at mommykerrie@yahoo.com if you'd like to see this piece in full to consider purchasing it for your parenting magazine, either online or in print!
Please contact me at mommykerrie@yahoo.com if you'd like to see this piece in full to consider purchasing it for your parenting magazine, either online or in print!
According to
UrbanDictionary.com, mompetition is “the one-up rivalry that moms play making
their child seem better, smarter, and/ or more advanced than yours. May involve
two or more moms and any number of children, even full-grown.” I like the “even
full-grown” part of that because it is so true. Ever see a couple of
60-something women comparing number of grandchildren and number of married
children and their jobs? Oh, yes, it happens daily, and it has to stop.
I've never really been competitive; maybe it's the Only
Child thing. I just don't really care what other people are doing and don't
have the desire to one-up them. That being said, I always know when I’m dealing
with mompetition. At a random outing, a mom might start by asking you a lot of
questions about your life. These are not normal questions in a normal manner,
but they are lots of POKING questions. These moms are trying to find your weak
spots and decide in which areas of life they are BETTER than you.
Here are some examples of mompetition, then some ways to
handle it:
·
"My kid is only 12 and is almost an Eagle
Scout. Congratulations on your 17-year-old Scout getting his Fingerprinting
badge!" (For those of you non-Scouters, an Eagle Scout rank is HARD to
get, takes years, involves a major service project and is usually earned by an
18th birthday.)
