LittleOneupmanship

[Levanna]

Had a fascinating experience the other day. I witnessed 3 acquaintances at it (LittleOneupmanship) until one of their childen had (supposedly) started crawling at 3 months, and another had (supossedly) been cruising by 5 months!

This started out after polite (?) enquiries regarding how DD2 is 'getting on'.

She's getting on fine thanks , progressing normally, TG!

[Levanna]

supposedly, even!

[Levanna]

Anyone else encountered any (supposed) super babies recently?

[bobbybob]

I was a super baby according to my mum, I was potty trained by a year (yeah right), but even better apparently (so my gran says)my dad never wore a nappy in his cot and never wet the bed, right from day 1.

My ds thankfully is staggeringly normal.

[duster]

Tee hee! Love the LittleOneupmanship!
I have a ds of 6months, who is progressing a little faster than my neighbour's 6month old and she won't let me forget it. Now, my feeling is that they can all sit/roll/pass toys from hand to hand etc by the time they go to school, and if my boy does things early it makes me neither a better parent (which I genuinely believe is what some people think of themselves!!) or a genius myself (ditto - 'he gets it from me etc')
Before you accuse me of OneUpmansship, you should know that half the things he does I didn't even notice, my friend did - she's a nanny and quite frankly would do a better job of parenting than me anyway.
My neighbour's latest barb was - 'Hmm, well, aren't you worried that with all his shuffling about the floor he'll put too much strain on his body and give himself a long term problem? He's still small for his age, isn't he?'
I just laughed.

[Kittypickle]

Now you mention it, I've realised I haven't been round any superbabies recently, but I quite like it when people do this - gives me a warm glow inside that I don't need to resort to this as I am clearly a far superior mother confident in my mothering skills

[duster]

PS My 10 year old is crap at tying his shoelaces and my 8 year old barely recognised a letter before he was 6.
Perhaps I should start a 'what my kids are crap at' thread! (but love them very much anyway!)

[beansontoast]

i used to 'bunk off' baby group sometimwes cos i couldnt bear it.it was so painful to see all these twitching competing mums.
it made me feel bad..even though it shouldnt have!

[bathmummy]

There is a baby at our local toddlers who has been out of nappies since 8 months. His mum says that all of their family has a history of earling potty training and that as soon as they crawl they go into pants
Poot little lad has a neurotic mum who constantly picking him up and wasting ages with him perched on the loo looking bewildered and frequently ends up having his clothes changed. Talk about setting up a child with a possible future problem. Several of us have suggested that all the extra washing isn?t worth it and perhaps it would be worth going back (we can see he is no where near ready) but she just says that he is getting better all the time...not that we can see.
Really sad to watch.

[duster]

Poor kid! And poor mum too, doesn't sound like she's very happy.

[Cristina7]

Do some women really lose all sense of proportion once they've had a baby? Crawling by 3 months...

[prunegirl]

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[prunegirl]

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[prunegirl]

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[duster]

Prunegirl, I am very much hoping that ds3 doesn't walk until he's 18months as that's how long it will take me to save up for shoes!

[tallulah]

My third crawled at 4 months- the HV was amazed. He also stood at 5 months. It was a PITA! I used to envy the mums of babies his age who would just lie happily on their backs on the floor... (the babes, not the mums!)

I think sometimes it is insecurity that comes across as mumupmanship, esp with the first. You've no idea what is "normal" because your only experience is your own child. My mum tells me that before a year old I could "hold a proper conversation" with her. My eldest was almost 2 before she reached that stage- but she was walking confidently at 10 months, while I took my first steps at 13 months. If you are concerned that your baby is behind other peoples in one area (walking, speech, potty training, reading) isn't it human nature to try to deflect it by boasting about something they can do?

prunegirl, my parents were like that. If I did well it was always "who came first? Why weren't you top". It's soul destroying

[colditzmum]

My friends baby told her he loved her at 9 weeks old. Funny that, cos it sounded like "blllumguglwahhh!" to me!

[duster]

My baby loves me! He says "blllumguglwahhh!" all the time! I never knew!

Now, what does it mean when he farts like a trooper at 3am and wakes me up?

[Stilltrue]

Bathmummy - poor little boy! My guess is that he will be trained somehere between the ages of 2 and 3 - err - just like most other toddlers then! To digress for a moment; is the mum trying out what I've heard called "elimination communication". You are apparently supposed to tune into your baby's signs and grunts that he is about to "eliminate". It's supposed to be inspired by 3rd world babies who don't wear nappies, though glossing over the fact that in most of the poorest parts of the 3rd, when it comes to luxuries like nappies, needs must...
Perhaps I'm being unkind, but ime this practice is usually adhered to by the diehard types who pride themselves on getting round, say, India on 10p a day, not thinking that they are bartering down the locals to within a whisker of their livelihoods. They also refuse to acknowledge that the very fact of getting onto a plane to their chosen destination, even if the ticket's from a bucket shop and the wrong way round the world with 3 stopovers, means they are using up aviation fuel in just the same way as all the nasty capitalist people around them. Besides, a young mother or older sibling holding out a naked babe's bottom over a railway line to poo, and then cleaning it with a stone (yes that's what happens) is hardly in a position to distinguish between the smug right on airline passengers, or any others. Any travel from so far away is just unattainable in terms of their own local micro economies.
Sorry, rant over, but all this "new age" parenting can get very smug and competitive too in its own way.

[Smurfgirl]

My mum says I was potty trained at 15 months, and all that happened was I went up and told her I didn't want nappies anymore and that was that. I am hoping this is true, and my children will be like this. I suspect however, my mum is delussional.

[emmatmg]

I lost count of how many people asked me "Is he walking yet" when talking about DS3 when he was teeeny weeny(like 10 months onwards). He's now 17 months, and started at about 15-16 months but he would pull himself up from about 8-9 months and I had an absolute fear of him going straight to walking. I honestly couldn't think of anything more stress inducing along with the 1,000,000,000 other things to stress a mum out.

When I replied to their question with "OMG! no...and I hope he doesn't walk anytime soon" they looked at me like I was some kind of nutter.

[Levanna]

apparently my DH was running around on steady legs by 8 months. I knew the children I mentioned in the first post when they were babies, I found it really amusing . No doubt when we next catch up (possibly sometime over the next month) , each child will have been accepted by various Uni's, or even qualified in their chosen professions!