to get v. bored with people telling me what a genius their child is?

[emkana]

I know a few mums in my dd's class who are very fond of telling me how brilliant their child is, and I find it v. tedious. Yes by all means say your child is doing well and I will say how pleased I am for you. But then to go on and on... what can I say to that other than "that's great, really pleased for you" over and over?

I am yet to meet any of these alpha mummy/ combatative / competitive/ genius rearing parents.........

maybe they are put off mentioning it to me as my children are so clearly stratospherically gifted ....

seriously, do parents really do this? with a straight face?

DD can do this splits, and hold her leg up round her ear, she is 2.6. is she G&T or just dead bendy?

Agree with Enid

I personally don't know any 'competitive mums' either maybe it is going over my head.

What I notice often is proud parents talking about their children and worrying about them (sometimes unecessarily but then isn't that what parents do?.)

I'm not saying that these 'uber competitive' mothers (whatever that means) don't exist as I'm sure there probably is the odd one around but the vast majority of my parent firends to me seem just concerned about their children. Some of their concerns may be alien to me but then I'm sure some of mine are alien to them.

We all have different priorities and goals in life and those by necessity are reflected in our parenting and what we expect of our children.

she is not tall, kind of petite.... she is going to start gymnastics next september, when she is 3.2.. she goes with DS at the weekend, and runs aroudn the dance room, doing somersaults and hanging upside down off the barre !

hear hear lazycow

I know lots of mums with worries - some seem valid some don't - eg the mum that worries that her dd is dyslexic even though her dd is a much better reader than my dd1! but I always remind myself that some of my worries would seem utterly tragic to some people (and indeed probably are utterly tragic and I should probably stop worrying about them)

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dh is convinced dd is a genius - his pfb, the fruit of his loins, couldn't possibly be anything but!

He interprets "dd has a good imagination" to "dd will be reading War and Peace by age 6 and writing her own novels by 10"

tis most amusing

god thank god no learner of the week at dds school

dd2 is embarrassing swot as it is

sorry to hear that Kerry

i must be at an exceptional nursery as every mother has killed themselves to drop intoconversation how bright their child is, how they are pushing to move up a class etc. thats EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!!!

ponces

ds1 is only just starting to talk and will be 3 in may

make you feel better?

i won spellathion aged 7

i won with RHINOCEROS

Can't you see how hard it is though? I am trying to put ds1 through his GCSE's, because he desperately needs the stimulation, but he's so tired all the time, I don't know what's the matter with him. I've taken him to the doctor, but he just insists I see the Health Visitor - who I haven't seen since she mis-spelled 'maternally induced performance anxiety' in his red book.

I think I will try getting him a tutor, I don't want him to be bored.

My best friend told me many of the other mothers at school are very pushy and convinced their children need to move up a year/start reception early/whatever. Have to say I've never noticed any of this. Clearly they are too embarrassed to boast about little Araminta or Jeremy in front of me as they know my ds leaves them far behind.

Oh, I know plenty of parents like this. Perhaps comes with the territory as I offer English classes for young children. Sometimes it is difficult to find a day for the child to come to a course as she already does ballet, swimming, gymnastic, music school...

It is common here to do at least one or two extra courses, so we spend our time ferry our DCs from one end of the town to another.

I wouldn't like my child to be a genius, brilliant or to need to be moved up a year.

Just let them get their 'A' levels, is all I ask.

Dd's cousin is brilliantly gifted. Which is fine by me, don't grudge it to him, he's a pleasant enough little lad. But after 10 years- [could] we just talk about something else for 5 minutes. Rain looks like it's easing off, doesn't it?

The corrollary to conversing long and fluently about dcoz's brilliance is the unspoken assumption that anything that dcoz is good at is automatically mega-important and essential to the development of a rounded human being, whereas any area where dcoz doesn't seem to shine quite as much as we would want him is a mere unessential frill.

There aren't many alpha parents at my son's school.

Parents at my son's school get letters reminding them to wear a shirt when picking up your child, refrain from swearing in the playground, not to allow dogs to defeacate in school grounds and crime of the century... children aren't to ride scooters in school grounds.

What more there are remedial literacy classes to help those who can't read the letters.

YANBU
Everyone's kid is a blardy genius these days. What the feck are we going to do with them all in the future?

I agree about insecurities in Parents and find that it is generally those who boast most about / worry most about (outloud and unnecessarily)child's ability that are most insecure! But boast they do!

The headmistress of our local school has talked to a friend with a special needs daughter and warned her to 'beware the Mummy mafia' who are competitive and obsessive about their children's progress! She found the warning quite ominous and has become quite guarded about who she trusts within the schoolyard! A shame and quite a strange thing for a headmistress to say.