Competitive parents at school.

[ImAMorningPerson]

Hey.

I can't cope with how competitive parents are at school. It's all very low key but you can definitely sense it.
The alpha mums all chat and hang out in the playground together and I'm so disappointed because I've found myself amongst them. I'm not that parent!
Is this usual for most schools?
Is the competitiveness normal?

Aaaargh!!!!

Yes. There are some nice ones too. You get better at spotting them and you learn to keep a healthy distance

Yes! We live in small village and dc attend the local primary. It is absolutely rife! We moved here four years ago and initially I did the whole 'be open to all new friendships' thing and went to the pub with them and tried to 'fit in' with the in crowd of yummy mummies mummies in their 40s desperately pretending they are still 25 but I felt as though they could see I wasn't really one of them and eventually I drifted away. That's fine - I found it exhausting trying to keep up with their coolness and besides, I didn't have any stories to regale them with about how I'd left my drunk husband in charge of the kids. Hilarious how that's seen as amusing in middle class circles and no doubt completely irresponsible in others. Obviously if they are pissed on a nice bottle of wine and not beer then it's fine! I now just have a couple of nice friends who aren't into all of that but are still cool in their own way. Most of the competitive mums look as though they have eating disorders - I find it really odd. And they give each other nicknames. Bleugh. I recommend you extract yourself from the group and just stay friendly with them, whilst putting some energy into getting to know some other people at school

Oh god. Yes. How old are your children? All those conversations about how they should be doing stacking numbers by now and they didn't get any homework last week and blah blah blah. My children do quite a lot of sport, and those parents are even worse! One couple, who ARE good friends and lovely people generally, are so competitive that at every event we go to he is huffing and puffing about how they're not trying (despite the fact that they usually win) and the children regularly end up crying because they haven't achieved whatever goal they've been set that day. It's driving me mental.