Are we being honest?

SlitheyTove
Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:31:18 +0000

I’m a huge fan of my children’s friends. They are always helpful, polite, and organized, they never give us any attitude, they help clean up the kitchen, and they always thank us for any favors, large or small. They do not roll their eyes at us. They are wonderful athletes or musicians or singers or writers, and I’m happy to cheer them on.

My children’s friends’ parents tell me that MY kids are wonderful–helpful, polite, etc etc. It requires all my self-control not to make smart-aleck responses back about they way they REALLY are at home.

My method of dealing with the (mercifully few) parents we know who are super-competitive about their kids is to just make the conversation all about their kids. They’re not interested in my kids except as a way to benchmark their own children, and I’m not going to play that game. For example, the mom who rattles off how her D is going to be applying to lots of single-initial schools, and then asks where my D1 is thinking of going. I give her the list of super-safeties, then ask her what her D is interested in studying. Works like a charm.