Competition?

<vent>I'm not sure if it's coincidence or not but every time I post a milestone video or status of Zack on Facebook there is always one person in particular who seems to post a "one up" status, comment, photo, etc. For example: I could post a status along the lines of "Zack took three steps on his own!!!" only to receive a comment or see a status like: "Oh so and so does 4 steps before stopping, crazy right?" It can be extremely frustrating! I mean for all I know it could just be 'perfect' timing... but every time!? Of course I won't say anything though. I keep my mouth shut and vent here because it's more frustrating that I'm frustrated about it in general and I don't want to start anything that could be nothing. All of this got me thinking just how competitive some moms are and how much they compare their kids to others. I'm no saint, I ask Kenny a lot what Elaina and Jacob were doing at Zack's age and yes I do get a little big headed when he does something they never did or did it sooner. Of course a few seconds after that proud mama feeling I feel extremely guilty for comparing and even more so for being all "na-na na boo-boo" about it.    Who is to blame about all of it though? Is everyone just horrible human beings? I've never been competitive and I definitely don't boast about winning or cry about losing so where is all this coming from? All these websites, books, doctors... they all have different things to say about how you should do this, don't do that, they should do this first, be cautious if such and such happens so maybe it's from society? Who cares if your baby is breast fed and who cares if he/she isn't? Who cares what discipline you use? Why does it matter that your baby did it first or last? You know who doesn't care about all this? The child who probably could careless what it eats when it's hungry, the child who will learn from its mistakes no matter the discipline, and the same child who is just happy they walked a few steps like mommy and daddy and doesn't care about what some other kid did. My kids (yes all three) are healthy, happy, and loved in this house so I should really careless what others are doing even if it does seem they are always trying to "out-do" me/them. So if you've experienced anything like this just know you're not alone. Parenting is not a competition, it does feel like a marathon from time to time but there is no winner or loser. Who cares if you've got someone who feels like they're better than you? The truth is, at least in my opinion, anyone who feels that way is already below you because they don't really care what they're doing to/for their baby/kids they just care about being better and eventually that will catch up to them. I don't really know how or what would happen... but I'm being positive and I feel karma will do it's work the way it should ;) </vent>

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