My dad's feet are bigger than yours!

Driving to school the other morning with my daughter and her friends I was listening to them jabber on and smiling away to myself.  This week they were discussing who had collected the most conkers.

‘I’ve got 49!’ my daughter announced proudly.

‘Well I have 72!’ her friend countered.

‘Well my brother has 87!’

‘Well my sister has 99!’

You get the picture! And by the time we reached school someone’s Granny had a 1000. (lucky Granny!)

It made me smile because children always try to one up each other, to be bigger, better, smarter than those around them.  There were no hard feelings it was simply a game that my daughter (whose granny only had 900 conkers!) lost. She was happy and he was happy after all she won last weeks’ discussion – who had the biggest feet. (Daddy – though I am still dubious!)

So I headed for the playground. Loitering by the gates, I joined some other mum’s who seemed deep in conversation.  I caught just the tail end....

‘Well  of cause, Molly can swim 25 metres’

‘Really that’s brilliant, Peter can only do 10m but I hear Jaydn can do 50m.’

‘Our Alice can do 50m and is learning to dive!’

‘Louis can dive in and swim 50m.’

De ja vu............

In light of what I had just heard in my car, I felt like adding ‘my daughter can dive in, swim 50m whilst wearing pyjamas and carrying a brick!’ but wasn’t sure the joke would be well met.

The problem is that none of those women were joking! They all desperately wanted to prove that their child could compete.

But what struck me most wasn’t their competitive nature, I’m as competitive as the next Mum, but the fact that they were overlooking the big picture.

My daughters granny had less conkers but that was ok because Daddy had the biggest feet ( still not sure!)

So maybe Peter could only do 10m but he might be a better reader than Louis.

And Molly might knock spots off Alice in maths.

And maybe Jaydn is just a lovely child.

The world is not fair and we are not created equal. But we all have talents and assets and these should be recognised. And it’s a parent’s job to be first to celebrate those differences.

So here goes:

My daughter struggles with gym but my goodness can she read!