My Baby Is Better Than Your Baby
April 21st, 2009 | 
Author: Does anyone else really hate the competitiveness of being a parent? Its bad enough in real life but internet land about 1000x worse.
I think its the anonymity of it - sure irl i could say Ru is walking but people would begin to get suspicious when he never took a step but if i was to say it online then who can prove im lying (which i am , he is crawling and pulled up to his knees a few time but no way near walking) .
My biggest pet hate is posts like i read this morning , they all sort of go like this.
My kid is x months old and is doing this and that and that (add whatever is way ahead of what they should be doing at that age group , one today was 13 month old talking full sentences, counting , knowing abcs , drawing people , recognising words etc.. ) , they go on to say there a first time parent and want to know if there kid is behind .
I lurk on alot of message boards/groups and this type of post seems common , maybe there telling the truth about the kid and maybe there not but to act as if they think there kid is behind is just silly . For me its clear they know there child is advanced and bragging but not want to come out and say it .
What is wrong with bragging if done in the right place in time ? I love doing it , i of course think my kids are the best and smartest children ever and will tell anybody who listens that. As im a mum thats my job 
I remember the most ridiculous one i ever read , it was a birth group for either Rebecca or Eilidh and this women came on claiming her baby - her THREE week old baby was crawling , sitting up , talking and eating solids like a champ. She was quickly jumped on to prove it which of course she could not (camera was broken ) ,someone suggested contacting a newspaper because surely that should be a sort of world record and she said no . In the end she wrote a post saying that everyone was just bitter as her child was advanced and special and all our children were slow …then she vanished.
I could go on for longer but Eils has just woken up crying, poor girl has finally broke out in spots and is pretty miserable.
Posted in Uncategorized
April 21st, 2009 2:06 pm
Well, my 3 year old can do all those things (talking full sentences, counting , knowing abcs , drawing people , recognising words etc.. )!! LOL
By the way, Ru is possibly the cutest baby ever!!!
April 21st, 2009 2:31 pm
I always feel so bad for the kids of those parents. That is a lot of pressure to put on a kid to be perfect and achieve so much all the time. If your parents are lying about what you are doing when you are a baby imagine how much worse it will get as the child gets older. Sad.
Ticks me off too.
April 21st, 2009 3:09 pm
I AGREE! Totally. Those “competitions” are rediculous. My child is cool and awesome because she’s HER, not because of how early or late she reaches arbitrary milestones.
April 21st, 2009 4:35 pm
Ryleigh is in taking college algebra and geometry….im a first time parent…is she behind do you think? LOL
Why do people feel the need to make there kid out to be a super genious! The one with the 3 week old takes the cake! LOL I bet shes in college by now!
April 22nd, 2009 5:39 am
I know exactly the sort of people you’re talking about.
I don’t suppose you’re part of a site called babyworld? I’ve been in 2 different clubs and in both we’ve had people faking entire pregnancies and births - one even got us believing that she was suffering so badly from PND that she wanted to off herself. It was proven that she was a complete fraud. Someone like that needs help.
I’ve been comparing Max to all the other bubs in his AN club and they all seem soo advanced in comparison to him, but like you say, they only point out all the good things eh!
April 22nd, 2009 11:37 am
Those things are frustrating. Not sure if it’s just tied to parenting, though. There are just those people that need to be validated. In high school, it’s the pretty girl who constantly calls herself ugly so you’ll tell her she’s not. It’s the smart person who makes a 95 on a test and cries because it wasn’t a 100.
The whole being a parent adds this new level to it, though. Last year a former co-worker of mine decided that her 3 month old would be walking by 6 months because when she held him upright, he would put his feet down on the ground. I saw him at 11 months and he was just starting to cruise. I didn’t ask her what happened to the walking at 6 months, but did kind of snicker. We all think our babies are special, and guess we just want others to think that as well.
April 22nd, 2009 11:35 pm
I remember once reading a mom claiming her three or four month old could say like ten words, including “brother” to his brother. I think that was around the time that I stopped following birth club forums. HA!
April 23rd, 2009 5:38 am
I luckily do not have any friends who do this instead we all have fun bitching about hard it is being a mom and then we email each other questions about the babies but I remember my aunt doing that and well-it is just gross. There is a way to say things without being nasty..
April 23rd, 2009 2:07 pm
ROFLMBO!!! Wait………. you mean…. Kaedyn shouldn’t be cooking his own food??? WHAT!?!?! But what will I do about the marathon he’s suppose to run next week!?!? I mean I AM SURE he will be able to run at 7 months!! Cuz he’s jumping off buildings like superman right now!!!
April 23rd, 2009 8:29 pm
I have always tried so hard not to do this. Almost to a point that I say nothing at all. When Saige was born a friend had just given birth 3 months earlier. She did everything before him, in fact (just to brag a bit, lol) with the exception of walking she did everything very early. But I never said anything and kind of shrugged it off around my friend because I didn’t want her to feel bad. So I did it all online, I don’t have a way with words but I have always tried to do it in a way as to not make others feel bad.
Now I have a 21 month old that does not talk, does not sleep through the night and has a temper that surpasses even my own. I don’t mind bragging, it’s normal, and most of the time, I am really truly happy for them. BUT the “oh he doesn’t talk yet while mine started LOOOONG before that… or oh he doesn’t do that yet, well whats wrong with him” I just say (while holding back from strangling them of course) There is nothing wrong with him, he goes at his own pace, we forgot to tell him it’s a competition. The worst part is these are real live people who say it right there. I get angry but big sis gets even angrier, my sweet little girl knows when someone is putting her baby down and does not like it at all.
She (and I swear I do not condone this sort of thing) who kept insisting in the ER waiting room that there was something wrong with a baby his age not talking more than a couple of words, she just wouldn’t drop it and then said well he must be slow or something, he kinda looks it. Saige looked right at her and said there is nothing wrong with my brother, he doesn’t talk much but he’s not ugly like your kid and he’s probably smarter to. I was beyond shocked that came out of my laid back friendly little girl. Luckily we got called in at the point while her jaw was still hanging there. I of course told her she shouldn’t respond to idiots but was semi grateful because it was a whole lot nicer than what was about to fall out of my mouth.