A case of parents behaving badly

Bragging about their kids seems to come with the territory of being a parent. I have nothing against it as long as it doesn't really hurt some one else or put some one else's kid down. It's a well known fact perhaps that when a set number of parents assemble at one given area at a given time the kids usually end up featuring in majority of the conversations.Take for example this following conversation.

Mrs.Roy- "Gee,just look at my little pintoo,he just started going potty all by himself last week" (pausing expectedly as if to wait for a shower of confetti)

Mrs.Spencer- " That's great Mrs.Roy,I am still struggling to get my little girl Pinky to go potty,she ends up screaming like a banshee everytime I try to seat her on the toilet seat" (with a solemn look that seemed to harden the moment it settled on little Pintoo,then followed with a big sigh)

Mrs. Roy- "Some kids are just a little ahead of their age Mrs. Spencer,my Pintoo is very smart ,he is already able to talk to us. He has always been fast. He even walked at 8 months you see,I remember however your Pinky didn't walk till she was atleast 16 months didn't she?(with a sympathetic look which almost appeared to be suppressed by an exceedingly overwhelming Cheshire cat grin)

Mrs. Spencer-(with a sad tone) "I guess it was that 2 glasses of wine I had during the last month of my pregnancy,I knew I shouldn't have yielded to the temptation"

Mrs. Roy- Oh,don't feel bad,afterall it's not every kid who is a fast learner and smarter like Pintoo,and I'm sure your Pinkoo will go potty soon" (Classic rubbing the salt in the wound move)

Mrs.Spencer then decided to walk off from this conversation and settled herself near the window sipping her wine and comforting a stressed out mom to be. Surely this would be more pleasant,the little guy in the womb surely cannot match her Pinky!

Meanwhile little Pintoo and Pinky got into a fight and started throwing their edible "goldfish" at each other. They were soon joined by another set of kids who simply joined in the fight for fun,resulted in more goldfish on the floor and sofa( I almost choked on my juice as I watched those goldfish pieces crumble and fly on to the sofa I had cleaned with such diligence,I had to turn my face away from the crime scene)

Then came Mrs. Nasty- Oh,this has been fun. Good party eh?!and how are you Mrs.no nonsense

Mrs. No nonsense-Doing good Mrs.Nasty

(She tries to sit down and have a conversation but courtesy little Bella,who seems to be her clingy self refusing to settle down on the floor even for a minute)

Mrs.Nasty- "Bella seems to be clingy. I think you should have taken her out and get her to mingle with people more. See my little angel there. She is so easy going,she is never this clingy. Look at her now,she is going to almost everyone here. We always took her out from day one"(casting the incredulous look at Bella,and a pathetic look at the mom for being such a bad parent who she thinks holds Bella in captivity and raising her to be such an anti-social creature)

Mrs.No nonsense-"I knew I had to remove her chains every other day and let her free to roam atleast an hour from her cage. I just forgot to do that yesterday what with this shower and all. perhaps its time to teach those leap into arms of strangers trick to her. How did you teach that to little angel?banana no longer does the trick does it?" (This friend makes me proud doesn't she)

Mrs.Nasty- HA HA HA!You are so funny!Good joke

Mrs. No nonsense-Glad you think so Mrs. Nasty!

(I gave her a thumbs up and had to rush to the mom-to-be who was casting looks of SOS from the ladies group which seemed to be bombarding her with suggestions and advices)

Sometimes I wonder why is that people lose their sensitivity when it comes to bragging about their kids. I don't think being proud about your kid's achievements is something bad,every parent has a right to be proud of their offspring and show them off. But when it gets competitive and when bragging about the kids takes on a form of one-upmanship it loses its charm and becomes a pain. Some of the parents can brag enough to put the candidates on the Donald Trump reality show to shame.It's like a fierce competition which starts from the time the kid is born. "Your kid weighed how much?Oh...seems he was so underweight eh?" "Your little one hasn't rolled over yet?mine did already 3months back,why is he slow?"

"My little one has already started reading Shakespear and build a model of the white house in another hand along with being a mathwhiz and his teacher told him he is "gifted' with the best brains god could give (exaggeration is always the key),we are so happy. Too bad though that your girl didn't make it even to the literary club" Urgh!Then there are those who put on slogans about their kids on their bumper stickers of the car highlighting the achievements to the world to see. I so wish they would all just zip it and let the kids be kids and not let this adult sense of competiton and senseless rat race consume them. I wish we could give the parents some time outs too!

Anyway the shower however in general was fun albeit these observations:) the mom to be immensely enjoyed the gifts we picked for her(Raysh,we got her This) and the menu was amazing. Ina however went a step ahead and picked up a few words from the party to include in her expanding baby-o-cabulary ,sadly one of those words was "S@#$",I know I can now brag perhaps that my not so smart kid can atleast cuss like a pro!I however pray she would get over it soon. I can't imagine the look the baby sitter is going to have on her face when I drop her off tomorrow!Call it anything you want but life with a toddler can never be called dull!