How I found myself comparing my adventurous daughter to someone else's child
I’ve mentioned an illness that I suffer from before called ‘compare-itis’. It’s a terrible affliction where I view myself and my own adventures in comparison to those much more extravagant, outrageous and crazy adventurers out there.
The problem is I've started I’m comparing my daughter to other people’s kids.
I’ll be honest, I care less about the fact that her handwriting is way behind some other kids her age. I know her reading ability is well beyond her years. I’m not too worried that her swimming ability is behind some of the other kids in the class. She had a 2 year swimming hiatus where I ummed and ahhed and took my time pulling my finger out of my arse and deciding to quit my day job.
But at the weekend I met a girl who was more adventurous than the sprog!
And she’s only 2!
This is not a picture of the 2 year old! I didn't string her up to a spit roast and cook her!!
I was at my Mum’s annual summer barbecue down in Wales (though you could have mistaken it for a midwinter barbecue by the non-stop drizzle we were subjected to). We had a massive hog roast using a pig that Mum had reared on her little homestead.
We were enjoying the roasted pork and crackling when my younger brother decided to set up a ‘slip ‘n slide’ in the field. It’s basically some heavy duty polythene material with Fairy washing up liquid poured all over it. I’m not entirely sure Dr. Health or Mr. Safety were invited to the barbecue!
After a few minutes all the young kids (and the adults who thought they were still kids) were throwing themselves down the plastic slippery slide with like a brood of bubbly penguins. Even the sprog had a go though she broke down in tears after a few minutes. Her bottom lip was quivering and turning a weird shade of blue. Goose pimples had appeared on her arms and she was shivering uncontrollably.
So, being the knight in shiny armour that I am, I scooped her up in my arms and took her to the wood fired hot tub that the same nutcase brother had constructed out of a blow up swimming pool, a metal bin and some copper piping. It being midsummer in Wales it was understandably chilly, despite the best efforts of the flames flying out of the bin.
Again the sprog was in tears and again she was freezing so I whisked her inside the cottage for a nice warm bath.
Great, you might say. She had a go at everything and despite practically turning into an ice cube she still wanted to stay in the pool and play.
Yeah, ok. But I haven’t told you about this 2 year old yet.
So while everyone else disembarked for the ‘hot’ tub, this adventure wonder child was still being dragged down the slip and slide by her enthusiastic dad. When everyone was washed and warm from the toasty bath indoors and had sat down out of the rain in front of a Disney DVD, this daredevil of a kid was still out splashing around the ‘hot’ tub.
I don’t know if this amazing child was part killer whale but she nailed it on the adventure front. While the sprog was learning valuable life lessons from Moana, like how to steal from a giant decapod (look it up), this little tyke was gallivanting around outside in the fresh air doing what kids do and being a little bit wild and tough.
But it’s useless. As with everything, if you go looking, of course there will be people (and people’s kids) who are more adventurous, more outrageous and more daring than you are (or your sprog is).
All you can do it focus on being the best version of you. For when you are being the best version of yourself, you inspire other people to be the best of themselves too.
At least she enjoyed the camping!