So i came home yesterday and the Patriarch said, “The Spare bought an e-book on Amazon today.” Somewhat long pause. The Patriarch has give both boys permission to purchase any e-book (the Spare has a Kindle Fire and the Heir shares the old school Kindle with my husband and i). Anyway, after a few moments silence, he says, “It cost $11.99.” What kind of e-book costs $11.99? So, I bite and ask, “what did he buy.” Several seconds of silence followed by a sigh then, “Algebra for Dummies.”

So, my kid who lives “The Walking Dead” and the “Bone” series of graphic novels bought a MATH book? I asked him why he bought it and he said, “well, we’re learning pre-algebra this year and I want to be prepared.” He had some difficulty last year in Math (they placed him into their brand new honors Math and Science and it was difficult learning basically 2 years of math in one year (7th and 8th). We thought he might actually fail math and have to go to summer school, but he pulled it out in the end. I feel bad that he struggled but then I feel good because he chose to be somewhat proactive about this upcoming year.

Do you ever get tired of everybody else having perfect, brilliant kids? I have a friend on FB and all she talks about is how wonderful her kids are: scholarships, prom court, top selling Scrip kids. I would like to have brilliant kids, but I have regular kids. They are better at some things and struggle with others. But they are funny, and generally kind (well, not to each other, usually), and seem to pick good friends.

Why does everything have to be a competition? The most observant Catholic, the most devout, the smartest kids, the cleanest house, the perfect blog? Why am I filled with envy? Or is it really envy or just being tired of people who are bragging? Where does one start and the other end?