Destination Unknown

There’s a habit among parents that I’ve always detested. I call it "children comparison". It’s a situation when the dad and mom keep bragging about their child’s achievement in front of other parents.

I detest children comparison because I see no other motives of such
thing other than to incite jealousy. For one, I myself have been victim
of being scolded because I didn’t live up to the standards set by that
kid next door (figuratively). Well, duh, what if I choose to live a
different life to that "outstanding" kid? What if I’m not interested in
accounting but are more inclined about writing? I don’t believe that
children need to be confined by letting society decides what’s
a worthy life for them. I think children have every right to decide on
that as they grow up. I’m a firm believer in individuality. No amount
of traditionalist condescension and child comparison will prove
otherwise.

Now I know it’s part of human nature to be genuinely proud of the merits of the people they care about, and I can’t fault parents for feeling this way about their children. However, there has got to be a line. Some parents speak of their children’s great many abilities only when people asked. Other’s, like this one mom I met yesterday, are so unabashedly forward.

Yesterday, I was on community service. There was this mom who constantly interrupts what I’m doing for what purpose, I’m not really so sure of. She engaged me in a conversation about what kind of advice I can give about her animosity with her husband (I don’t have any advices for this), then proceeded to indulge in bragging about her wealth and how her children  ceaselessly provides that for her.

Now I’m all for listening to other people’s stories, but I’m only interested in true stories. This mom is, clearly, delusional. During the first 2 minutes, her conversation at least sounded credible. But, she proceeded to make so many preposterous claims about how all her children are UP grads and valedictorian (idiot alarm: UP grads can’t be valedictorians) at the same time. Then she would proceed to say that one of them’s an airplane pilot. Much that I respect a pilot, I don’t recall having ever heard of pilot needing a 4-year UP degree.

Another thing that bothers me is her claim that her daughter is currently taking up nursing. Now there’s also a lot of inconsistency with this info. Imagine being a UP "valedictorian". Would you even choose to suffer taking another 2 year nursing course? My impression is that UP achievers have dug golds the first second they leave the campus with their diploma. At least in the Philippines, anyone fitting that category would’ve already been affluent in probably less than 30 days. Why would anyone affluent still want to take a 2-year nursing course?

And then she also tells me that a lot of guys are attracted to her
daughter and wondered if I wanted to marry one of them (what?!). She even showed me their pictures, where I had no choice but to politely agree about them being beautiful. When I say politely agree, I meant agreeing while trying, as much as possible, to hide the "I don’t dig her" tone with my acquiesced "She’s pretty" rejoinder. By the way, anyone who’s been with me knows that when I dig a girl, I never say "she’s pretty". I usually exclaim "she’s hot!" In fairness, her daughters (granted if they really are her daughters) aren’t exactly ugly, but not exactly edible either. But that’s beside the point. The greater issue is this: I don’t want this mom as my mother-in-law. And if what she said about her husband is also the truth, I don’t want mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law who aren’t in good terms with each other.

Amazingly, that’s not the end of it all! After digressing so many times, that mom actually told me her chidren’s IQ (wondering why I should care). She said her eldest son has an IQ of 99.5. I pretended to be ignorant - as they say, playing dumb may debunk false theories and reveal infinite knowledges -  and questioned the mom about what IQ 99.5 means. She said 99.5 is "nearing genius". Hah! She has no idea! What would that have made me then, Marilyn vos Savant?  And IQ don’t use decimal numbers. Hiding my snarky sneer, that mom told me afterwards that the same kid got a 99.5 in NCE. She kind of isn’t considering that she might be talking to someone who scored higher than that. I (among a lot of OTHER classmates) scored 99.8, and I don’t give a damn. I have tossed the scoresheet in the basement 7 years ago.

Have 99.5 become a favorite number these days? Maybe that’s what reflects that mom’s IQ. It actually is "almost normal". And geez, I really don’t care about the IQ of the people I hang around with (and it’s not something I overtly ask from my acquaintances or even my close friends), but since she’s bought this unto herself, I have nothing much to say other than "stop bragging. It’s pretty retarded!"

Man, why do I get to meet so many weirdos anyway?

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 at 6:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.