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Writers — Be Careful Comparing

We can cause a lot of damage if we compare ourselves to others

Rachel Dodman
5 min readJul 8, 2020
Photo by Andraz Lazic on Unsplash

Comparisons start in childhood

When my kids were small I used to say this to them.

We don’t need to make ourselves feel better by putting others down.

It used to irritate me when I heard other parents comparing their kids to others. It was generally in an attempt to make their child feel better, but it sends the wrong message.

Your still did better than 60% of your year!

Not many of the kids in this area could do anywhere near as well as you did.

Look, Sophie scored even less than you…. She only scored more in PE, and, well, who cares about PE!?

Before long, you hear the kids doing it.

I got a C but Jonny only got a D!

At least I did better than Tony — and I could’ve done better if I had the right pen…

It’s totally irrelevant. Your kid has done well — for them. They don’t need to make themselves better by comparing themselves to others who have done worse. Doing as well as you can is sufficient. Everything else is irrelevant.

Comparing as adults

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Rachel Dodman
Rachel Dodman

Written by Rachel Dodman

Rachel is a freelance writer from the UK. Check out her latest novella Downhill From Wednesday on Amazon! www.racheldodman.com

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