Last night an incident between my DD7 and a teammate at soccer practice inspired some of the soccer moms to discuss how "This is the age at which the drama begins." Since it was a safe enough topic, I volunteered "I wish!", and let them know how it started with DD and another playmate before DD's 3rd birthday. Later on the topic drifted to how girls can isolate one when there's an odd number of kids in the group, so I volunteered that, "What's interesting when DD has a classmate and her 10yo sister over is that it's always the classmate that ends up being the odd one out."

One of the moms put the two statements together and explained how oldest girls can often be an "old soul" and behave much more maturely than their age would predict. I nodded, as if to say, "Sure, we'll go with that explanation, then."