I feel this way all the time. My boys are now HS age, and all the parental competition/anxiety is very high, looking ahead to college. I now feel as if I can't say anything and sit there silent, lest I offend someone. Indeed I *have* inadvertently alienated people or triggered defensiveness by mentioning that DS win music competitions OR are taking math and English two grade levels ahead. People do not, I have learned, like to hear my (true and genuine) worries about whether two grades ahead is enough and whether they should take APs in their freshman or sophomore year. Nor is it at all welcome to mention that they're in a bunch of Shakespeare plays. Compounding all this, we homeschool, so many people think we're weird anyway and want to interrogate our curriculum and ECs, which inevitably leads to my mentioning some of the above. So I stay silent, even with fairly good friends, and I connect only on the level of "DS is such a picky eater too!"
