Keeping up with the Jones'

Eli has a little friend named Solomon that is only 20 days younger than he. This is great in that he has someone his own age to play with, and they have the same interests and reach the same developmental milestones around the same time. It has, however, become sort of an underlying competition for me to keep up with what Solomon has recently learned. For example, today I found out that Solomon is starting to recognize letters. Now, I realize that this is just his parents giving him a name for an object and he remembers that name. It is no different than Eli recognizing peaches or body parts. This realization does not stop me from running out and buying flash cards so that Eli does not "fall behind." In a way it motivates me to push Eli beyond what he would have normally learned.

I am not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad one. I feel that as a parent I should be pushing Eli to learn. I feel especially strongly about this because I am a stay-at-home mom, and quite frankly Eli is my job. But I do not know if this will really help Eli in the long run. I also feel that a child's job is play, and I do not want to be distracting him from his job so that I can feel better about mine. I guess this is one of those parenting things whose results will only be seen in time.

Until then, I will try to keep the kindergarten skills to a minimum. Multiplication will have to wait until he is two.