Try these 4 tips the next time your child compares you to other parents

The grass is always greener on the other side, especially when the grass belongs to the "cool parents."

We have all had moments where our kids start to question the tolerance level of our home after staying the night with a friend and seeing how other families get to sleep in on Saturdays. If you are not careful, you can get into a cycle of comparison – and comparison is the death of joy. Instead of killing off joy, try these tips the next time your child compares you to other parents.

1. Don't take it personally. All that you do is not meaningless. Your child appreciates it, and the way Johnny's mom cuts the crust off of his sandwiches is no way a reflection of your lack of parenting capabilities or your child's lack of love for you. Let it go.

2. Do not respond spitefully. No matter how funny it may seem, nothing good comes from spite. Putting extra crust in your child's lunch sounds like a great idea when you are venting with your friends. Unfortunately, it could come back to bite you. You could create hurt feelings and you teach your child that being spiteful is OK.

3. Celebrate the differences. Never talk bad about another parent. You never know what their day-to-day is like, and you want to be able to teach your child that differences occur in the world. Different does not equal weird or wrong. What better way to highlight the diversity in people and families than celebrating differences between two beautiful unique families?

4. Sit with the criticism. I am in no way saying you should agree with your child and start doing everything they ask you to do that Johnny's mom does. I am saying think about what your child is saying. Our children can sometimes help us to see that perhaps we are stuck in a bit of a rut. As parents, maybe there are some new things that we could try and pair it up with a new lesson to teach our children. Perhaps a lesson about teamwork could be reinforced by having your child fix their own lunch at night and you agree to trim some of the crust off of the bread for them.

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Cicely Faulkner-Truitt, a training consultant with Boys Town ^[1], wrote this guest blog for momaha.com ^[2]. Cicely has worked in behavioral health and human services for the past 10 years. The Missouri native is a mother to rascally 9-year-old son, Jeremiah.