azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)
Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 ([personal profile] azurelunatic) wrote in [community profile] agonyaunt 2024-09-03 12:45 am (UTC)

I have an unfounded guess at Mia's parents' culture, and if I'm right, there is an early-life superstition against praising your own children (lest the spirits overhear and take the child) and sometimes that carries over into not praising your child who is now past the danger of SIDS and other early childhood dangers. A child who can now very well hear and understand everything. And you extravagantly praise other people's children, who are supposed to reciprocate about yours.

If that's the case, Mia may not actually be getting "our little darling is perfect and actually should have won" at home. Mia may be getting, instead, a triple-sided harangue: the judges are terrible and missed all these things (good on Mia's side, bad on Jess's side), Jess is not as good as she clearly thinks she is and if she's willing to be that self-centered in public clearly her parents are not doing their private duty in pointing out all her obvious little flaws, topped off with a constant, detailed accounting of all Mia's many faults without any good points. It comes from a place of love, but it is so, so, so toxic. (My own daughter's birth mother has something of this style of parenting.)

Mia's parents have actually opened the door to Jess's parents for a gentle critique of their methods. Jess's parents could say "You asked about the way we get Jess to practice -- we find that telling Jess about the things she did well, and telling her we are unconditionally proud of her, makes her more willing to work on the things where she needs improvement." And maybe suggest to Jess that Mia's bullying could be a sign of problems at home, and it says more about Mia's anger and resentment than it does about Jess. Which sometimes makes it easier to be gracious and kind to someone who's acting like a jackass.

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