As Jezebel reports, there was an (informal) survey done in Britain in which basically a bunch of moms admitted they lie about their parenting.

This is supposedly news.

Are you kidding me?

Lying about your parenting skills is practically an Olympic sport.

Nobody is going to admit that they let their kids play the Wii for an  hour while they surfed on the internets so they could have some alone time.  Oh no.  In their version, the computer was never even on, and instead she and her precious offspring sat around a table and discussed the finer points of music theory.

Also, nobody will admit to having a house that needs cleaned.  There is always a good reason why they should be somewhere else, like a park!  Because then the kids can run around in the fresh air! Then no one will be the wiser as to the dishes still sitting in the sink from last night and the toilet that your son cannot seem to aim into properly.  No matter how many Cheerios you try to float in there.

Also, everyone’s child is a fantastic reader.  In fact, their child cannot get enough of books, and they are forced to rip them out of their hands and tell them to go outside and bounce a ball or something.  Because saying your kid would rather make his bed than read means you are a bad, bad mother who doesn’t take education seriously. 

Oh, and of course their marriage is heavenly, and the sex is fantastic, and their finances are in perfect order.  Nobody fights about folding the laundry, has unsatisfying sex, or hides a credit card bill. 

Nobody.

And why is this surprising?  Parents are being constantly judged by others, whether it is a fellow PTA parent or someone in Starbucks who sees your child the one day out of the month when she didn’t nap and threw a tantrum in the store and so you will forever be branded in their mind as a parent who is sorely lacking.  In what, they aren’t quite sure, they just know from the ten minutes of your life they viewed that you don’t have it.  So whenever the context of their parenting (or often their life in general) is able to be controlled, it’s hard for people not to leap at the chance to control it.

I, for one, have a couple of acquaintances who would qualify for at least the silver.