I want to talk about the green-eyed monster, you know that devil that sits it the back of our minds, whispering in the back of our heads sending us all into a tailspin. Iāve touched on this subject a few times in relation to the unspoken competition between parents about how well their kids are developing, how soon they talk, walk or progress.
Today I want to talk about it in general not just in relation to parenthood but everyday life, I also want to open up about some of the things I do that may cause the green-eyed monster to pop up in other people. We all encounter moments in which we want what someone else has or we think someone wants what we have. Jealousy is natural in some degrees but to some it is all consuming, there are some that donāt understand that it is just a voice in their heads.
We all experience it, I for one really struggled with it when William was a baby; I unfollowed my friends on social media who had babies at the same time because I was jealous, and it hurt to see their babies developing at a quicker rate than William. It took a long time for me to be able to be happy for those parents instead of envious. Even now sometimes I comment and say how wonderful things are, how beautiful, how smart etc but my head still occasionally says, āwhy not me?ā
A few years ago that thought would consume me, and I would scroll through social media pages and sob about how unfair life was, but I have grown since then and now I can be genuinely happy for my friends, but it doesnāt stop the pangs of jealousy. Seeing Little Miss grow so quickly and overtake William in the year I have known her has been hard, seeing her ask for her Mama and ask for āBig hugsā from her Daddy is a wonderful thing to witness but there is a deep sadness there for me. I guess I just want those moments for myself. We always want more than we have, its naturalā¦ The moment William said āMomā for the first time was one of the best moments of my life but now I want more. He made a noise at bedtime a few weeks ago that sounded like āI love youā but it wasnāt words, just sounds but now Iām desperately hoping for an āI love you momā but it may not happen, but I ache for it, dream of it, even long for it. William surprises me every single day and in the last two years had come on so far with his development so Iām not saying it will never happen, but we just donāt know what he is capable of until he actually does it.
I got jealous when other parents of children like William were given school places and William wasnātā¦ I was happy for them and cried happy tears but fuck me, it hurt at the same time. I think thatās natural though. Jealousy didnāt mean I wasnāt ridiculously happy for them because I truly was. I called my mom and told her every time other parents got good news, āmom this happened, hopefully it will be us nextā and then when it was our turn, I expect those that come after us will be the same. We want the best for our children, and as happy as we are when others get that first, we long for it to be our turn and feel that in the parents that are fighting for their kidsā educational needs right now. The system is not designed to help our children or to get them what is right for them, it is designed for what is right for the local authorities behind the system.
Money is a big factor of jealousy for a lot of people, and I am not ashamed to say that I donāt have a lot of it, I work part-time, Iām paid well, and I absolutely love my job but due to being part-time, it means I have to plan my money very well. I have to think about whatās coming in the upcoming month and budget appropriately. I canāt just decide to go out or to buy something without thinking about it a month or more in advance.
I love my house and everything in it but that didnāt just happen, I wasnāt always living on my own. As we all know, 2 years ago I was married and in a 2-income household which had a big part in building up my house into a home for William. Credit where credit is due, Williamās dad left the house as it was so there was least disruption to our son, I didnāt give him a great deal of choice which may have been selfish of me, but I wouldnāt have the nice things I do if it wasnāt for him, and I am grateful for that. There are things that people may wonder how I can afford on my wages, but I know the price of everything and when I need something, I budget for it as best I can with help from my parents if needed. I have a large television, which is completely wasted on me only watching BabyTV and Coronation Street, but it is something I would never have bought myself. It was a Christmas gift from my parents a fair few years ago and something I have made sure to take very good care of.
William has more toys than most children, I bought in excess for his birthday (I had been stockpiling gifts since mid-2021) not because I have money to waste or an excess of it but because I donāt know what will work for him. Two gifts have already gone in the bin because they have been broken, one on his actual birthday š« and I anticipate that many more will go to landfill in the following weeks. Donāt get me wrong I usually try to donate where I can but if theyāre broken itās not possible. The toys that hold Williamās interest are usually aimed at younger children, but it is what must be bought to match Williams developmental age, but they are not built to withstand the strength of his actual age. Some toys wonāt be played with for months, if at all and itās a risk I take when buying anythingā¦ so there tends to be a large choice for him so that he has at least one gift he loves. I threw a small party for his birthday and that needed budgeting for well in advance. It wasnāt me showing off, look at what I have or what I can doā¦ it was me saying that William deserves to have something nice and why canāt we celebrate his birthday like other children do? I paid for a cake which was divine and a bargain but the money for that came from my January wages, I paid for a Morrisons buffet; the deposit came from Februaryās wages and the balance from this months. Every step of his mini party was carefully budgeted and planned out.
Christmas is another thing in which people may think I go overboard, but again I plan Christmas all year roundā¦ I am lucky enough to have a spare room, this is now what I class as my office but really itās a dumping ground, there is a freezer which holds copious amount of chicken nuggets for William, a tumble dryer which physically wont fit in my kitchen so is next to my desk with a vent out the window, meaning my office is always cold but there is no point in turning the radiator on as it would be huge waste of money. I often work in a jacket, or a dressing grown as it can be pretty nippy in winter. There are two sets of industrial shelves which hold Christmas decorations (I canāt access my loft) and throughout the year I buy Christmas presents which live on them until December, or birthday gifts months in advanceā¦ a little bit at time so it has the least financial impact, before I had William, I used to buy everything out of December or Novembers pay and then struggle to afford bus fair to work until February š¤£ I was always the kind of person who lived like a king š for the week after payday and homeless for the rest of the month.
I have been to peopleās houses or seen pictures on Facebook and thought God I wish I could do that or have that or go there, we all do it, but we all handle it differently.
The reason I have been so honest about what I have and why is because I would never want anyone to look at me through green eyes when there is no reason to in my opinion. We each manage what little money we have differently, and all have different circumstances.
Iāve never been a massively jealous person when it comes to relationships, this is probably why I didnāt realise my ex was having an affair š¤£ as a person who has more male friends than female, I would never hold someone to different standard than I hold myself but that doesnāt mean I donāt occasionally get a little worked up over daft things. That there isnāt a voice in my head going āwhat ifā¦?ā but I think thatās natural of all of us. Its part of being human but so is being able to trust people. Its hard to get out of a mindset in which you think everyone will hurt you but itās imperative to do so in order to move on in a healthy way. People do shitty things and we cant stop that; we arenāt able to stop other peoples actions but we can learn from them without the result of those actions consuming us.
I used to have only child syndrome, despite having a sister haha š³ā¦ What is mine is mine and thatās the end of it but as I have grown up, my opinion on things has changed massively. If I have something and someone needs it or wants to borrow it, then I see no issue in helping them out. (Partners not included š)
Social media is the devil, its so easy to post a picture and pretend to the world that your life is perfect, you can filter yourself and crop out the cracks in relationships, the mess in your house and the worries you feel when you look at your child. There is no shame in being honest and again I think I have said this before but fuck you Mrs Hinch for making me feel bad about my messy house, fuck you Kardashians for photo shopping your bodies to a ridiculous and near on impossible standards, as crazy as reality TV is, I give huge credit to the stars of Geordie Shore and reality shows of the likeā¦ not because of the surgery they keep having to meet the standards they feel they should but for portraying themselves in a realistic way. They get drunk and messy and wake up looking rough with last nights make up onā¦ I donāt even watch the show, but I have seen clips and newspaper headlines trying to shame them, but we all do it! We all forget to take off make up before bed, we wake up looking like weāve ran an obstacle course in our sleep. I hate the unrealistic nature of things onlineā¦ Donāt get me wrong, I love a snap chat filter, but I also know its fake and I think thatās the struggle a lot of us fail to understand sometimes. We shouldnāt be jealous of something thatās not real, we shouldnāt aspire to be like these people who pretend to be what they are not!
My green-eyed monster rears it head less often than it used to but its still there and its part and parcel of being human, of being who I am and Iām not ashamed of that and nor should I be.š
Who wants to be normal anyway? 