by mandy nolan

There’s nothing like a high-achieving kid to make you look like an amazing parent. I accidentally sat with the parents of kids receiving awards at an end-of-school assembly. I thought it was general seating so I took a chair right up the front. It was humiliating. One by one, their children got up to receive certificates or trophies for academic or sporting excellence. I wondered how everyone in my row seemed to be so bloody remarkable. Some of the kids had that many awards they could hardly walk back to their seats. I looked at my kid and raised