Competitive Parenting

The women in our antenatal group, including myself, would claim we were not competitive.
We would all agree that children develop at their own paces and that it is invidious to make comparisons between them.
And yet when would meet up, with nothing in common other than our infants mewling and puking in our arms, there was nothing else to do but say things like: "My baby has a lot of wax in her ears, does yours?"
Before we knew it, what we had intended to be a friendly gathering of women who had all had their first babies at the same time became a subtle kind of competition - all done with a middle-class niceness that could not possibly be faulted.
I would love to say that I was immune from making these comparisons and the subsequent pride of anxiety that they evoked, but I was not.
However much I wish it otherwise, there is evidently an insecure part of me that is exposed when I'm amongst women with children the same age as mine.
There is no shortage of those complaining about competitive parenting syndrome but really the problem is not with this antenatal group or that particular preschool. Most of the time we can not avoid those gatherings anyway.
If we truly felt at home in ourselves, the progress of our children's peers would be a cause not of concern, but delight. If it isn't, it's time to go gently and remember how honored and loved we really are.