It's dog eat dog out there.

Here is the meaning of ‘dog eat dog’ for you.

Fierce competition in which people are willing to harm each other in order to succeed.

Sadly, this is the world around us right now and I want no part of it.

And I want my son to have no part in it either.

You see, what I am seeing around me lately makes me want to pack my suitcases and move to a remote island somewhere and just live off the land and be autonomous.

And this is most likely the reason why I choose to have a very small circle of real friends and family around me. Friends and family who uplift me. Friends and family who value me. Friends and family who love me. Friends and family who are kind and loving to my son.

I feel a lot of compassion for most of you at the moment. Because it’s really not your fault. Most likely, it’s how you were raised. I was raised the same way. The school I went to - in particular my secondary school raised me to believe that life is a competition. That there were the girls who were excellent and there were the girls who were not (I went to a terrible state convent school).

It could be seen immediately through the streaming of the classes. It was a 7 form entry school and it went from the top class to the bottom class. I do remember the names of the classes (they went from A-Z). A being the top and Z being the bottom. I was in the ‘second top’ class.

The school raised us and conditioned us to know who was the best of the best and who wasn’t. And to be honest - most schools do this. And if yours did not - you are lucky.

But that is how I was conditioned and through what I’m currently seeing around me, I will need to presume that that is how you were conditioned too.

Life it NOT a competition.

Life should NOT be dog eat dog.

We should uplift each other and not tear each other down.

We should celebrate each other’s successes and not be jealous about them.

But, I get it- life is hard.

And ultimately it is survival of the fittest.

But it is never okay to talk in a derogative way about a child. Ever.

Perhaps you were not taught that at school. I will teach it to you here.

Do not under any circumstances speak in a negative way about any child. Ever.

If your child passes their assessments, it doesn’t make them better than a child who does not.

If your child passes their assessments, keep it to yourselves and stop bragging about it.

If your child passes their assessment, do not talk down about other children who have not.

Does it make you feel good about yourself?

No, it doesn’t.

What it does, is show me that you are not happy in life. That is all.

Let’s lift each other up and not tear each other down. Life is far too short for that.